A letter to Pope Paul VI is being sent by the Ukrainian Catholics, participants in, the 40th Eucharistic Congress. This letter, signed by several thousands of Ukrainian Catholic faithful, accuses the Vatican of condoning the persecution of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Ukraine by the Communist regime and of attempting to destroy its unity and integrity in the diaspora.
Conditions which have led to the present crisis within the Ukrainian Catholic Church are the following:
Attempts by the Vatican curia to abrogate the historic rights of the Ukrainian Catholic Church (e.g. the right to have a married clergy) and those of her Major Archbishop His Beatitude Joseph Cardinal Slipyj.
Vatican policy of divide and intimidate the Ukrainian Catholic bishops and render the Ukrainian Catholic Church powerless.
The Vatican-Moscow dialogue in which the Ukrainian Catholic Church is being sacrificed for the sake of political expediency.
Background:
1) On October 29, 1971, Jean Cardinal Villot, Secretary of the Vatican State, sent a letter to all Ukrainian Catholic bishops forbidding them to participate in the Fifth Archiepiscopai Synod convoked by His Beatitude Major Archbishop Joseph Cardinal Slipyj.
2) On October 28, 1972, the Ukrainian Catholic bishops throughout the world received from the Apostolic delegate of their respective countries of residence a letter challenging the validity of the action taken by the Primate of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in sending to his bishops a draft of an Archiepiscopal constitution for the Ukrainian Catholic Church for the bishops comments and eventual acceptance. This letter, in effect, prohibited the Ukrainian Catholic bishops to communicate with their Major Archbishop. At the beginning of the 40th Eucharistic Congress the Ukrainian Catholic bishops received another letter of similar content from the Secretary of the Vatican State. This communication is another insidious attempt on the part of the Roman curia to sow fear and dissent among the Ukrainian Catholic hierarchy.
3) During his stay in Moscow His Eminence Jan Cardinal Willebrands and other high ranking representatives of the Vatican hear Pimen, the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, rejoyce at the liquidation of the Ukrainian Catholic Church and failed to utter a single word of protest. And more recently, Father Paul Mailleux, S.J., the Rector of the Russicum in Rome and one of the makers of Vatican’s Qstpolitic, issued a secret memorandum. In it he counsels Vatican authorities not to intervene in the persecution of Ukrainians behind the Iron Curtain for the sake of a detente with the atheistic regime of the Soviet Union.
To sum up: The present Vatican policy toward the Ukrainian Catholic Church is a policy of religious genocide, It is designed to accomplish what religious persecution in Soviet Ukraine has failed to attain — the destruction of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, These facts should serve as a warning to the Orthodc the Anglicans, and other Christians not in union with the Holy See to beware of Vatican promises. The tragic plight of the Ukrainian Catholic Church is an example of a false collegiality and ecumenism as practiced by the Vatican.
Preceding is the Press Release issued during the Euchristic Congress in Australia by the representatives of the Society for the Patriarchal System in the Ukrainian Catholic Church.
Portions of this Press Release were reprinted with comments by numerous Australian newspapers. Among them were “The Age”, which enjoys the same status in Australia as “The New York Times” in the USA, the capital city daily, “The Canberra Times”, and “Thе Australian” , which covers every major city on the continent. The articles appeared under the headlines : “Ukrainians Say Rome Condones Persecution”, “Ukrainian Group Attacks Vatican”, and “Ukrainians Accuse Vatican of Persecution”.
In summary, it can be stated, ‘that the people of Australia have been acqainted with the plight of the Ukrainian Catholic Church and with Vatican’s “ostpolitik”.
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This issue of “Za Patriarchat” is the last edition published quarterly, ‘iiie Board of the Society for the Promotion of the Patriarkhal System in the Ukrainian Catholic Church decided to change it into a monthly periodical. The English section will continue for our English-speaking members; sympathizers and readers. It is hoped, that interested readers will develop closer ties with the editors of the magazine, take initiative to increase its scope and to promote its circulation.
Editor
