Vatican City, 20 August 1978
Your Excellency
May I be permitted to present to Your Excellency the difficult situation of our Ukrainian Catholic Church in the Soviet Union.
On the 7-th of October 1977, in Belgrade, during the Conference on European security and cooperation, Msgr. Achille Silvestrini, Undersecretary of the Council for the Public Affairs of the Church and the representative of the Apostolic See pronounced the following declaration: «There are also some serious open wounds that we would like, with a hope that we cannot abandon, to see put right and healed. It is the case, for the Catholic Church, of certain communities of faithful of the Eastern rite which in the past, had a flourishing religious life rich in centuries-old traditions and which, in the new juridico-political post-war regimes have lost the civil right to exist. This is all the more painful because it concerns specifically a central point of religious freedom, which is to profess a faith ‘according to the dictates of one’s own conscience’.» (L’Osservatore Romano, English edition, N.45 (502), November 10, 1977, p.4).
It was the general opinion of the observers that the statement of the representative of the Holy See referred primarily to the Ukrainian Catholic Church. In it he stressed that: 1. The Ukrainian Catholic Church has an ancient history and until recently was flourishing. 2. Today in the Soviet Union she is outlawed and as such does not have the right even to exist. 3. Her state is that of an open wound, which must be healed.
For eighteen years, between 1945 to 1963, I lived under and up to date «carry the marks on my body» of this regime. At the Third Papal Synod on October 23, 1971, before the bishops of the entire world, in the name of the Synod of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, I stated: «The Soviet government liquidated our entire episcopate in Ukraine. The profession of our Catholic faith is forbidden. Celebration of the Divine Liturgy or the administering of Holy Sacraments can be done only in secret. Tens of thousands of faithful, priests and bishops were arrested and deported to Siberia… For our faith and for our loyalty to the Apostolic See, we, Ukrainian Catholics, have suffered great losses — mountains of bodies and rivers of blood».
Despite the «Iron Curtain» which separated the Soviet Union from the rest of the world, Pope Pius XII received information about the fierce persecution of this largest Church of the Eastern Rite with 4,300,000 faithful, and on December 15, 1952, for the second time, issued an encyclical «Orientales Ecclesias».
«For the present, however, We sadly turn Our thoughts and affections to another people, truly dear to Us, namely, to the people of Ukraine… In a special way We would recall the memory of those bishops of the Oriented Rite, who were among the first in the defense of their religion to endure hardship, affliction and outrage; who transported to the city of Kiev — We say Kiev whence once shone forth throughout all those regions the light of Christian doctrine and whence Christian worship was propagated. Some of these have already met a glorious death, and so, as one may hope, from the abode of heavenly blessedness, which they enjoy, lovingly look down upon their sons and their companions in their unarmed struggle, and implore for them the all-powerful protection of God». (AAS, vol. XLV, Nr.1, p.5-14). Today again there are protests against the persecution in the Soviet Union, which uplift in spirit those persecuted, and call out to the conscience of the entire Catholic world — to pray, to do penance, to plead to God for comfort and strength for those persecuted.
On basis of personal experience and of later verified reports, at the Fourth Papal Synod (October 3, 1974), during the debate on evangelization in the world, I repeatedly declared before the Fathers of the Synod that our Church does not have the right to exist in the Soviet Union and consequently is not able to spread the Word of God. «A decent person is astounded — I said — when he learns that, today, a priest, who celebrates the Divine Liturgy in secret is sentenced to three or more years of forced labor in Siberia or in the Polar North; or, if someone sends petitions of faithful to the government asking for the right to celebrate the Divine Liturgy, he is locked up in a psychiatric ward, surely not for medical reasons, but to drive him insane. Faithful, priests, monks are terrorized by persecutions, inquisitions, searches, beatings. Most of them die after a few days. If such is the reality what is the possibility of preaching the Gospel? Should not the Synod take a stand in this matter? There, the faith does not die. Doctors, artists and other educated persons take vows and heroically hold on to the faith and defend her».
A year ago, on March 6, 1977, a letter from Ukraine, from one of our faithful — Josyf Terelia — was sent to Pope Paul VI asking for help for himself and his family to emigrate from the Soviet Union, because for him, there is no other way out.
Following are some excerpts from the letter describing the situation of our Greek-Catholic Church (the traditional title that the author uses): «Bitter times have come upon the Greek-Catholic Church in Ukraine. We, the faithful of the Church, are forced christen, marry, confess and bury in secret. Our priests are in camps, psychiatric hospitals, physically destroyed… I live in a state where to be a Christian is a crime. Never before have the faithful of the Church of Christ been subjected to such persecution as today and as here. Ukrainian Catholics have been deprived of everything — normal family life, freedom of speech, celebration of the Liturgy of our Church — we are in catacombs! For the Word of God they crucify the living spirit! Out of my 34 years of life, I spent 14 in jails, concentration camps and psychiatric hospitals…»
Further on in the letter, he writes:
«The end to the crimes in the godless world cannot be expected without an counteraction of all the Christian forces of the world… The only road for my family and me is the illegal crossing of the border. For the USSR the Helsinki Agreement is a pure fiction, under which the Stalinists have hidden themselves… My only hope is that the Holy Apostolic Catholic Church and Your Holiness will help us to leave this terrible state.
«We beg our Catholic brothers and sisters and all Christians of the world to stand up in our defense; to stand up in behalf of the tormented Greek-Catholic Ukrainian Church».
This plea, by a believing Greek-Catholic Ukrainian is made today on behalf of millions of faithful; on behalf of the persecuted, but still living Ukrainian Catholic Church.
We, the Ukrainian hierarchy in the free world together with our faithful are deeply distressed and sympathize with our brethren. We pray unceasingly to God for them. Remembering the words of St. Paul: «That each part be equally concerned for all the others. If one part is hurt, all parts are hurt with it» (I Cor. 12, 25), we turn also to you.
We call to you: present this injustice and persecution in your press, on radio and in television, stir the public opinion, and warn your faithful of atheistic communism, because on the basis of our-60 years of painful experience, we say to you that it is a very terrible evil. In anguish we also call on you: help us! Implore God and intervene before men on behalf of our persecuted Ukrainian Catholic Church.
Sincerely Yours in Christ,
Joseph Cardinal Slipyj Patriarch
