Wladyslaw Cardinal Rubin, the new Prefect of the Congregation for Eastern Catholic Churches made his maiden public move on the matter of the Ukrainian Catholic Church on July 6 (1982) in a letter to the Ukrainian bishops in the diaspora.
There is not much new in the form of his letter. It contains the same duplicity coming from the ruling hierarchy of the Vatican for the past 20 years since the 2,100 bishops of Vatican Council II recognized that the Major-Archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, father and head of a particular rite, had, in fact, patriarchal rights. Even more, the Sacred Council, with the infallible magisterium, solemnly decreed that the Ukrainian Catholic Church return to its original patriarchal status and to all its particular traditions such as autonomy, election of bishops by their synod, married clergy and so on which they merited by the long Christian tradition in Ukraine going back to the first century of Christianity.
Bishops from Ukraine attended all eight councils of the Church during the first crucial millenium of Christianity when there were no Roman Catholic bishops in the West. The Ukrainian Church supported unity during the second millenium in spite of the genocides of Ukrainians caused by the political upheavals brought on by the Roman Catholic Poles and the Orthodox Russians. This unity has been further supported by the Ukrainian Church in spite of the injustices perpetrated on this Church by the ruling hierarchy of the Vatican. This is true loyalty to Christ’s Church. The history of loyalty of the Ukrainian Church, in particular in its 20th century martyrdom of scores of archbishops and bishops, thousands of priests and millions of faithful, is an enviable record. Neither a Polish pope nor Cardinal W. Rubin can teach Ukrainians the meaning of “loyalty” to Christ`s Church.
Be that as it may, the lesson for Ukrainians is to concentrate on what God has given to their Church rather than on the brainwashing from some of the Vatican hierarchy who are playing political games. Our Confessor of the Faith, Patriarch Josyf Slipyj, in his reply to Cardinal Rubin’s letter, has a golden message to all Ukrainians, both Catholic and Orthodox. The good news is that “no power in this world and no institution will have the force to stop that irreversible process which will lead to the recognition of the Ukrainian Patriarchate. This Patriarchate is neither a gift, nor a concession, nor an effect of any political, diplomatic or alchemic machination. The Patriarchate is a holy thing and a sacred right of the Particular Ukrainian Church which is an organic part of the Mystical Body of Christ.”
Spread this good news – to your family, your friends, your neighbors and let the winds carry this message to the far corners of the earth!
