The Day ’s correspondent Klara Gudzyk visited the Vatican by invitation of Radio Vatican. We begin today the publication of a series of articles prepared by our journalist and devoted to the life and work of Ukrainians in the Vatican and Rome. Here we present the interview that Myroslav Marusyn, Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), courteously agreed to grant to The Day . Archbishop Myroslav is one of the few Ukrainian members of the Vatican government, i.e., the Roman Curia of the Holy See. He is Secretary of the Congregation of Oriental Churches and deals specifically with the Ukrainian churches. Archbishop Myroslav once closely cooperated with the late Metropolitan Yosyp Slipy.
“Most Reverend Bishop, what could you say to us, workers in the Ukrainian media, on the occasion of Day of the Journalist, a notable date of the Jubilee Year?”
“First of all, I will point out that His Holiness Pope John Paul II, highly appreciates the dignity and role of journalists in society. He said, in particular, that they — together with the church — work for the public good, for they provide necessary information without which no one can survive today.
“Over 2000 journalists from forty states came to the Vatican, the center of world Christianity, for Day of the Journalist. Pilgrims once went to the holy places on foot and on horse-drawn carts: now they arrive on airplanes. Time moves on, and this is fine and good. What is important is that the human heart should also progress accordingly, for otherwise society will only be the loser, instead of the beneficiary of technical progress.
“People of the Ukrainian lands have long been part of the world Christian family. When Kyivan Rus officially adopted Christianity, the Ecumenical Church was still united, and Rus’ maintained free communion with both Constantinople and Rome. Metropolitans of Kyiv participated in Western church assemblies even after the 1054 schism. This tradition was continued by the Ukrainian Uniate Church, which completely preserves the Eastern rites and, at the same, remained part of the world Christian community. It is here that our strength and our historical role, still important today, lie. I would like Ukrainian journalists to be better informed of such historical facts.
“I want to touch on one more problem where the role of journalists is especially important. It would be wrong to think that the Ukrainian cause has the right to exist only in Ukraine, completely detached from the outside world. On the contrary, all of us should see to it that the Ukrainian cause spreads throughout the world. Strong centers of the Ukrainian spirit have already been set up in various places. We should not allow Ukrainians living in Ukraine and abroad to evolve different mentalities and customs. That would be a loss to us all, for we all possess the same soul, we are one nation. The Ukrainian media should take a greater care of the unity of Ukrainians, implement this idea, and educate readers. There should be no split according to the geographic principle, and this is felt especially acutely in the Diaspora. We have no right to waste time on fruitless and pointless debates, whether in the sphere of religion, public life, or in the state-building process. As St. Augustine once wrote, ‘Unity is indispensable in things important, while things dubious require debate. But love and caritas should be present always and everywhere.’ In this I am only following in the footsteps of our outstanding church hierarchs, such as Metropolitan Andriy Sheptytsky.”
“Could you express your opinion about the possibility of an early visit by Pope John Paul II to Ukraine, which the Ukrainian media have been discussing for years? Is such a visit possible this year?”
“All of us, both in Ukraine and here in Rome, look forward to such a visit. We must take into account that the Holy Father yearns for this visit even more than we do. Having always been close to us, he became still closer after becoming Pope. Perhaps, by the grace of God, he will visit Ukraine. As you know, the Holy Father has already paid several very tiring visits this year, particularly, to the Holy Land, the place of armed clashes between the Arabs and the Israelis. He also visited some non-Catholic countries, for example, Rumania, as well as countries with less than 1% Christian populations. However, there are also other countries, in addition to Ukraine, where he has not yet been and where he would like to greet the faithful of his church — Russia, for example.
“We are very pleased that current Ukrainian public opinion favors the Holy Father’s visit. And, although the Holy Father’s schedule of travels has long been drawn up and is full until yearend, I am confident that this would not be an obstacle under favorable circumstances. For it will suffice two- three days to visit Kyiv. So let us hope.”
“ Most Reverend Father, how did it come about that relations between the Holy See and Ukraine depend to an extent, on the relationship with the Moscow Patriarchate?”
“The Holy Father regards every church as a respected partner and party to dialogue. Meanwhile, there are specific difficulties in Ukraine as far as the Papal visit is concerned. To start with, the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is fully subject to the Moscow Patriarchate. On the other hand, there is the Kyiv Patriarch, recognized as such by only a portion of Ukrainian Orthodox believers. But, to be really a patriarch, one must be recognized by all the other churches of the world Orthodox community. There is also the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. This creates difficulties because the three churches find it difficult to come to terms concerning a joint meeting with the Pope. As for the Holy Father himself, he does not think this a big problem. Visiting the Holy Land, he met the Christians, religious Jews, and Muslims, and expressed his opinion to them all. All admitted that this visit and communication with the Pope have improved, to a certain extent, the situation. It always happens this way. He tells everybody what is worth saying, expresses his views, and this contributes to the public good. It will be the same in Kyiv. The Pope is well familiar with our martyred history and respects our people.”
“A situation has arisen such that, because of differences between the Orthodox hierarchy, initially involving only a few persons, many millions of Orthodox believers, now part of the Kyiv Patriarchate and the Autocephalous Church, have been completely detached from the world Christian community, including the Orthodox commonwealth. Nobody recognizes them: they are not invited to all- Orthodox and all-Christian functions: they are in isolation. How do you view this situation?”
“This is a complicated and separate subject. Nobody is to blame here. In general, no church group or community should be told that it is guilty. This is the Ukrainian reality: we are still unable to assess the situation and to take into account not only the lessons of history but also our own interests. For when there already was the Kyiv Church in old Ukraine, Moscow was only a small northern village. Some do not want to remember this. And now that Ukraine has awakened to a new life, it has inherited the hierarchy elected by the Moscow Synod. This is the tragedy of Ukrainian Orthodoxy. It will take some time for Ukraine to form, at last, a united autocephalous church. Meanwhile, the Patriarch of Moscow has his bishops and faithful in Ukraine. The clergy should carefully study the situation and constantly meet for discussions. But is it possible now, is anybody interested in this? I think not.”
“Would you like to say a few words about how the Greek Catholic hierarchy here in Rome protected Ukrainians from deportation to the Soviet Union immediately after World War II? You are known to have played a direct role in this.”
“Indeed, these are very interesting pages of our history, almost unknown to the general public, for they could not be disclosed at the time. Historians will perhaps one day write how and what the Church did to protect our people in an alien land. However, it often happens that all remains forgotten. Even those who did very much for their people become ‘shadows of the forgotten ancestors.’ So you are quite right to raise this kind of question: there still are but a few eyewitnesses left.
“The point is that, unlike the first wave of Ukrainian emigration, that of the 1940s was a political emigration. Its bulk was people persecuted for their persuasions and faith. Many found themselves in Europe. When the war was over, there were over 500,000 Ukrainians in West Germany alone. They said: ‘We cannot return to the Ukraine of today: it is not free. We will stay here.’ These people needed help; they were gradually, piecemeal, resettled overseas, where they enriched our Ukrainian life, in America and even in Australia, let alone European countries.
“There were some very dramatic situations. In Italy, for example, there were 10,000 warriors of the Galicia Division, remnants of the Ukrainian army that had fought for the freedom of Ukraine. Under the agreements between Moscow and its allies, they were to be handed over to the USSR. Only by a miracle did the late Archbishop Ivan Buchok, assisted by Pope Pius XII, manage to save those 10,000 young Ukrainians from certain death. Archbishop Ivan appealed to Pope Pius XII in the dead of night, contrary to etiquette, and the latter asked the US military command to stay the deportation order. The British, on their part, took 10,000 people onto their ships and brought them to England. So they settled and still live there, as do their descendants. This happened in 1946. It is only one of many episodes of that tragic time. But we, the clergy, never speak about those ‘exploits’ of ours, about what we once did in those remote years.
“However, there are so many documents that nothing historically important will be lost. It would be good if everyone knew history, for if history is the teacher of life, its mission is to teach.
“Our generation of church figures outside Ukraine is already passing away, but we, old hierarchs, are still fortunate to see our homeland independent, which many of us did not even hope to live to see. Everything has happened by the grace of God, for communism could not be overcome by force. This miracle might not have happened had the people not preserved their feelings of identity, faith, and language. It was proven again how difficult it is to break the people’s spirit. But only God knows how many heroes we lost, for example, among those seven million who died during the manmade famine. While other peoples were developing energetically and fruitfully, we paid with blood for our very existence.
