Aid to the Church in Need: UKRAINE - An interview with the Latin-Rite Bishop of Odesa/Simferopol

UKRAINE - An interview with the Latin-Rite Bishop of Odesa/Simferopol

Posted by Information Report on 4/12/2002, 7:47 am
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UKRAINE - ODESA: RENEWAL OF THE PRE-COMMUNIST STRUCTURES. AN INTERVIEW WITH THE LATIN-RITE BISHOP OF ODESA/SIMFEROPOL - BRONISLAV BERNATSKYI
Bishop, you are both a witness to and a victim of the persecution. Can you describe for us the dramatic stages of your life?
Yes, I grew up in Ukraine. After 73 years of communism I know the mentality well. Everybody was oppressed; no one was permitted to travel anywhere. It is so difficult to change oneself. The young people already think differently. I myself lived with my mother in the small Jewish town of Murafa, in the region of Vinnytsia. Our Latin-rite community numbered nine to ten thousand, mainly Polish, Catholics. And everyone went to church, despite the communist trickery. Even as a child I asked the Mother of God to let me become a priest, because our own parish priest was old and had several parishes to care for. After school I succeeded, thanks to divine Providence, in getting to Riga together with a friend. We worked and studied in the seminary in Riga - secretly at first, since the numbers admitted to the seminary were subject to the control of the KGB. Finally, in 1972, I was ordained by Bishop Julians Vaivods as the first Latin-rite Catholic priest in Ukraine since the war. The first Mass I celebrated, on 11 June 1972 in Murafa, was attended by thousands of people. This led to threats by the communists of closing the church on the grounds of an illegal celebration of the Mass. The psychological pressure was strong. I was instructed to refuse all the requests by the faithful, so that they would think the young priest lazy and turn away from me. I did nothing of the kind. For many years I was a parish priest in the town of Bar and built up the structure of the Catholic Church in the surrounding region. From 1995 onwards I was once again parish priest in my hometown of Murafa.
What were the problems you faced as bishop of the newest Latin-rite Catholic diocese in Ukraine?
My diocese had formerly been part of the diocese of Tiraspol. Under Stalin there was even a secret German bishop in Odessa, Alexander Frison. He was shot in 1937, following a show trial in the prison of Simferopol. And so, when I was appointed by Pope John Paul II, I was the first officially appointed bishop since then of the diocese of Odesa and Simferopol. My diocese covers four regions - Odesa, Mykolayiv, Cherson and Kirovohrad, with 50 smaller parishes, 26 priests and a number of communities of religious sisters.
Until recently all the Latin-rite churches were closed and damaged. Only in Odesa was there still a church. Those churches that had not been destroyed were confiscated, like the ones in Mykolayiv, Yalta and Cherson. In Cherson they have now given back a church that had been confiscated and used as a cinema. Small houses were purchased and the priests worked there for more than 10 years, under difficult circumstances. In Tavriysk, near Cherson, a new church was built, but they have no money to heat it. Only priests and nuns with a strong sense of vocation come here to work. In Yevpatoria the Oblate Fathers started with just five parishioners, but now the parish numbers over 100 people.

How many Catholics are there in your diocese?
In the diocese as a whole there are around eight to nine thousand, and in Odesa itself around 5,000. Here, some 1200 Catholics come to Sunday Mass in three different churches. There are 13 different nationalities among them and most of these would like to have a priest of their own. For the present, Mass is celebrated in the cathedral, in Polish, Russian and Ukrainian. We have been given the use of a chapel in the crypt of the Ukrainian Catholic parish.
For decades our cathedral was a sports hall, and everything was cleared out; even the columns were removed. For ten years now we have been painstakingly restoring it, and now it has windows once again. We fought and finally succeeded in getting back a confessional that had been used as a kiosk at the railway station. We used it as a pattern for reproductions of the four original confessionals. Perhaps there are statues of the saints, or organs, that have been cleared out in Western Europe? They are something we really lack.
What are the priorities you have identified?
Apart from a sacristy that also serves as an office, our diocese has no bishop's chancery.
My first administrative action as bishop towards the state was to demand the return of the former Bishop's House, which goes back to the beginning of the 20th century. We also had a seminary at that time. The mayor has promised to respond to our demand... Now we are getting ready for a long wait, and for building work.
I am also trying to bring the Catholics closer together with one another. I visit them and get to know their needs. People from all over Ukraine who have found work here, exiled Germans, Poles, Belorussians, Czechs - all of them want a priest of their own. We have to strengthen the basic teaching of the Faith. Later we would like to build two churches in east and west Odessa. For the town stretches for more than 25 miles. It is a multinational city, with all the problems of a big port.
What are relations like among the denominations?
There are three synagogues here, 30 Russian Orthodox churches, a strong Protestant community and many sects. A new mosque has also been built here. A festival of religious songs at the end of September became a major ecumenical meeting in Odessa. All the other denominations welcomed me as their brother and as a speaker at the opening ceremony. However, there was no representative of the Moscow patriarchate.
There were official protests by the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, and by Metropolitan Agafangel of Odesa and Izmail, against the establishment of a Catholic diocese in Odesa. How do you view this?
May God forgive them, for Christians should normally rejoice that people are returning to faith, that they believe and pray. The Catholic Church did not come here aggressively. Our Catholics live here, and we should serve them. The fact that the Russian Orthodox Church rejects us is something that she herself will have to answer to God for. She is damaging only herself. The people can see who they are and say that the truth is on the side of the Catholics. For Christians should bear witness to love and reconciliation by their own lives. Catholics are here to promote love and not hatred. In this spirit we wish everyone only good.

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