Ukraine - ecumenism from below

An initiative by the seminary in Drohobych "for the unity of the Church"
"The presence of well-trained priests, capable of engaging in dialogue, is more than ever necessary as a contribution to overcoming the stereotypes about the Greek-Catholic Church in our eastern neighbouring countries of Russia and Belarus". This was the comment of Myron Bendyk, the Rector of the Ukrainian-rite seminary in Drohobych, in the region of Lviv. The doors of this small seminary are always open to Eastern-rite seminarians from Russia or Belarus who have no opportunity to study in their own country. This has led to a lively exchange of ideas on the situation of the Church in these countries and a critical awareness of the issue of the unity of the Church.
In late June / early July this year, 2002, led by a Russian colleague, and with financial support from Aid to the Church in Need, this year's ordinands undertook a two-week pilgrimage to Russia and Belarus "for the unity of the Church".
The route from Lviv to Russia led first of all via Vyshhorod, near Kiev, the former home of "Our Lady of Vladimir". Here, during a Holy Mass in the Ukrainian-Catholic church of St Andrew, at the foot of the hill, a blessing was imparted on their pilgrimage.
It was not long before this Russian journey in search of traces of openness towards the Catholic universal Church began to see its first results.
A moving Eucharistic encounter with Russian advocates of Church unity took place in Tula. As a flock without a shepherd, they had remained faithful after their Russian Orthodox Bishop Vikentij (Dekalin) had at first professed unity with Rome but then soon afterwards gone over to the Russian Orthodox Church abroad.
Later, in a visit to the Orthodox University of St Filaret in Moscow, the seminarians met together with ecumenically-minded priests from the Georgiy Kotchetkov group. Apparently the profound evangelisation work of this group among the ordinary people is meeting with opposition within the Moscow patriarchate. And an illegal Greek-Catholic parish, that was briefly placed under the jurisdiction of Bishop Vikentij in 1991 and which has since then been living underground, likewise demonstrated its marginal situation in today's Russia.
Numerous potential "Greek-Catholic" faithful - these are for the most part intellectuals - expressed their vision of Church unity within Russia. A precondition for them would be the creation of a Church structure to coordinate the work among the Greek-Catholic faithful. Despite their numbers in Russia, these Catholics have long been isolated from one another. All those with whom they have engaged in dialogue, whether Orthodox, Latin-rite or Byzantine-rite Catholics, have assumed the Eastern character of such a structure, since this would be familiar to the majority of the population. There is an urgent need, they feel, to revive the activity of the Russian exarchate of the Greek-Catholic Church. It should be mentioned at this point that the first synod of the Russian Catholic Church was convoked in St Petersburg in May 1917. And at the time Bishop Leonid Fjodorow (1879 - 1934), who was beatified in 2001 by Pope John Paul II, was appointed as its first Russian exarch by the Ukrainian Catholic Metropolitan Andrej Szeptyckyj. Born Orthodox, he converted to Catholicism after an initial course of study at the seminary in St Petersburg and thereafter continued his studies in theology in a pontifical college and in Fribourg in Switzerland.
From as early as 1910 he worked as prefect in the university of the Studite monks in Lviv, and the year after this he was ordained as a Catholic priest of the Eastern rite. He was personally promoted, in a spirit of unity, by the Ukrainian Metropolitan Andrej Szeptyckyj.
"You're just ordinary people, not at all like they had described you!..." These were the exclamations of the Orthodox in Vladimir, when the seminarians visited their churches. Here too there was a meeting with the orphaned Latin-rite Catholic community of Father Stefano Caprio. Many Christian faithful gathered together here for a service of commemoration for all the innocent victims of the Russian terror, in front of a new memorial at the tomb of Blessed Klymentij Szeptyckyj.
He died in 1951, the last Greek-Catholic exarch in Russia, in the notorious Vladimir prison.
In Susdal the seminarians stayed at the site of theTzarist monastery prison, to which Metropolitan Andrej Szeptyckyj had been banished by the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, on the pretext of political activities against Russia, on account of his commitment for the renewal of Church unity.
In St Petersburg there was a meeting with a Greek-Catholic basis group which, despite having no priest of its own, maintains contacts with Orthodox and Latin-rite Catholic parishes. This group is preparing to re-launch the journal "Word of Truth" from the time of Leonid Fjodorow. Among this group too there are many who wish to see the re-establishment of the Russian Greek-Catholic Church.

In Belarus, the town of Polatsak (Polock) was seen as of exceptional importance, known as it is through saints Euphrosina, Paraskevia and Josaphat. Here there is the only Greek-Catholic church to be found in Belarus today. In our conversations with the Studite monks it became clear just to what extent the local Orthodox Church and those in power are discriminating against, and indeed oppressing, the Greek-Catholic communities.
"Our journey "for unity" helped us and strengthened us in our vocation, while it gave hope, through our encounters, to believers locally and bore authentic witness to the atheists, agnostics and Orthodox". This was the verdict of the seminarians. But most important of all had been the prayer - an invisible bond in the quest for unity of the Church and for evangelisation.

Since 1996 Aid to the Church in Need has been helping to fund the training of seminarians in the Greek-Catholic seminary in Drohobych. Initially we gave help for 12 seminarians for the year 1996 - 1997, and in the last academic year, 2001 - 2002, we gave support totalling 16,500 US dollars for 55 seminarians. The most recent request for help, for 2002 - 2003, is for 67 seminarians.

Zoreslawa Kowal