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A History of the Ukrainian Church
by Msgr. V. J. Bozyk
(From the pamphlet "Who Am I? Why?",
reproduced by the kind permission of the author.)
OUR ROOTS
WHERE WE COME FROM
Ever since the movie "Roots" was shown on television,
it sparked an interest in everyone: "Where did I come from?" " Where
are my roots?" People searching for their roots began traveling to
the "Old Country" to see where their families came from. It is also
interesting to know where our religion came from. Why do we believe
the way we do? Why Christianity at all? Why Catholics? Let us go back
in time and see what happened and where.
GOD - CREATION
Let us go way, way back to before the creation of the
world. There was this Eternal, Infinite, Almighty, Majestic BEING
in existence - God, who is "EXISTENCE ITSELF, LOVE ITSELF, TRUTH ITSELF."
LOVE by its nature tends, no more than that, it demands to be shared
- it is not selfish. GOD, who is Love itself, shares with what He
is. Existence. He shared His Existence with others. He gave existence
to the universe. He created life both irrational (animals) and rational
(intelligent beings). Irrational creatures (animals) must do all that
God put into their nature to do. Rational creatures (like humans)
were created by God in His own Image and Likeness. God gave them an
intelligence and a free will. He gave them the right to choose. Even
God cannot force intelligent beings, not even into heaven. They must
choose, otherwise they would not be free. They wouldn't be as God
created them. We know that besides our world, God created another
world, a world of intelligent beings - pure spirits. We know how their
history ended. God revealed to us that two-thirds of these angelic
spirits chose God, who is Love and this is Heaven itself. One-third
turned away from God, from Love itself, eternally . . . and this is
Hell. Now that is frightening. One out of three chose to be separated
from God, throughout eternity.
ADAM - CHRIST
Each Angelic Spirit had to make a choice for himself,
because each of them was created separately by God. With man, it was
different. We all come from common parents - Adam and Eve. Adam, as
father of the whole human race, was given the privilege to choose
for them all. Adam, under the prompting of the rebellious fallen angels,
chose not to accept God as His Master and Ruler. He wanted, like God
Himself, to decide what is right and wrong. Through pride, Lucifer,
the leader of the evil spirits, influenced the intelligent human being
Adam. Prompted by Lucifer, Adam says, "I will not serve!" Turning
from "Life with God," he goes to serve the fallen angels. God, who
is LOVE ITSELF, loved His creation, MAN. He promised Adam, in the
Garden of Eden right after the fall, to send a REDEEMER, A SAVIOR
to redeem man who would repair the damage done by the sin of Adam;
and save man from the terrible eternal loss. No one was able to repair
the damage but someone equal to God, someone as powerful as God -
God the Son, because the damage done was of infinite proportions and
was an offence against Infinite God. And God the Son did repair the
harm. He came on earth, was born of the Blessed Virgin Mary; proved
by miracles that He was God, especially by His greatest miracle, His
rising from the dead after being three days in the tomb. He proved
He had power over nature - over life and death.
CHURCH
Now the problem of who was to continue His work of Redemption
amongst the people on earth. It must be someone, or something, that
never dies, for there will always be people on earth. If He Himself
remained upon earth, the evil men would crucify Him again and again.
What lives on and never dies? A society. A president may did but another
is always elected in his place. Jesus left a society to continue His
work - THE CHURCH, making St. Peter, and his successors, head of that
church. Peter was a name given to him by Jesus. Peter's real name
was Simon. We see Jesus changing his name saying "Simon, son of John,
amen, amen I say to you, that you are PETER, (which means rock) and
upon this rock I will build my church into churches and the gates
of hell shall not prevail against it, (it will be strong)" . . . "Behold
I am with you all days even to the end of the world." Then we see
in Galilee, He gives His flock over to the care of Peter, the Head
of His Church, saying "Feed my lambs, feed my sheep." Peter and his
successors become the Supreme Pastors of Our Lord's Flock. Peter was
the first Pope. If you wish a movement, a society to grow, where do
you go to preach? To the country places? No. You preach in the big
cities. St. Peter, from Antioch, went to Rome, the Capital of the
world, and became the first Bishop of Rome, and head of the little
church of Christ. All his successors, Bishops of Rome, to this day,
take over his position as head of Christ's Church. Pope John Paul
II is 164th successor and head of the Church. From the main cities
of the world, Christianity spread to the outlying districts. The main
centers of Christianity were called Partiarchates. THE OLDEST CANON
LAW admitted only three bishops having what later ages call Patriarchal
rights - Bishops of Rome, Alexandria and Antioch. The successors of
St. Peter held the highest place of Pope, Bishop of Rome. Much later,
the Council of Calcedon 45, established the Patriarchate of Jerusalem
and also Constantinople as a Patriarchate with jurisdiction over Asia
Minor and Thrace. And since the Emperors had moved from Rome to Constantinople,
it was called the New Rome and because it was the seat of the Empire,
it was given precedence over the other eastern patriarchates and second
place after Rome. Canon 3 of the Council of Constantinople says "The
Bishop of Constantinople shall have the primacy of honor after the
Bishop of Rome, because it is New Rome." From each of these centers,
missionaries were sent to the surrounding countries, taking with them
the language, the customs and the Liturgy (the way of saying Mass
of the Parent City.) The missionaries from Rome used Latin, the missionaries
from Constantinople used Greek, etc., etc. The Patriarchs were independent
of one another and equal in authority, but the Patriarch of Rome exercised
the primacy of honor and of jurisdiction.
UKRAINE
Look at a map of Europe. See the Black Sea? Just North
of it is our Ukraine. There live forty-million of our people. Ten
million of us live in countries around the world. Follow the river
DNIPRO, then cross over to the rivers Dvina or Vistula and you will
see that it leads you to the Baltic Sea. "The Sea of the Vikings!"
The Vikings were a sefaring nation. They sailed wherever the ocean,
lakes and rivers would take them: plundering, looting, conquering.
Following the rivers Dvina, Vistula and Dnipro, they came to our Ukraine
in 862, under the leadership of Rurik, the Varangian. Here they found
no form of centralized government, but local tribes. Polyany, Siveriany,
Ulychi, Derevlany, Duliby and others. They liked the country. Who
wouldn't? It was, and is a beautiful land. They settled with their
followers, and united the different tribes, forming a government.
This was the beginning of "Our Ukraine." Look at the map again. See
how close we are to Constantinople, present day Istanbul. Our forefathers
traded with the Greeks. There was a colony of Greeks on the shores
of the BLACK SEA, so naturally we would receive missionaries from
the Greek Patriarch of Constantinople. The Church in the world was
then ONE. There was no break between Catholic and Orthodox. There
were no protestants in the world as yet (they came about 500 years
later). Around the year 860, two blood brothers, Cyril and Methodius,
left the monastery in Greece to preach Christianity among the Slavic
people. These brothers created for us an alphabet called the CYRILLIC
alphabet, after the name of one of the brothers, St. Cyril, which
we use to this day. They also translated the Bible and the Holy Mass
into Slavonic, as the language was called. They set out to Rome, to
obtain permission from Pope Adrian II to say the Mass in the language
they had translated. This was necessary, as the Pope was head of the
Church. Pope Adrian II approved it and our Slavonic Mass or Ukrainian
Liturgy was celebrated in Rome. Cyril remained in Rome, in a monastery,
where he died and was buried in 855. Methodius returned to continue
his work amongst the Slavic people. When Volodymyr the Great became
ruler of Ukraine, he decided to make Christianity the State Religion.
His grandmother, Olga, was already a Christian as were many of his
followers, since they traded with the Greeks, but as yet it was not
the official religion of Ukraine. He decreed that the citizens of
his capital city should be publicly baptized in the river Dnipro in
his presence, his family and the Greek Clergy. Remember, as yet, there
was only "One Church." The religious break between east and west,
between the Catholics and Orthodox had not taken place. There was
always political rivalry between the East and West, between Constantinople
and Rome. This naturally seeped into the church, whose rulers were
Romans in the West and Greeks in the East. Politics always did create
problems for the Church. The early heresies (heresy is the twisting
of the Word of God and the teaching of doctrines, not as taught by
the Church) almost all originated in the East - Arianism, Macedonianism,
Monophysites, Monothelites, Iconoclasts to name some of the important
ones. They all originated in finding support with the Imperial government.
This all prepared the way for the break that was to take place between
East and West in 1054. It was inevitable. The Church called all the
Bishops of the world to General Ecumenical Councils to condemn the
heresies. The councils were called in the East, because this is where
all the heresies arose, and so they could be condemned on the spot.
The Holy Father always presided through his delegate.
THE BREAK
Now came the great quarrel, that would separate the
East from the West, the Catholics from the Orthodox. True to form,
politically motivated, the quarrel arose in the East. The full break
finally came in 1054. The disputes over the Procession of the Holy
Spirit, the Supremacy of the Pope and many insignificant reasons were
excuses for the break, so the East could be completely independent
of Rome. When the break did take effect, the Greeks did not throw
out any of the teachings of the Church as did the Protestants some
500 years later. The Orthodox have all the Sacraments, the Sacred
Liturgy (the Mass), and Holy Orders. Their priests and bishops are
true priests and true bishops, only not in union with Rome. When Pope
Paul Vi met the Patriarch of Constantinople Athenagoras in the Holy
Land on January 5, 1964, they embraced and called each other "brothers,"
which led to the lifting of the excommunications imposed upon each
other a thousand years before. The division brought great hurt and
bitterness, both to the Christians of that time and to the followers
of Christ in the years after, right up to our day. They realized that
the break was more political than religious. That is why Pope John
XXIII at the Vatican II Council calls out "We do not intend to conduct
a trial of the past. We do not want to prove who was right or who
was wrong. All we want is to say 'Let us come together. Let us make
an end to our Divisions.' "
UKRAINE AT THE BREAK
This Schism had little effect on Ukrainians at first,
but since we were so close to Greece and so far from Rome, it is only
natural that the Greeks would pull us over to their side, but the
break did not take place for some time. It was not until 1169, when
the Prince of Moscow, Andrew Boholubskey, conquered and destroyed
the City of Kiev, that Ukrainians were slowly compelled to accept
the jurisdiction (authority) of the Byzantine Patriarchs. What shall
I compare all this to? For example, when our Ukrainian Catholic Church
was banned in the Soviet Union, all our priests were put out of their
churches and replaced with Orthodox Clergy, by Russia. Contact between
Ukrainian people and Rome was impossible . . . The people attended
the Orthodox services as there were no Catholic services permissible.
Slowly the pressure was on to withdraw them from their Catholic faith
into Orthodoxy . . . so was it then.
WE HAVE A KING
PRINCE DANYLO ruled Ukraine during the great Tartar
Invasion. The Mongols were victorious at the battle at the Kalka River
in 1224 and now they were ready to advance on central Europe. Ukraine
was in their path. Pope Innocent IV, to strengthen Prince Danylo's
hand amongst the Western rulers in the year 1253, crowned him KING.
This was the first King we had. So we see that our ties were still
with Rome. But with the conquering Turks, came the full break with
the West.
OUR RETURN TO THE CATHOLIC FOLD
To restore the church as it was before the break, in
the year 1439, in Florence, Italy, the General Ecumenical Council
of all bishops was called. At this council, even the Greek Patriarch,
Joseph was in attendance.The Ukrainians were represented by our Metropolitan,
Isadore of Kiev. This union did not last long, for the Turks conquered
Constantinople in 1453, and the break was renewed. It was not until
1596, at a Council Meeting at Brest-Litovsk, that the Union, the Return
of Ukrainians to the Catholic Church, was realized. The Bishops of
Ukraine met in session. Michael Rahoza, Metropolitan of Kiev; Ipatij
Potij, Bishop of Volodymyr; Cyril Terletsky, Bishop of Lutsk; Dionisius
Zbirujsky, Bishop of Cholm; Leonti Pelchynsky, Bishop of Pinsk; Gideon
Balaban, Bishop of L'viv; concluded the return to the union with Rome
and it was ratified by Pope Clement VIII. This act confirmed all the
rights the Ukrainian Church had enjoyed until that time, with full
autonomy in the governing of their churches as they see fit under
the jurisdiction of Rome. Very often we are called Uniates, meaning
reuniting, returning to the fold of St. Peter.
MARTYR FOR THE FAITH
At this Synod of Reunion, virtually all the Bishops
of Ukraine and Byelorussia, made a profession of faith and became
Catholic Bishops. This left the Orthodox in Ukraine without Bishops.
The Orthodox Patriarch then consecrated several Bishops for the Orthodox
Church placing them in the same cities as those held by the Ukrainian
Catholic Bishops. There is an old saying amongst the early Christians
". . . the blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians." A great leader
at this reunion with Rome was a priest, Josephat Kuncevych, of the
order of St. Basil. One of the newly consecrated Orthodox Bishops
was Meletyj Smotrycky. He was a gifted speaker and a good writer.
He began a campaign of propaganda and agitation against the Ukrainian
Catholic Bishop, Josephat. Meletyj Smotrycky managed to arouse and
incite people against Josephat to the point that on November 12, 1623,
a frenzied and mindless mob broke into the archbishop's residence
in Vitebsk. The mob pounced on Josephat with sticks and clubs. One
of the attackers struck him on the head with an axe. The Holy Bishop
fell to the ground. They heightened their sacrilege by dragging the
blood covered body through the streets of the town, and finally they
threw the body into the River Dvina. Many miracles were made through
his intercession. His body lies in the great Basilica of St. Peter,
in Rome, very close to the Main Altar, under which lies the body of
St. Peter, the Apostle, who also laid down his life for the flock,
left in his charge by Our Blessed Lord. Meletyj Smotrycky was never
at peace with himself . . . as St. Paul the apostle, who first persecuted
the Christians with the greatest of hate, holding the coats of those
that stoned St. Stephen and became one of the greatest missionaries
for Christ, so Meletyj Smotrycky, first an ardent fighter against
the Union, converts after the death of Josephat, and through his prayers,
became one of the greatest protagonists of the Union of the Ukrainian
Church with the See of Peter. Again politics enters the picture. Western
Ukraine, Halychyna, where our ancestors come from, by returning to
the Catholic church was true to the Church of their forefathers. Eastern
Ukraine, under the influence of Russia, remained separate from Rome.
Let us recall the words of Pope Benedict XV on May 1, 1917, by his
"Motu Proprio Dei Providentis." He wrote "The Church of Jesus Christ,
since she is neither Latin nor Greek nor Slav but Catholic, makes
no distinction between her children, and these, whether they are Greeks,
Latins, Slavs or members of other national groups, all occupy the
same rank in the eyes of the Apostolic See."
THESE ARE YOUR ROOTS UKRAINIANS - CATHOLICS
At the end of the 19th-century and the beginning of
the 20th-century, our forefathers came to the United States and Canada.
There was poverty in Ukraine. They came in search of a better life,
not so much for themselves, as for their children. They were hard
workers. Their faith gave them hope. God smiled upon them, and blessed
them, and turned hard times and evil into good. Their children soon
took over very important positions in every facet of live in the new
world. We have form our race, Governors and Lieutenant Governors,
Senators, Judges, Lawyers, Doctors, successful businessmen, etc. Did
you ever think what would have awaited you if your ancestors had not
emigrated to the new world? What would have been your fate? Where
would you have been under Soviet domination? In the new world we have
Bishops and Priests and Sisters . . . all dedicated to to the spreading
of Christ's Kingdom of Heaven. Our Holy Father Pope John Paul II,
in the message to Ukrainian Catholics on October 4, 1979, given in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania said, "I welcome the occasion to assure
you, as universal pastor of the Church that all who have inherited
the Ukrainian tradition have an important and distinguished part to
fulfill in the Catholic Church." Let each and every one of us apply
these words to ourselves. We have so much to be grateful for: just
to be alive, a living intellectual being; to be an adopted child of
God; to belong to the Kingdom of God, which has its beginnings in
His Church on earth; to be Americans living in this great land of
freedom. We have so much to be thankful for. We still can and must
play an important roll in the history of our Church, which has produced
many martyrs.
A SPECIAL APPEAL TO OUR YOUTH
What have you done for our people? Ever think of becoming
a Priest or a Nun and work for the eternal good of our Ukrainian People?
I am sure God is calling many of you - do not turn a deaf ear to His
call. As a priest or nun it is just a wonderful, satisfying feeling
to see hundreds of young people coming to you for guidance, for comfort.
It is just grand to see their beautiful smiles and the thankful souls
you have helped by bringing them the Good News of the Lord. God may
be calling you. If so, hear His Call. You will never find anything
more rewarding, or a happier life, even in this world, than working
for Our Lord, amongst your people, the "Ukrainian Children of God."
Msgr. V. J. Bozyk
489 Winterton Ave.
Winnepeg, Manitoba
R2K 1K5
THE POPE SPEAKS TO UKRAINIANS
On September 16, 1984, Pope John Paul II met with the Ukrainian Catholic
community in Saints Vladimir and Olga Cathedral, and delivered this
address:
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I greet you as a fellow Slav, sharing to a large degree
in your spirit and heritage. I am especially happy to be with you
as we draw near to the celebration of the First Millennium of Christianity
in Ukraine. In you I embrace in the charity of Christ all the people
of your homeland, together with their history, culture, and the heroism
with which they have lived their faith. As Ukrainian Byzantine Catholics,
you have inherited a great spiritual tradition, extending back a thousand
years to the time of Saint Olga and her grandson Saint Vladimir. Who
could have known then, how that faith would grow so organically with
your culture, and how it would have such a major impact on your history
as it brought the grace of the Redemption into the lives of your ancestors?
Events of every time and place are directed by the loving plan of
God, for God is the Lord of history. In a special way God's Providence
has guided your development in Canada. When Ukrainian immigrants first
came to this land, they brought with them a strong Catholic faith
and a firm attachment to their religious and cultural traditions.
They placed a high priority on the construction of their churches
and schools, desiring to preserve this precious heritage and pass
it on to their children. They sank deep roots into Canadian soil and
quickly became productive and loyal citizens. Our meeting today, taking
place as it does on the threshold of the solemn celebration of the
Millennium of Christianity in Kiev and the entire Ukraine, carries
our minds and hearts back through the centuries of your glorious history
of faith. We feel deep gratitude to God, in a special way, for the
grace of fidelity to the Catholic Church and loyalty to the Successor
of Saint Peter which was bestowed on your forebears. I join you in
thanking God for the many institutions and traditions which aid and
strengthen the bonds of your families, which are the foundation of
the Church and society. May you always preserve with fitting pride
the heritage of faith and culture which is yours. I place this intention,
together with all your prayers, before the Immaculate Virgin Mary,
Queen of Ukraine, asking her to protect you with her motherly love
and lead you ever closer to her divine Son, Jesus Christ, the Redeemer
of the world.
SLAVA ISUSU CHRYSTU!
Msgr. Bozyk has also published pamphlets, " "The Eternal Truths I Believe
and Why" and
"Divine Liturgy - Why Mass? I Can Pray at Home"
Special thanks to Andre Andrukhiv of Portland, Oregon
for making this tract available to us at the Saint Irene website.
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