A resurrected Church

In March 1946, when the Soviet authorities convened the so-called “Synod of Lviv”, forcibly attended by 216 priests, it was declared that the 1596 Union of Brest, by which part of the Church in Ukraine returned in the XVI century to the full communion with the Bishop of Rome, had been voided and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church was compulsorily annexed to the Russian Orthodox Church. That meant that the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church was liquidated and was no longer legal on the territory of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, which has just been enlarged by the occupation of the Western Ukrainian regions. This was already preceded and was followed by the arrests, deportations and sentencing to forced labor camps in Siberia of hundreds of her faithful: bishops (including the Head of the UGCC and a confessor of faith, Cardinal Yosyf Slipyi, who was imprisoned in Siberia between 1945 and 1963), priests (and their families, if they were married), monks, nuns, as well as the lay faithful (often together with their families), most of whom never returned home… The Soviets were convinced that the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church was dead. However, it did not correspond to reality. It’s not only that the Church was not dead; on the contrary, she continued her mission with even greater vigor, sacrifice and dedication both in the underground and in the diaspora, where she enjoyed her freedom.With God’s help, the persecution of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine ended in 1989, when the Church officially announced that it was coming out of the underground, which has been followed by the dynamic renewal of her ecclesial life: the spiritual growth of her faithful and the development of her structures, necessary for her ordinary existence. And so, when the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church emerged from the underground, she was not looking for vengeance, but, having sincerely forgiven her adversaries, she simply wanted to continue her mission: to proclaim – now in freedom – the life-giving Good News of her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to the people that have been entrusted to her care.It is XXI century now and it’s been 22 years since the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church has again been freely exercising her mission now with her newly elected young and charismatic leader, His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, Major Archbishop of Kyiv and Halych, who succeeded a true prophet of the contemporary times, His Beatitude Lubomyr Cardinal Husar, who courageously led the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church between 2001 and 2011. However, it seems that there are still some people, who are threatened by the Church’s mission. It looks like there are still some persons that perhaps are afraid that the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church might take something away from them. Yet, it ought to be accentuated that none of these fears are justified, none of these prejudices are true. The only thing that the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, being in the bosom of the Universal Church of Christ, is preoccupied with is the authentic good and wellbeing of her children that lead to their salvation in the Lord. In other words, the Church’s only concern is that her children always have an access to the Holy Sacraments; that her children are properly taught their faith, including the authentic Christian values, especially the ones that are necessary for the true family life; that the innocent children are no longer slaughtered by the merciless acts of abortions; that each and every one of her children are fully guaranteed their human rights; that corruption and stealing are not considered a normal way of functioning in the public life; that her migrants are provided with the necessary help and care; that her children never suffer from alcoholism, drug-addiction or AIDS; etc. Just recently, on October 23, 2011, in the splendid, still-under-construction Patriarchal Sobor (Cathedral) of Christ’s Resurrection of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, situated on the left bank of the Dnipro River in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, during a celebration of the Divine Liturgy, presided over by the Head of the Administration of the Patriarchal Curia of the UGCC, Bishop Bohdan Dzyurakh, the Ordinary of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane, Washington (USA) and concomitantly a representative of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Bishop Blase Cupich, who was in Ukraine on an official visit, when addressing gathered in the sobor faithful, said that some, similarly to those, who two thousand years ago thought that they killed Jesus Christ, yet He had risen, thought that they killed the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church back in 1946. However, she rose from the dead, having risen to a new life in the Lord! What else could really be added to these words? Amen!