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Code: ZE03041104

Date: 2003-04-11

Ukrainian Diocese Lacking Parish Churches

Bishop Milan Shashik Says the Faithful Can't Afford New Buildings

KONIGSTEIN, Germany, APRIL 11, 2003 (Zenit.org).- Milan Shasnik has a diocese, but needs churches.

The new bishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Diocese of Mukachevo noted during a visit to the headquarters of Aid to the Church in Need that many of the faithful under him are still forced to celebrate Mass in the open streets, because they have no parish church of their own.

Just one-quarter of the churches which originally belonged to the Byzantine-rite Ukrainian Catholic Church have been returned to their rightful owners by the state. The remaining 75% are still in the hands of the Orthodox Church.

"Was it not enough that our Bishop Theodore Romzha was murdered and our priests and faithful forced to spend so many years in Siberia?" asked Bishop Shashik.

The people themselves are too poor to fund the building of new churches, he said. Most of them are unemployed and many families have been split, and in some cases broken up, as a result of parents seeking work abroad.

Bishop Shashik lives in the still-unfinished seminary of Uzhhorod, where the 41 seminarians live in cramped conditions. The former bishop's residence was confiscated by the Communists and turned into a university library. There are no funds available for a replacement building.

The Diocese of Mukachevo covers 5,000 square miles and has a population of some 1.25 million. A century ago all the parishes in this region were of the Eastern rite. Today between 300,000 and 500,000 people have once again declared their allegiance to the Ukrainian Catholic Church.

There are now some 160 Ukrainian Catholic priests and 11 monastic priests. In 1989-90, when Communist rule ended, some 63 Ukrainian Catholic priests emerged from the underground. But most of them have died since then.

Do we have any idea of what the Orthodox population is in the very same area headed by Bishop Shashik? To my knowledge, there is also an Orthodox Diocese of Munkachevo. Could not--if the proper ecclesiastical authorities agreed in a spirit of Christian brotherhood-the Orthodox and the Eastern Catholics share the existing churches where the Eastern Catholics presently have none?

OrthodoxEast

HA.

That'll be the day. Orthodox are very happy to use buildings belonging to other people but one almost NEVER sees them allowing others to use their churches.

Just my two obols,

Edward

Judging from my very unscientific observance here in the USA I'd say you are probably right.

Michael, sinner

Some Orthodox see the use of their temple by other church groups as a desecration. It stems from a belief that they are the sole repository of the Faith. So, they don't permit it.

Some go so far as not to permit non-Orthodox to attend services except in the narthex- St. Anthony's Greek Orthodox Monastery in Florence, AZ, founded by Ephraim, for example. That has an ancient basis, of course.

Faintly pharisaic by today's mores, I'd say.

My question was not answered, friends: Do we have any idea of the ORTHODOX population in the same area shared by the newly-created Greek-Catholic Diocese of Mukachevo headed by Bishop Shashik? What is the ratio of Greek Catholic to Orthodox in this area? Any hard facts or idea?

And as far as Orthodox churches sharing, you should know that the St. Joseph Romanian Byzantine Catholic Mission in Canton, Massachusetts (Bishop Botean's diocese), is permitted to use the Romanian ORTHODOX church there for its services. The two congregations of Romanians, Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic, get along just splendidly, thank you! So it can be done.

OrthodoxEast

Simply for historical accuracy, it must be clarified that the Greek Catholic Eparchy of Mukachevo is not a new ecclesiastical entity at all. The article above correctly points out that: "A century ago all the parishes in this region were of the Eastern rite." For clarity, it should be noted that the writer of the article obviously means to say that the parishes belonged to the "Greek Catholic Church" since both it and the Orthodox jurisdictions in the region use the Byzantine Rite, which is "an" Eastern ritual tradition.

The Mukachevo Eparchy is the most ancient eparchy in all of Transcarpathia and the "mother eparchy" of most, if not all, other dioceses throughout the Carpathian region and abroad, including present-day Slovakia and Hungary, as well as the ancestral church of the Ruthenian Metropolia and all of its eparchies in the United States, the Johnstown "Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Diocese" and the "Slovak" eparchy in Canada. In no sense is the Mukachevo Eparchy new, experimental or created to serve Greek Catholics in a predominantly Orthodox territory.

There is indeed an Orthodox eparchy of Mukachevo, but this was created after World War II and the forced dissolution of the Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine and other communist nations. As is well known to forum members, the Soviet regime declared the Greek Catholic Church to be illegal and replaced its hierarchy and clergy with those of the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), the only legal ecclesial institution in the Soviet Union. All Greek Catholic church buildings, residences, schools, monasteries and other institutions were either closed, used for governmental purposes or, as was the majority situation, literally "given over" to the Russian Orthodox to use. As the article states, "The former bishop's residence was confiscated by the Communists and turned into a university library." Similar fates befell the indigenous Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Churches in other areas of Ukraine.

In this sense, where parishes are presently lacking their own facilities, it is because these were lost to the Russians in the late 1940s, some of which, but certainly not all, were returned to Greek Catholic use after the independence of Ukraine in 1989-90. The article continues: "Just one-quarter of the churches which originally belonged to the Byzantine-rite Ukrainian Catholic Church have been returned to their rightful owners by the state. The remaining 75% are still in the hands of the Orthodox Church." If the attempted annihilation of the Greek Catholic Church had not taken place, most of these mentioned parishes would not currently be looking for suitable facilities. The cathedral church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in Uzhorod was returned to the eparchy, but obviously not the bishop's residence and chancery, which are still used for civil purposes.

As to the actual Orthodox population of the region, this also must be viewed in an historical perspective, to give a true feeling for the make-up of the area. Prior to World War II, very few, if any Orthodox parishes existed in the Eparchy of Mukachevo. There was, practically speaking, one church in Transcarpathia, and that was the Greek Catholic Church, subsisting in the Eparchy of Mukachevo, with its cathedral church and eparchial institutions (seminary, cantor's/teacher's college, monasteries, chancery, bishop's residence, and more) in the neighboring, more urban city of Uzhorod. After independence and the collapse of the Soviet regime, most parishes returned to their authentic Greek Catholic eparchy. However, as the article points out, many of the church buildings etc were not returned to Catholic use and this is where the current discrepancies lie.

I am not sure of what the actual Orthodox population in Transcarpathia is today, but it is certainly not significantly great, especially when compared with other regions of Ukraine. There are now however increasingly, indigenous parishes forming that belong to one of the Ukrainian Orthodox jurisdictions, as the movement for an authentically Ukrainian Orthodox church develops, apart from the Moscow-dominated UOC-MP, which is Ukrainian in name only, but in all other ways, is simply an expression of the Russian tradition, including Russian liturgical customs, language and being firmly under the control of Moscow. Prior to the Soviet period, Orthodox parishes which did exist in the territory of the Mukachevo Eparchy, (at least in the greater Uzhorod/Mukachevo area) for the most part did so to serve those who were truly Russians, while the native population had its home in the Greek Catholic Church.

At different times, there were short breaks with the Greek Catholic bishop in some regions of the Mukachevo Eparchy, and parishes temporarily pledged allegiance to Orthodoxy for various political reasons. The Maramaros region (divided today between Ukraine and Romania), in particular maintained an Orthodox eparchy into the early 1700s and this area can be said to have contained the greatest amount of Orthodox parishes at any given time within the territory of the Mukachevo eparch. Part of the reasons for this was the diverse ethnic population of the region, between Carpatho-Rusyns and Romanians. Eventually, there were parishes in the territory, some of which belonged to the Mukachevo Eparchy and some of which were part of eparchies in Romania, whether Orthodox or Greek Catholic. This made sense because of the diverse ethnic population and is somewhat similar to current situations in the Diaspora, where we have overlapping jurisdictions based on the indigenous make up of the parishioners. Fr. A. Pekar, OSBM, a noted and credible Ukrainian and Ruthenian historian, wrote an interesting section on the history of the Maramaros region and its eparchy which can be viewed at: www.uaoc.org/maramaros.html [uaoc.org]

I offer this information, not to engage in Orthodox/Catholic polemics, but only to point out the true demographic composition of the region as well as to dispel any perceptions that the Mukachevo Eparchy is somehow a new entity or that the parishes mentioned without church buildings are new, mission parishes or the like. While Bishop Milan Shashik is a new bishop, recently appointed to the helm of Transcarpathia's oldest church, the eparchy itself dates to, at least, the 15th. century, with many sources claiming that it well predates that era, going back to the 12th. century or earlier. Some traditions even state that St. Methodius was the first bishop of Mukachevo, which cannot be affirmed, but theoretically could be possible.

In its early stages, the Mukachevo Eparchy was based at the St. Nicholas Monastery on "Chernecha Hora" in Mukachevo ("Hill of Monks" or "Black Mountain"), an ancient monastery which served as the spiritual center of our ecclesiastical life for centuries. It was not only the site of the bishop's cathedra and administration, but also the scene of many pilgrimages and other spiritual exercises which strengthened the religious life of our people. Later on, the cathedral and eparchial institutions were moved to nearby Uzhorod, because of its more cosmopolitan nature and the acquisition of a larger cathedral church and buildings there. Nevertheless, the eparchy always maintained its historic See, that of Mukachevo. The importance of the monastery on Chernecha Hora continued into the mid-twentieth and was only interrupted when the facility was given over to the Russian Orthodox Church. Even today, St. Nicholas Monastery remains one of the historical institutions which are still under Russian control and have not been returned to its rightful church. It is presently occupied by a group of Russian Orthodox nuns.

If the majority of the population in Transcarpathia belonged to the Orthodox Church, I would gladly acquiesce that the current arrangement was a plausible one. But, given the historical truth of the situation, the fact that many church buildings have still not been returned to the Greek Catholic people for their use, is another example of injustice that should be rectified. It is also another example that many things have not really changed in Ukraine since communism fell and that there still persists an overall spirit of the communist era, under the disguise of democracy.

Yes, Orthodox and Greek Catholics can well live side by side in harmony, even sharing one another's facilities. I am all for a situation of closeness between the two churches, especially given the tremendous historical and spiritual commonalities that exist. The Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine and Ukrainian Orthodox jurisdictions are really two parts of one church, in my opinion. I only want to point out that, in a sense of fairness and truthfulness, any sharing of church buildings, etc, should really be from the opposite perspective than it is today - Greek Catholics helping fledging Orthodox parishes, especially Ukrainian Orthodox entities which wish to realize their own indigenous expression of Orthodoxy, by offering the use of what is rightful Greek Catholic property to Orthodox groups, not the other way around. If the Russian Church had not taken over all of our institutions in 1948, what I write above would be the case, given the hope that there could exist a spirit of fraternal cooperation between the two churches, Greek Catholic and Ukrainian Orthodox.

I hope this helps clarify the historical situation. God bless you all.

Fr. Joe

Thank you Father Joe.

It is difficult to find numbers of faithful for all jurisdictions; it is much easier to find numbers of registered parishes.

In the Sub-carpathian oblast the breakdown, ca. 2001, was this:
MP 508 KP 3 UOAC 0 GC 299 RC 84 other 330.

http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/ give 2001 numbers as 320,000 GC in 300 parishes, and 53,800 RC in 49 parishes.

Father Joe, I respectfully thank you for your detailed explanation (much of which I was already aware--I read Fr. Athanasius Pekar's writings many years ago too). The only thing I'm still wondering about--and I don't want polemics to enter into our very civil discussion either--is whether the Greek-Catholic Eparchy of Mukachevo has been "sede vacante" for a long period of time.

And I *DO* think Mukachevites, Greek-Catholic or Eastern Orthodox, should have their own Ukrainian liturgical recension, whether or not under the Moscow Patriarchate. But that's the Ukrainian in me that was always supressed by my Polish RC relatives, never by any Russians! :-)

OrthodoxEast

:rolleyes: It most certainly is.

Theoretically, there were always bishops in the See of Mukachevo, even during the Soviet era, since these existed in the "catacomb church." I do understand your question I believe however, as to when residential bishops once again were able to function openly. Bishop Romzha's successor, Bishop Olexander Chira was imprisoned in Siberia and when released, served the faithful of both the Byzantine and Roman Rites in Karahanda, where there were a great number of Ukrainian exiles as well as significant numbers of German RC faithful.

After the legalization of the church, Bishop Ivan Semedi was confirmed as the Bishop of Mukachevo, having been consecrated clandestinely. He served as eparch in this capacity until freedom came to Ukraine, when he openly took possession of the eparchy and then, the cathedral church.

Similar situations existed in the church in Galicia and Metropolitan Volodymyr Sterniuk, who functioned secretly out of a small flat in Lviv for many years, served as the "locum tenens" so to speak, while communism still was in effect and the official Metropolitan of Lviv lived in exile in Rome. When freedom came, Vladyka Sterniuk acquiesced to the position of Patriarch Luvachivskyj when the latter made his triumphal return to Ukraine and the remains of our beloved confessor of the faith, Patriarch Josyp Slipyj were interred within the cathedral church of St. George.

Bishop Semedi retired late last year and was replaced by the current Bishop Milan Shashik. So, at least officially, the See of Mukachevo has not been vacant since 1989. I hope this helps to answer your question. God bless you all.

Fr. Joe

Dear All:

I know it's off the topic, but I must add my exception to the general statementthat Orthodox never allow Greek-Catholics to use their buildings.

In the early 70's, the Ukrainian Orthodox Cathederal of St. Volodymyr allowed the use of its building by the faithful of the newly-formed Ukrainian Greek-Catholic parish of Sts. Volodymyr and Olha while V&O's constructed its own church. (I won't get into the history of how V&O's came to be - but I'm sure many of you know it). This led to many concelebrated services, including the blessing of the water on Theophany.

Just an FYI.

Yours,

kl

Dear Krilos Leader,

But it is different with us Ukies.

Being Ukrainian, for us, is much more important than being either Catholic or Orthodox . . .

Alex

Mukachevo is a "Ukrainian Catholic" diocese? That's news to me.

Is the RC diocese of Mukachevo also a "Ukrainian Catholic" diocese? It's in Ukraine and it's Catholic...

Dear Lemko,

Certainly, there truly is a Ukrainian Roman Catholic Church.

But you are right, of course.

Alex