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PDF versionEnd of an era in Ukraine
by John L Allen Jr on Feb. 10, 2011
ANALYSIS
Today marks the end of an era for the Eastern Catholic churches in union with Rome, as the best-known Eastern Catholic leader in the West is stepping off the stage.
The Vatican announced this morning that Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, who turns 78 later this month, has resigned as the leader of the Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine. The church will shortly organize a synod of its bishops to elect a successor.
Technically, the Vatican recognized Husar as the “Major Archbishop of Kyiv-Halyč,” but the world's six to ten million Greek Catholics, both in Ukraine and in immigrant communities elsewhere, have regarded him for the last decade as their “Patriarch.”
Born in Ukraine in 1933, Husar fled with his parents to the United States in 1944, during the chaos of the Second World War and the rise of a Soviet regime that would drive the Greek Catholic Church underground and imprison most of its leadership.
He studied at Catholic University and Fordham, and was ordained into the Ukranian Catholic eparchy of the United States. (Husar also became an American citizen, which made him a sort of honorary American cardinal after John Paul II gave him the red hat in February 2001.)
In 1973 Husar joined a Studite Monastery in Italy and became its superior. He was secretly consecrated a bishop in April 1977 in Castelgandolfo by Cardinal Josyf Slipy, his predecessor as head of the Ukranian Greek Catholic Church, but the act was not recognized by Paul VI’s Vatican, anxious not to upset the Russian Orthodox Church or the Soviets. Husar’s episcopacy would remain a secret for the next nineteen years, until it was formally recognized by John Paul II and the Greek Catholic synod in 1996.
In 2001, Husar was elected archbishop. Though the office is for life, Husar made it clear beginning in 2009 that he intended to step down, in part because of declining health.
Over the years Husar has been easily the most articulate and theologically engaged of the Eastern Catholic prelates. He performed brilliantly during John Paul’s June 23-27, 2001, trip to Ukraine, cementing his reputation as pastorally gifted and politically sophisticated. He’s also a warm, smiling, slightly chubby prelate, who came off as sort of an Eastern Catholic version of Pope John XXIII. For a brief period, there was a mini-flurry of speculation that Husar could be a candidate to become pope himself.
One measure of Husar’s impact is that a vice-rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University recently penned a lengthy essay about the transition, the gist of which was to convince Ukrainian Catholics not to freak out.
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“He radiates such authentic love and a sense of deep peace, coupled with humility and wisdom and warm and witty humor and he shares all of this with everyone. It is difficult to name anyone in Ukrainian society today who is regarded as a greater moral authority than Lubomyr Husar,” writes Oleh Turiy.
Facing the loss of such a leader, Turiy urges Ukrainian Greek Catholics not to succumb to “a state of panic.”
In fact, Turiy argues, all the changes in leadership in the Greek Catholic Church during the 20th century occurred amid crisis and turmoil, yet they all produced new leaders of unexpected quality.
In a press conference today in Kiev, Husar said that in his retirement he hopes to do some pastoral work with youth and with various professional groups, among other things helping to ensure that “nothing from our church’s past is lost.”
This is a moment of special anxiety for the Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine. After a rebirth in the 1990s, the church played a key role in Ukraine’s “Orange Revolution.” Today, however, a pro-Russian regime is once again running the show in Kiev, and the church has been experiencing some not-so-subtle intimidation from the state security service.
The eyes of the Catholic world, therefore, ought to be on Ukraine in coming weeks, both to celebrate the legacy of the one of the most remarkable Catholic personalities of our time, and to signal solidarity with the church he led.
[John L. Allen, Jr. is NCR's senior correspondent.]
A fine report about one of
A fine report about one of the great men of the Church in our day.
This is a great loss for the
This is a great loss for the Ukrainian Church, and, depending upon his replacement, will it result in a question of too much bowing to the Roman Curia which often begins to "romanize" the Eastern Churches to a point of losing their uniqueness which has always been a source of spiritual richness for the entire church communities. The Eastern Churches are truly "sister churches" as noted by Paul VI and recently cancelled out by the Roman
Curia. Sorry to say, but I do not trust the current Vatican ruling hierarchy with its attitufe of infallibility according to the so called primacy of Peter.
A warm and eloquent tribute,
A warm and eloquent tribute, for which many thanks. Indeed, as the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church has been described as a bridge between East and West, so Patriarch Lubomyr's upbringing in both Ukraine and the USA has contributed to his acceptance and authority within our church and beyond. Sadly, too, the UGCC continues to encounter opposition both at home and in the diaspora---from hostile churches and an unfriendly government in the former case, and from misguided reformists within in the latter. We are going to need all the solidarity we can get.
It is ironic how the Vatican
It is ironic how the Vatican under Paul vi never recognized his consecration as bishop, probably for the same reason he did not support Cardinal Mindszenty and persuaded him to go to Rome basically forbidding him to talk about the repression and lack of freedom in Hungary. While Communism continued to persecute the Catholic Church in the USSR as well as to forbid spreading Catholic social doctrine about private property, Paul VI invited Nicholas Podgorny who was the president of the USSR and received him in Jan. 1967. Of course those were the years of the so called "Ostpolitik". History has proven that approach to be wrong, the USSR does not exist, nor do the communist countries in Eastern Europe, and what we have realized is that when the "oppressed" take control of the power through the revolution, they become as evil as the oppressors they fought against. But, as a Greek philosopher said "human beings forget history very quickly". Let's see what happens in the Arab countries, now that the Vatican together with the few leftists that are in Europe and the US is supporting the revolts, may God forbids it does not become another Islamic Revolution like that of Iran which will bring only disappointment and deceit to the ones who supported it when it took place, like for example former President Carter.
So when does the synodical
So when does the synodical system start in the Latin Church.
It is praiseworthy that
It is praiseworthy that Cardinal Husar is stepping down due to his failing health and growing age. This is a good example that should inspire Cardinal Varkedy Vithayathil of the Syro-Malabar Eastern Catholic Church of Kerala in India to step down because he is in very poor health and is above 82 years old. It is time for him to stand aside and open ways to younger generations to take over the reins of the Church.
It is good to see an Eastern
It is good to see an Eastern Catholic Church get some attention for once. These churches have been been neglected in the consciousness of their Roman Catholic brethren, and dismissed as an "oddball" element, that many RCs wish would simply disappear,or return to their non-Catholic counterparts.(A problem for the Maronites,since they have no equivalent non-catholic counterpart.) Most Vatican II changes have been in the Eastern direction,e.g.vernacular,communion under both forms,married priests,etc. A further point of development might be a deeper study of the non Augustinian soteriology of the Eastern Churches,with its implications for spirituality and evangelization. Eastern Churches are about much more than elaborate liturgies from other cultures.[On non-Augustinian spitituality,check out some of the wrtings of a late friend of mine,Father John Romanides)
I wish. I wish that as a
I wish. I wish that as a Roman Catholic the NCR might publish a series on how historically this seperation in Catholicism happened. Did Rome push it's position as the leader as others founded perhaps by other Aposotles as the primary and not as one among equals? How did this non married priest on the roman site actually happen? How does it stand together or not in these changing times that tend to speak of reforming the reforms of Vatican II.?
It seems that our "identity" as Roman Catholics is obscured and there are going to be even deeper upsets until we k ow who we are. The sexual issues of abuse, homosexuals as "disordered" / women as dea one or priest.. All seem to me to be symptoms of a much more serious issue: Catholics don't trust our church. They leave in droves. What happened to "OPen wide the windows and arms of our church/ like Jesus. Why have we responded now in these most desperate if times, when a World of selfishness and self preservation have gotten confused with our personal journey with God being primary in the opening of those doors.
My dear friends in
My dear friends in Christ,
Please pray for my fellow Eastern Byzantine Rite Ukrainian Catholic who have been and are and will continue to be in communion faithful to the Pope in Rome as our Church has gone through much persecution in the past century, and we truly need your prayers and the Holy Spirit to protect us and bless us with His fire so that we not only exist but help to be a bridge to the Eastern Orthodox Church Christians.
Thank you for your prayers and may God bless all of you!
Glory be to Jesus Christ forever!!!
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