Canada's youngest bishop

Motiuk says new focus of Ukrainian Catholic is moving away from old country

By GLEN ARGAN
WCR Staff Writer
Edmonton

Bishop David Motiuk says for 50 years the Ukrainian Catholic Church found itself without a link to its mother Church in Ukraine. But the fall of communism and re-established ties with Ukraine means the Canadian Church needs to find its unique position, not only within Ukraine Catholicism, but also in Canada itself.

"For quite a time, our focus was on the persecuted Church in Ukraine, perhaps at the expense of the spiritual needs of the Church in Canada," Motiuk said in an interview with the WCR.

Now is a time not for inventing new programs, but for recognizing the Holy Spirit working in the Church and "working in the vineyard to make sure the Gospel message is brought forward to the faithful," he said.

"There's anticipation of a new springtime or a new flourishing of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Canada."

Motiuk, 40, became Canada's youngest bishop when he was ordained at St. Basil's Church in Edmonton June 11. A welcoming ceremony was set for June 18 in Winnipeg where he will serve as auxiliary to Metropolitan Michael Bzdel, head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Canada.

The new bishop has a doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome. But he did most of the research for his dissertation on the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Canada going through libraries and archives on this side of the Atlantic.

The fruits of his research are expected to be published as a book late this summer, Eastern Christians in a New World.

To an extent, that story is his story too. The future bishop was raised by John and Olga Motiuk with a brother and three sisters at Lavoy, near Vegreville. A priest came to the town only once a month to celebrate the Divine Liturgy. Other Sundays, the family would recite the rosary together.

Most summers, the Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate would teach catechism classes in the town. The sisters would ask all the girls if they planned to become sisters and all the boys if they planned to become priests. Motiuk recalled the response was a universal "yes." But he was the only one from the town to go onto a religious vocation.

"They sowed the seeds then," he said. "In my third year of university, my vocation simply rooted itself."

"It's not like lightning struck or someone hit me over the head with a hammer and I awoke and said, 'Yes, Lord, I'll do what you ask.' It was more just a gentle voice saying, 'Come and see.'"

"There's anticipation of a new springtime or a new flourishing of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Canada."

A key help in his journey was the late Bishop Demetrius Martin Greschuk who died in 1990 at age 66.

Greschuk would call young David even before Motiuk decided to enter the seminary. "My sister said, 'You're thinking of going to the seminary, aren't you?' I said, 'Yes, how do you know?' 'Bishop Demetrius is calling more often.'"

When he returned to Alberta from the seminary in Ottawa every summer, he would always visit the bishop. "We would sit for hours and just talk. It didn't matter what was on his agenda; you had his undivided attention."

Motiuk's decision to study canon law (Church law) came "not by choice." He wanted to do graduate studies and hoped it would be in an area such as doctrine, spirituality or liturgy. "But Bishop Demetrius kept coming back to canon law."

So Motiuk agreed to take a couple of classes in canon law "and I fell in love with the discipline."

Motiuk said when he had completed his master's degree in canon law, Greschuk told him, "I think I would like you to work with me in the chancery office."

He returned to Edmonton on a Friday when Greschuk told him he had been appointed chancellor. The bishop then left town for a couple of weeks. "It was kind of sink or swim."

As well as being diocesan chancellor, Motiuk served in several parishes and was rector of Holy Spirit Seminary from 1996 to 2001. He returned to Edmonton to serve as an advisor to Bishop Lawrence Huculak. Huculak named him pastor of a new parish in Sherwood Park this spring, but a few days later the phone rang. Motiuk was going to be a bishop.

And that will bring him back into contact with Bzdel, the metropolitan he has known for 15 years. Motiuk had "constant dealings" with Bzdel when he was the seminary rector. "He's a very gracious man, very prayerful, very spiritual. I'm looking forward to his mentoring."

Copyright © 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 -- Western Catholic Reporter