Ukrainian Church struggled to find its place in Canada

Motiuk's book finds historical significance in Church law changes

By GLEN ARGAN
WCR Editor
Edmonton

The Ukrainian Catholic Church has made great progress since its early 20th century establishment in Canada, but it still suffers because of a false sense of superiority of the Latin rite Church over the Eastern churches.

That's the view of Bishop David Motiuk expressed in his 2005 book Eastern Christians in the New World: An Historical and Canonical Study of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Canada.

The book is based on Motiuk's doctoral dissertation presented at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome.

The book by the new bishop of the Edmonton Ukrainian Eparchy is a detailed study of how canon law affecting the Church in Canada has developed. It includes 205 pages of heavily-footnoted text and another 200 pages of canonical documents affecting Ukrainian Catholics in Canada.

Nevertheless, what emerges is the story of a Church that grew as much out of the determination of its leaders as out of a clear plan for its future.

Vision without illusion

"The plan for a more promising future for the Canadian Ukrainian Church requires vision; but without a proper understanding of history it often generates illusion," Motiuk wrote in his preface.

He traces how the lack of familiarity of the Latin rite faithful has led to confusion and misunderstanding. Tens of thousands of Ukrainian Catholics, perceiving themselves as belonging to an inferior culture and religion, adopted the Latin rite in order to win social acceptance.

As well, legislation of the Holy See has prevented the major archbishop in Ukraine and the synod of Ukrainian Catholic bishops from exercising any authority outside of Ukraine. The Canadian Church remains under the immediate jurisdiction of the Vatican.

Motiuk begins his story by noting that, as far back as the fourth century, the Catholic Church maintained there could not be two bishops in one city. The Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 decreed, "We altogether forbid one and the same city or diocese to have more than one bishop, as if it were a body with several heads like a monster."

The result of this principle was that Latin rite bishops often had jurisdiction over any Eastern Catholics who lived in their dioceses.

U.S. bishop named

After Ukrainians came to the United States in the 19th century, the Vatican in 1907 appointed a Ukrainian Catholic bishop for the whole country. However, the bishop, Soter Ortynsky, had no jurisdiction other than what was granted him by the local Latin rite bishop.

As well, any Ukrainian priests who wanted to serve in the U.S. needed written permission from the Vatican before they left Europe.

Ukrainian Catholics who came to Canada found themselves under the jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Church. The Latin priests were not knowledgeable in the Divine Liturgy and other Slavic traditions.

There were few Ukrainian Catholic priests and those who came were all celibate, a frustration to the settlers who were accustomed to a primarily married clergy. Further, the immigrants resisted attempts to register Ukrainian church property in the name of the Roman Catholic Church. To them, this implied Polish domination.

Bishop Nykyta Budka

The situation made for fertile ground for Russian Orthodox missionaries who were often able to convince the newcomers that they had more in common with the Orthodox Church than with the Roman Catholic.

The Latin hierarchy was alarmed at the advances made by the Orthodox and other churches. Oblate Father Albert Lacombe championed the cause of the Ukrainian Catholics and tried, without much success, to secure celibate Ukrainian priests from Europe.

The Latin rite bishops, while encouraging some of their own priests to adopt the Eastern rite, strongly opposed the appointment of a Ukrainian bishop.

In 1900, Lacombe invited the Ukrainian metropolitan, Andrey Sheptytsky of Lviv, to visit the flock in Western Canada. It took until 1910 before Sheptytsky received the necessary permission from the Vatican.

Once in Canada, Sheptytsky argued forcibly for a Ukrainian Catholic bishop to be appointed for the country. His arguments must have had some impact because in 1912 Bishop Nykyta Budka became Canada's first Ukrainian bishop.

Budka was granted wider authority than was his counterpart in the U.S. He received full authority over the Ukrainian faithful living in Latin territory and, unlike Ortynsky, he did not need the permission of the local Latin rite bishop before visiting the faithful.

Budka returns home

The Church grew under Budka's leadership until ill health led him to return to Ukraine in 1928.

With the appointment of his successor, Bishop Basil Ladyka, the Vatican issued an updated document on the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Canada. This one recognized the equality of the Latin and Ukrainian churches and spelled out the bishop's duties in greater detail. It also obliged the Ukrainian faithful to observe the prescriptions of their own rite and to support their own parishes.

Further, Latin rite priests were barred from inducing Ukrainian Catholics to join the Latin Church.

The liquidation of the Church in Ukraine by the Soviets in 1946 led to grave fears about the survival of the Ukrainian Catholic Church.

The Vatican decided to strengthen the hierarchical organization of the Church in Canada. The single exarchate was divided into smaller jurisdictions, including the Edmonton exarchate, each with its own bishop.

In 1956, the exarchates were elevated to the status of eparchies and a Ukrainian Catholic metropolitan see for Canada was established in Winnipeg. Six years later, the metropolitan, Maxim Hermaniuk, hosted a synod of the Ukrainian bishops to establish particular Church law for Canada's Ukrainian Catholics.

The acts and decrees of the synod had to be approved by the Vatican, but they never were because they were deemed obsolete under the spirit of renewal of the Second Vatican Council.

Vatican II did give Canada's Ukrainian bishops an opportunity to meet regularly with other Ukrainian Catholic bishops and to reflect on the destiny of their Church.

Since 1951, Canada's Ukrainian Catholic bishops had met regularly. These meetings soon expanded to include bishops from other countries and eventually evolved into the Synod of Bishops of the Ukrainian Church.

Metropolitan Maxim Hermaniuk

Under the leadership of Cardinal Josyf Slipyj, the synod became a legislative body, affecting all aspects of the Ukrainian Church.

In 1964, Hermaniuk called for the establishment of a Ukrainian Catholic patriarchate based in Lviv. He argued that a patriarchate was necessary to preserve ritual unity and Church discipline as well as to coordinate missionary work.

In 1980, Pope John Paul II convoked a special synod in Rome and gave Slipyj expanded authority to convoke synods with papal approval.

Religious freedom

Ten years later, after the establishment of religious freedom in the Soviet Union, another synod was held in Rome in which the Ukrainian Catholic hierarchy had its first full meeting in 45 years.

However, the Vatican has not yet recognized the patriarchate or the authority of the synod and the major archbishop to govern the Church outside of Ukraine.

Motiuk concludes that the synod of bishops is "the proper ecclesiastical authority in establishing liturgical law for the entire Ukrainian Church." And he clearly implies that the failure to recognize the authority of the synod has left the Church in Canada with outdated precepts and something of a vacuum in Church law.

Law for Ukrainian Catholics, he wrote, should respect the distinct needs of the Church in various parts of the world.

"As for the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Canada, these needs include, among others, approved English translations of liturgical texts, guidelines in the administration of the sacrament of Baptism during the Divine Liturgy instead of so-called 'private baptisms,' instructions on infant Communion, and modified norms on holy days of obligation and fasting."

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