Ukrainians fought to regain right to ordain married men

Church's right to married clergy acknowledged in 16th century

By WCR Staff
Edmonton

It's been a long road to restoring the Eastern tradition of married clergy to the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Canada.

The right of priestly candidates to marry was one of 33 articles in the 1596 Union of Brest which brought the Ukrainian Church back into union with Rome, Bishop David Motiuk recounts in his 2005 book Eastern Christians in the New World.

But when Ukrainians began coming to the United States in the late 19th century, the Vatican ruled that only celibate clergy or widowed priests who left their children behind would be allowed to minister in America.

That ruling came after Latin rite bishops in the U.S. complained that the existence of a married clergy would be scandalous and would cause problems for discipline in the Latin rite Church.

Few celibate priests

Instead, it was the Ukrainians who were left with the problems. As there were extremely few celibate priests in Ukraine, the pool for recruiting priests to come to North America was miniscule. Prior to the First World War, celibate priests in Ukraine were virtually unknown outside of monasteries.

In 1913, the Vatican also banned the ordination of married men in Canada.

One married priest, Father Alexis Toth, refused to return to Europe. The archbishop of Minneapolis suspended him and he joined the Russian Orthodox Church. Recently, that Church declared Toth a saint.

An immigrant to Canada, Father Demetrius Seneta, had been baptized a Ukrainian Catholic but was ordained a Ukrainian Orthodox priest.

In 1930, he asked to return to the Ukrainian Catholic Church, even offering to send his wife and children back to Ukraine. Bishop Nykyta Budka of Winnipeg supported his application, but the Vatican said "no."

1930 document

Nevertheless, Budka, who was beatified in 2002, ordained several married priests for the United States after the U.S. bishop, Soter Ortynsky, died in 1916.

A 1930 Vatican document governing the Ukrainian Church in Canada excluded the possibility of ordaining married men. The document had to be renewed every 10 years and it was in 1941, but not again.

Meanwhile, a 1957 Vatican document recognized the legitimacy of married clergy in the Eastern churches. The following year, the Vatican allowed the Ukrainian Church in Canada and the U.S. to ordain married former seminarians of the Lviv Archeparchy who had been studying for the priesthood when the Second World War started.

Nevertheless, the Vatican continued to insist that ordination of married men in Canada was forbidden.

By 1974, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops was preparing to withdraw any objections the Latin rite Church might have to married Ukrainian clergy when the Vatican sent an unsigned note to the CCCB saying the issue could not be considered by a bishops' conference.

Petition to Rome

Canada's Ukrainian bishops petitioned Rome in 1984 to allow them to ordain married men.

By this point, Ukrainian priests, some of them married, who were to serve in Canada were typically ordained in Ukraine. In 1994, Bishop Basil Filevich of Saskatoon ordained a married deacon to the priesthood. Other ordinations followed.

All this created a stir with a Vatican official sending a note stating that the prohibition on ordaining married men remained in effect.

No need for permission

Motiuk concludes his discussion by stating "it could be argued" that there is no need for the bishops to seek permission from Rome as the 1930 document expired in 1951 and has not been renewed.

"It would seem that the Ukrainian hierarchy in Canada could, in good conscience, ordain married priests, which, in turn, would help alleviate the present shortage of Ukrainian clergy in Canada," the bishop wrote.

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