Ukrainian Archbishop says he was chosen ‘despite age’ to promote unity
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
ROME – The new head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, its youngest Bishop, said he believes the other Bishops elected him to promote unity within the Church and with other Christians.
The 40 year old Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kiev-Halych, visiting Rome to meet Pope Benedict XVI, told CNS he believes he was elected “despite my age.”
Ukrainian Bishops from around the world, who met in a synod in late March to elect a new major Archbishop for their Church, were looking for a leader who could “unite the Church in Ukraine and outside Ukraine,” who could “promote the unity of Christians in Ukraine and establish some sort of dialogue with the new Ukrainian government,” he told CNS on 30 March at the Ukrainian Church office in Rome.
Archbishop Shevchuk said the suffering – including imprisonment and martyrdom – endured by Ukrainian Catholics under the Soviet regime from 1946 to 1989 “was a sacrifice for communion with the See of Peter” and the Catholic Church.
In 1946, the Soviet government dissolved the Ukrainian Catholic Church by forcibly uniting it with the Russian Orthodox Church. But for more than 40 years, Ukrainian Catholics continued to live and to worship clandestinely. Archbishop Shevchuk said there are tensions between generations of Ukrainian Catholics over relations with the Orthodox, considering the fact that older Catholics risked their freedom and even their lives to remain Catholic.
But, he said, people seem excited by his election, “and I think this is the work of the Holy Spirit, which is the spirit of unity. And that’s why I was so courageous to open my arms to the Orthodox without fear and with great assurance that my Church, which I represent, is an open Church.”
While the majority of Ukrainians are Orthodox, they are divided into three churches: one in communion with the Russian Orthodox Church, one with a patriarch in Kiev and the third known as the Autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
All three Orthodox communities sent Bishops to Archbishop Shevchuk’s enthronement, or installation, liturgy on 27 March.
“For Eastern Christians, liturgy is the main expression of doctrine and of the life of the Church. When we were chanting the creed, I approached each of them saying, ‘Christ is among us’ – that is the liturgical greeting – and each of them responded, ‘Yes, he is and will be,’” the Archbishop said.
With the exchange of greetings in such a solemn setting, “maybe we started a new moment in our relationship and I hope this new openness in the dialogue will grow,” he said. Archbishop Shevchuk, who was born in Ukraine and entered the seminary after the Ukrainian Catholic Church won its right to live freely, was the apostolic administrator of a Ukrainian diocese in Argentina at the time of his election.Being so far from home and from the headquarters of his Church, he said he kept in touch and up-to-date through the Internet and the Church’s website.
He has a Blackberry phone but no Facebook page. He said that, as major Archbishop, he plans to continue developing a media strategy for his Church because communications is the key to promoting unity. Speaking to reporters immediately after a private meeting with the Pope on 31 March, Archbishop Shevchuk said the purpose of the meeting was to express his communion with the Pope and to thank him. “Confirming the election of such a young Bishop is a sign of great trust,” he said.
For decades, the heads of the Ukrainian Catholic Church and many of its faithful have been calling on the Vatican to give the major Archbishop the title “Patriarch” – a title that recognises the holder as the father of a self-governing Church and a title which would place him on par with the heads of the Orthodox Churches.
Archbishop Shevchuk said that while having the title is important recognition of the maturity of an Eastern Church like his, convincing the Pope to grant the title is not his first priority.
“The number one priority for each head of a Church is evangelisation, preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ in today’s world,” he said. Of course, our Church is growing, is developing its structures … but we are conscious that the decision about the patriarchate belongs to the Holy Father and we would never press him. We respect his freedom.”