Fr. Mykola Kvych, naval chaplain in Sevastopol, blesses Easter baskets in 2013. Credit: UGCC Information Department.
Posted on 03/19/2014 3:22:43 PM PDT by NYer
.- As the Russian president signed a bill to annex Crimea Tuesday, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in the peninsula has been experiencing what a Church official calls “total persecution.”
“At this moment all Ukrainian Greek Catholic life in Crimea is paralyzed,” Fr. Volodymyr Zhdan, chancellor of the Stryi eparchy in western Ukraine, told CNA March 18.
From 2006 to 2010, Fr. Zhdan served as chancellor of the Odesa-Krym exarchate, which encompassed both the mainland port city of Odesa and the Crimean peninsula.
Since late February the peninsula has seen the emergence of pro-Russian troops, who have taken control of its airports, parliament, and telecommunication centers.
Referring to the kidnapping of three Ukrainian Greek Catholic priests in Crimea by pro-Russian forces over the weekend, Fr. Zhdan stressed that one such case could be called a mistake, but that “multiple kidnappings are not an accident.”
On March 15 Fr. Mykola Kvych, a naval chaplain stationed in Sevastopol, was detained immediately after celebrating a “parastas,” a memorial prayer service for the dead. The following day Fr. Bohdan Kosteskiy of Yevpatoria and Fr. Ihor Gabryliv of Yalta were also reported missing.
Later that night all three were said to be alive and safe, with Fr. Kvych confirming that he had escaped to the mainland of Ukraine with the help of parishioners.
Fr. Kvych told the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church’s information department that he was held and questioned for eight hours by representatives of the Crimean self-defense force and Russian intelligence officers.
According to Fr. Kvych, they accused him of “provocations” and of supplying the Ukrainian navy with weapons. Fr. Kvych maintained that he helped organize the delivery of food to a blockaded naval base, and that he gave two bulletproof vests to journalists.
Upon seeing a Ukrainian flag at his home and portraits of Roman Shukhevych and Stepan Bandera – Ukrainian nationalists who fought against both the Nazis and the Soviets in the 1940s and 50s -- inside, Fr. Kvych’s captors accused him of being in the “SS Army,” a reference to Nazi Germany.
Followers of Bandera are colloquially called “Banderites,” a label that has been heavily circulated by Russian authorities and media in recent months and whose reported presence in Ukraine, many analysts say, has been used to justify Russian intervention in the country.
Fr. Kvych has been charged with “extremism,” which in the Russian Federation can carry a sentence of up to 15 years in prison.
Fr. Kvych does not know how the trial will be conducted, since the national status of Crimea is in dispute.
A referendum was held in the territory March 16 regarding union with Russia. Crimean authorities claim that 97 percent of voters favor seceding from Ukraine and joining Russia, and March 18 Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Crimean leaders signed a treaty declaring the territory absorbed by Russia.
Western nations and the government in Kyiv have condemned both the referendum and the annexation.
In addition to the arrests in Crimea, several other problems at Ukrainian Greek Catholic Churches throughout the country have been reported in recent days.
According to the Religious Information Service of Ukraine, an important 130-foot electrical cable was stolen from a small chapel in the Kherson region north of Crimea over the weekend. On March 15 a parish in Kolomyya was vandalized and another in Dora was burned to the ground, reportedly from arson. Both damaged parishes are in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, which borders Romania in the west of Ukraine.
In Crimea, clergy have received threatening phone calls and messages. At the home of one apprehended priest, a note was left that read this should be “a lesson to all Vatican agents.”
“This is not new,” Bishop Vasyl Ivasyuk, who served as Exarch of Odesa-Krym from 2003 to 2014, told CNA.
“During Soviet times, we were always accused of being ‘agents’ of the Vatican,” Bishop Ivasyuk continued. “Of course not all people in Crimea think we are spies, but there is a very active pro-Russian group there that does.”
The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church was heavily persecuted during the Soviet era; it was considered illegal, and operated completely underground until 1989.
“The Church emerged from the underground 25 years ago, having been the largest illegal church in the world for 45 years prior,” Bishop Boris Gudziak, Eparch of Paris, explained to CNA last month.
“The UGCC was the biggest social body of opposition to the Soviet ideology and totalitarian system. It was completely illegal, but in the catacombs, it was spiritually free because it was not collaborating.”
Bishop Ivasyuk confirmed that such freedom is important in Crimea, where the relationship between the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and the local government has always been complicated.
“Many Crimeans respect the UGCC for not taking part in elections, for staying out of politics,” he said. “Our priests do not run for political office and this has granted them a kind of moral authority.”
Of the five priests normally serving Ukrainian Greek Catholics in the peninsula, two reportedly remain.
When asked their motivation for staying, Bishop Ivasyuk explained that they want to be with the people as long as possible.
“Life is the most important thing, so we shouldn’t go looking for the mouth of the lion … but we’ll stay with the people wherever they are.”
On March 18 the Department of Religious and Ethnic Affairs in Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture issued a statement condemning the persecution of clergy in Crimea.
“Recently, in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea cases of persecution of the clerics of various denominations have been documented. There has been an unprecedented violation of rights in the field of freedom of conscience and religion,” the statement read.
“We demand there be a stop to the practice of terror and for rights and liberties to be respected.”
With the signing of the Russia-Crimea treaty, it is unclear what will happen to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in the region. It is estimated there are roughly 5,000 Ukrainian Greek Catholics on the peninsula.
“What we saw this weekend was a disturbing signal of a future political direction,” Fr. Zhdan concluded.
name dropper too
nicely said
It shows him to be a good Catholic and a patriot of his country.
Just pointing out the facts, you made such a silly and childish statement.
You can visit JR’s threads and tell him that by not supporting Russian aggression his is outing himself as an Obama man.
The RF under Putin has mentally gone back to the Soviet days. The period of relative liberalization of 1991-2013 is over. The Soviet mentality is that any one Catholic is a foreign agent, simply because he is Catholic.
For the record I am already working to make sure that O is impeached (at a minimum) and that the spineless congress is replaced.
You made the comment that it was either Putin or Hillary,Kerry,Obama (etc etc)
That logic is ill conceived on a really good day.When you trap yourself in an either or when that is rarely the case you have fallen for the classic Alinsky tactic. (Which you claim to understand).
The fact that you seem to think that we live in a communist dictatorship (which we are get closer and closer to) and you ignore the plight ACTUALLY suffering at the hands of communists suggests a lack of breadth in your thoughts.
It is not either or. I can easily be against BOTH Putin and Obama
LOL, all they have to do is look at your posting history for Russia’s expansion.
Your real intentions are starting to come out on this thread though also, you couldn’t maintain your lying for long.
You are rabid on this topic, I don’t think you spend much time on some of the Ukraine threads though, the ones that JR posts.
“It is not either or. I can easily be against BOTH Putin and Obama”
Well stated, Nifster.
Always good to know we can agree more than disagree. Back in my misspent salad days, I read a book by a fellow named Golitsyn called The Perestroika Deception. At the time, I thought yeah well maybe so but even the communists aren’t so nuts as to try this plan. Boy was I wrong.
If you haven’t read it you should try and track it down. This one will give you nightmares. I am going to have to dig out my copy and read it again now in light of all that has and is happening
A Catholic Priest hangs a picture on his wall of the founding leader of a faction that massacred tens of thousands of innocent Polish civilians.
And you think this shows him to be a good Catholic?
A group which during his leadership, had this ideology:
“Moskali, Poles, Jews are hostile to us must be exterminated in this struggle, especially those who would resist our regime: deport them to their own lands, importantly: destroy their intelligentsia that may be in the positions of power ... Jews must be isolated, removed from governmental positions in order to prevent sabotage, those who are deemed necessary may only work with an overseer... Jewish assimilation is not possible.”
A faction which the Ukranian Greek Catholic leader has condemned for violence.
Are you also in favor of the violent extermination of minorities?
Do you believe this is consistent with Catholic ideology?
Bandera is a hero of Ukraine and at the time when Ukraine is under a neo-Soviet occupation everyone should have a portrait of Bandera on the wall. Of course, Bandera cannot be responsible for a massacre that occurred while he was in a Nazi jail. My Church teaches me to recognize something good in every person and to forgive past offences, especially done in the name of national liberation. Today, Ukraine needs both courage and the spirit of forgiveness; Fr. Mykola is a good pastor for them. May God bless him.
No...Never Forget...Never Forgive...They could have fought together with Polish Patriots to defeat the Reds, but they decided to murder Polish women and children instead.
You’re screaming like a lunatic and committing libel.
I’d like your opinion about Bandera’s ideology as seen here.
“Moskali, Poles, Jews are hostile to us must be exterminated in this struggle, especially those who would resist our regime: deport them to their own lands, importantly: destroy their intelligentsia that may be in the positions of power ... Jews must be isolated, removed from governmental positions in order to prevent sabotage, those who are deemed necessary may only work with an overseer... Jewish assimilation is not possible.”
Do you share Banderas desire to violently destroy minorities?
How about his desire for a totalitarian state?
With Banderas having founded the faction that actually massacred tens of thousands of innocent people, and having had an ideology that advocates the destruction and expulsion of minorities, is this appropriate for a Priest to hang on their wall?
Some of us are. God be with them.
Bandera’s gang was as evil as the Ustashe in Croatia.
What do you do when murderous monsters A face off against murderous monsters B. Pick a monster? Actually it IS a sign they need to look to God and quit looking to man.
“Back in my misspent salad days, I read a book by a fellow named Golitsyn called The Perestroika Deception. At the time, I thought yeah well maybe so but even the communists aren’t so nuts as to try this plan. Boy was I wrong.”
Thanks for the referral. I’ll give the book a read.
We are becoming more communist than the Chinese or Russians.
Has Putin lied to you?
Has our President and his administration lied to you?
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