Archbishop Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki: We are not a Polish Mission in Ukraine

These days the Roman Catholic hierarchs (as well as the UGCC episcopate) made another visit to the “Roman thresholds” - Ad limina. During the visit, the bishops met with Pope Francis, reported to the Vatican Congregation, representing the state of development of the Roman Catholic Church in Ukraine. The conversation with Head of the Conference of Roman Catholic Bishops of Ukraine, Archbishop Metropolitan of Lviv Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki highlights the objectives of the Ukrainian delegation, the state of the Roman Catholic Church, its development trends and the problems the Latin Rite Catholics face in Ukraine. 

- Your Excellency, the last Ad limina visit was in 2007. What changes you will report to the Vatican?

-  This is the third visit during Ukraine’s independence. The first one was with Pope John Paul II, the second with Pope Benedict in which I participated as a nominee Bishop. Now is the third visit with Pope Francis. It is very important for the Catholic Church in Ukraine, not only for bishops but for all faithful, the whole Church in Ukraine. We are getting ready, we have submitted documents outlining our situation in Ukraine.

We are glad to meet with St Peter of our times to get from him the blessing, to hear his word and have his support and new guidelines how we can better preach the Word of God, lead the flock of Christ. We also visit congregations and have meetings with cardinals, report on our matters. We will also get instructions from them how to serve our church here in Ukraine.

We want to share the joy that during the previous visit, we set up St. Joseph Bilczewski Theological Institute of in Lviv which also admits laical students. We built new churches. We would also say that we have more priests; our flock grows in number, their quality increases. We also set up the National Sanctuary in Berdychev, built up a new diocese in Kharkiv. We can say that the Roman Catholic Church in Ukraine is expanding, evolving. And we want to share this joy.

- Let’s stick to the figures. Is the number of priests changing now, if there is an increase of vocations from Ukraine? Are there volunteers to serve abroad with Ukraine missionaries?

- I can say that here, in our seminary in Lviv, the number of priesthood vocations decreased. Instead, the number of vocations in Kamyanets-Podilsk diocese and Kyiv has grown. Today in Ukraine there are many priests from Poland. In general, there are 196 priests. We also have a vocation to monastic life. In the spring we want to start building a contemplative monastery of Sisters Benedictines. It is a great joy for us and we are waiting for the approval of the Holy See.

Unfortunately, by this time we cannot send missionary priests to other countries, or direct to the needs of the Church in the world.

- Now sociology claims that the world's center of religious life changes from north to south. That is, previously it was Europe, now it is Asia and Africa. Are there any displacements of the center of religious life in the Roman Catholic Church in Ukraine?

- Europe is facing a crisis of birth. There are little vocations to priestly life and many priests from India, for example, are working in Europe today. The Church in Asia and Africa is increasing in number and growing stronger.

In Ukraine there are also changes. The RCC is the most active in Podilya region, from where it sends priests to Odessa, Simferopol, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia.

- Regarding the identity of the Roman Catholic Church. Has the Church already disproved allegations that it is limited and its mission is narrowed, say, to Polish people living in Ukraine? Is today the Roman Catholic Church a missionary church, it is still focused on the faithful and structures it had restored in the 90's?

- The basic foundation of the Roman Catholic Church in Ukraine – it is true that there are and were believers of Polish origin. Once in Western Ukraine the majority of people were of Polish origin, so it was a statement that the Roman Catholic Church is for Poles. Many things have changed to date. In the Archdiocese of Lviv half or even the majority of believers is not of Polish descent – they are Ukrainians, Russians, Hungarians, and Romanians. We also serve Liturgy in those languages. The people, who were far from God, come to us. We also have those who came from the Orthodox Church and want to be Catholics.

We are not a Polish mission in Ukraine. We are the Roman Catholic Church, as in Poland, Italy, Romania, and other countries. And we are trying to emphasize it. But as tradition says, let’s go to the Polish Church, to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. But I think that over time, these patterns will change.

- In different places of Halychyna there are many small communities of the RCC, consisting of a few people each. They cannot restore or maintain churches. But, having spiritual needs, they go to Orthodox or Greek Catholic churches. Are these communities already lost for the Roman Catholic Church?

- In our diocese we have 109 parishes and maintain 307 churches. Some communities are very small. There are churches, communities up to 5-7 persons. Sometimes other believers, usually from the Greek Catholic Church come to support this community and pray together. We are very grateful for this, as it is easier and better for our faithful to pray when they are many. There are many such churches where there are no communities of faithful Roman Catholics. We do not think to restore the structure there, to register parishes in those areas where there are 2-4 people. We will not invest effort to restore this structure. Unfortunately, we do not have financial capacity to save all these temples. Our government has no means to protect these gains now, so many churches get ruined.

- Are there any churches that are currently neglected and destroyed, but you would like to restore them because they are historical, religious, artistic landmarks?

- We are trying to renovate a church in Rava Ruska. Even my predecessor, Cardinal Jaworski, made some steps in this direction. It is a former Franciscans monastery. We wanted to make it a social project. We want to save this beautiful landmark.

There are no others who’d like to do it. There are many churches that need repairs, but we will not cope with all of them, we cannot renovate them; there is no community and no such need.

There are 5 people in Tartakovo, there is a very good Sanctuary. We repaired its roof there, trying to save the landmark. At Sadova Hora there is also a church that can be saved, in Yazlovtsi there is a very good church, in Pidhaytsi there is a wonderful church too, which has no roof. But it is financially very difficult to renovate everything.

Near Buchach there are two pretty big renovated churches. But there are only two faithful of elderly age. These churches also will be abandoned once. Some churches will be closed, as there will be no faithful. There are villages that vanish as people are leaving.

- You have recently visited India. Travelling gives opportunities to compare. What can the Church in Ukraine learn from the Catholics in Asia? What are we missing?

- We can learn simple faith, learn from them to trust God in our daily lives. The Church there does not only proclaim the word of God, it is also very concerned about social matters. We can say that almost every church has a school, a clinic, as they call it. The Church takes care of social matters that are highly needed there. The state still does not, but the church is building schools, hospitals and universities. We can pay more attention and care for the poor, who need our help and compassion.

- In September 2007, during the second Ad limina visit Benedict XVI brought into focus that Ukraine the Catholic Church has two rites and called for greater unity. What are relations with the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church?

- Ukraine is a big country and has different cultures and different religions, rituals. They are the riches of our country, and the difficulties at the same time when there is no unity. We also know that in Ukraine there are many Orthodox Churches. During each service we pray for the unity of the Church. Every year there is a week when we pray for unity. Also we try to be true Christians and we want no such divisions among our faithful, so that we all mutually respected one another’s values. In Western Ukraine there are no problems with the Orthodox Churches. We have some issues with the Greek Catholics that we want to solve. This only applies to some temples that we want to return, which the government had passed in the 90's to the Greek Catholic Church.

- Over the past year and a half, much has changed due to events on Maidan. The previous government assumed an attitude to churches that was convenient to it. How has the situation changed in relations with the authorities and society this year? How do the faithful of the Roman Catholic Church live in the occupied territories?

- Often in difficult situations, conflicts or war people unite, and sometimes various denominations or religious conflicts emerge. The current situation in Ukraine contributed to the fact that in Ukraine all faiths have been brought together. Now we are closer to each other. Unity and solidarity are very important for the situation that Ukraine is going through. It makes us very happy that we are together, that the faithful on Maidan were not divided into denominations; they prayed together and helped each other. Also in the East there was no difference whether they were faithful of the Roman Catholic Church or Catholic, or Orthodox, or Protestant churches. We worked together, helped and witnessed together.

I cannot give details about the Church in the East. Many people moved out, some churches were forcedly abandoned. It was not done on an order, but it was dangerous. Our bishop said to leave the churches where there were no more believers left.

We are relatively satisfied with the situation in Crimea. There the community will be reregistered. But I know that FSB is visiting our faithful and priests there, calls to talk. But it seems that we have already survived the difficult situation.

- In Ukraine we do not use the potential of the Social Doctrine of the Church in general and good practices that exist in the world. You yourself are from Poland, you’ve worked there for a long time and know how Poland changed in the turbulent times, how people changed, how the Church tries to influence the situation, sometimes it succeeded, sometimes it did not. Are these processes in the 90's in Poland are similar to our situation now?

- It is difficult to compare Poland and Ukraine, because Poland did not survive through such intensive crisis and terrible Communism as Ukraine did. The influence of the Soviet Union in Poland was not so great. The Church was always active, it had some limitations, but it functioned normally. Most faithful Roman Catholics are Poles and other denominations are very small. Therefore, it is easier to form conscience, mentality and unite all through the idea of assistance.

In Ukraine, the situation is more complicated. For many years of communist impact, we have many denominations, but many people who do not know what is faith or religion may call themselves the nominal Orthodox. It is very difficult to go to them with the Good News, with social projects. In Western Ukraine, we see that there are results. Here the Catholic Church has more opportunities for impact and we see that people think differently and have different values. We are dispersed throughout Ukraine and therefore the outreach is difficult.

- Each Church has its own media sphere, its own experience with the media. How do you estimate the development of the media sector, mass media of the Roman Catholic Church? What priority areas for development do you see?

- The media today form our mentality. The information we get on the Internet and through other channels is very important. Unfortunately, our diocese has no great opportunities; there are many professional people for that, but there is no much progress. The Catholic Media Center in Kyiv works well. Also, Radio Maria outreaches many people who hear the word of God from there and open hearts to God's grace. We hope that it will extend its broadcasting area in Ukraine, including in Lviv.

Interviewed by Taras Antoshevskyyand Anatoliy Babinskyy