Bishop Bohdan (Dziurakh): We believe that during the elections our people will show their wisdom and not sell their freedom
Secretary of the Synod Bishop Bohdan (Dziurakh) described the results of the UGCC Synod of Bishops in Canada and how there are attempts to use the church in election campaigning...
Bishop, the Synod in Canada talked about the role of the laity in the life of the church. How effectively did pastors work with lay people? Maybe something in the approach to this work needs to be changed?
The main theme of this year's Synod in Canada was dedicated to the role of the laity in the life and mission of the church. This theme was chosen for two reasons. On the one hand, for the church to continue to reflect on various vocations of believers in the common Christian vocation (the year 2009 was dedicated in the priestly vocation, 2010 and 2011 to the monastic vocation). On the other hand, the theme of the role of the laity in the life of the church itself deserves special attention because lay people make up the majority God’s people and the development of the church and society in general depends on their maturity and activity.
A number of resolutions were adopted during the Synod. We hope that our pastors together with the laity can practice the wishes of the Synodal Fathers and actively be involved in the implementation of these resolutions and decisions, especially at the parish level.
More than six months have passed in the year of the laity. How effectively did pastors work with lay people? Maybe something in the approach to this work needs to be changed?
So far we haven’t reached a breakthrough in our work with the laity. We are not surprised, however, since it hasn’t been a whole year yet. On the other hand, spiritual fruits ripen slowly and require long-term and systematic work, ascetic human effort, combined with cooperation and divine grace.
At the Synod we could assert that our laity is extremely active and open to a greater involvement in the life of the parish community and the church in general. In fact, we have very good laymen who are ready to realize the mission together with the pastors and church hierarchy. We understand, however, that these lay people need to be prepared, need help to develop God's gifts and talents that can serve other people.
Of course, in different countries this training should look different because every bishop is responsible for his eparchy and he will bear the main responsibility for how work will be organized with the laity.
What is the specificity of Ukraine in this regard?
In the case of Ukraine, we see a few things… First of all, lay people are present in the church, they are open to the preaching of the Gospel, remain close to God and seek a deeper spiritual life. Our Ukrainian society is generally quite religious. But at the same time it should be noted that the religiosity of many Christians in our country is based on traditions, on certain external elements, is clearly ceremonial in nature, which in fact can be superficial and fragile. To strengthen the constitution of the faith of Christians in Ukraine, their spiritual life, life in the Holy Spirit, must be stronger. This is what catechesis of adults in our church should be aimed at. The Synod of Bishops encourages pastors to work with the laity to study the Catechism of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, which we recently published, and thus deepen the knowledge of the content of the faith of the middle-aged and elderly in our church. Furthermore, we encourage regular readings of the Scripture, participation in Bible study circles, because faith is born of the Word of God and is strengthened through life by this word.
Another challenge facing us in the context of the education of the laity is to ensure their more active involvement in the life of the parish community, their overcoming of the “parishioner” syndrome, which is when the laity is only active in the life of the church on Sunday services and holidays. Lay people have to create prayer groups, fraternities, accept responsibility for the parish community and various spiritual and social initiatives that it runs. One of the areas where the laity must direct its talents toward is the charitable activity of the parish community. This activity is not a kind of supplement to the liturgical life of the church, but it follows from the very nature of the church as a community of Christ's disciples, which lives the love of God and shares that love with others. Christ said: “The poor you will always have with you.” The church should have its eyes opened to the poor who are in and near it, and help them in a Christian way. As many of the church’s members as possible should be involved in this activity: every believer can help a neighbor with a gift he received from God – with a prayer, attention, time, words of comfort, and deeds of mercy.
You said that the middle-aged and elderly must be catechized... What about the youth, are they better catechized?
On the one hand, young people are in a better situation because most of them were raised in an independent Ukraine, when there was an opportunity to catechize children. On the other hand, today's youth meets all sorts of threats: from the world, from secularization... So in work with young people all pastoral initiatives that use modern technology to spread the Gospel should be supported. In particular, the Synodal Fathers supported the creation of “One Youth Space” in our church, which the Youth Commission is responsible for, using the latest social networks. Many young people use social networks to communicate with each other. “One Youth Space” will help gather young Greek Catholics in Ukraine and abroad to share their experience of faith, to discuss social and religious issues, to participate in various charitable actions, and so on.
Do not you think that catechesis is enough for modern people? Maybe something else is needed?
When we speak of catechesis, we mean not just the theoretical study of certain truths of faith, but the transfer of the experience of faith, educating for life the gospel truths proclaimed by the church and which every student of Christ accepts as his own. Literally this refers to “adopt” or “appropriate” the doctrine of the Gospel, the embodiment of the Gospel in the life of a believer. In this process catechesis is one means, but not the only one. The selection of these means depend on the creative approach of the priest. The parish should be a “natural space,” in which the faith of a Christian is born, grows, and matures. This is why we focus our efforts on deepening the spiritual life of the congregation in the light of the program “The Living Parish – A Meeting Place for the Living Christ.”
Pope John Paul II once said that the modern world needs more saints than teachers. His predecessor Paul VI, emphasizing the crucial personal testimony of faith, remarked: “Modern man listens more to witnesses than to teachers, and if he listens to teachers, it is because they are witnesses.” Therefore, we cannot underestimate the personal example of pastors and parents in the transmission of faith to the younger generation. The first Disciples of Christ, looking at how Jesus prayed, asked him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John the Baptist taught his disciples.” Another time, when they were aware of the weakness of their faith, they turned to him with a similar request, “Lord, increase our faith.” That is referred to in catechesis: help the modern person to meet Christ, help him realize his limitations and direct words of request and prayer to Jesus. Through this personal experience of meeting Christ, a person’s faith of will grow. Everything else is only a means, not the goal.
Laity – globalization, globalization – laity. Can the same be said about a priest?
The globalization processes cannot not affect the church because the church lives and acts in the context of a culture. On the one hand, it co-creates it, but on the other hand, it feels its influence. In this context one can cite the Epistle to the Hebrews, which says of the priests: “Every high priest is selected from among men and is appointed to represent them.” This means that our priests are not taken from another culture, environment, but are children of their time, children of their community. Therefore, the processes by which society lives are in some way reflected in the life and work of our clergy.
This is especially true of new means of communication. They can neither be demonized nor idealized. As every human creation, they have a lot of possibilities, but at the same time many challenges. And it should be noted in pastoral approaches. With information technology people of our times can be connected to the remotest corners of the planet instantaneously. But at the same time it seems people have never felt so lonely and devoid of real and direct communication like today. So, despite all the positive aspects of modern technology, in particular information technology, it will never replace the gift of personal meetings and personal communication between people. The priest must take this into account and, using the latest technology, prepare the grounds for a personal meeting of a seeking person with himself, with the parish community, and finally with God.
Something isn’t working with the Ukrainian laity, because they choose the government they choose, give bribes, including in Western Ukraine, where the UGCC is very widespread…
This situation requires a sincere examination of the conscience of all of us. Many in Ukraine are able to give good promises (this is particularly noticeable is the pre-election period), express loud declarations, and articulate the correct slogans. But when it comes to practice, all these statements and declarations burst like a soap bubble. We can not say that this sad state of affairs is only an echo of the communist past, when the most lies are published in the newspaper Pravda, and when there was insurmountable gap between declarations and reality. Anyone who creates a society, including the church and all its members – the hierarchy, clergy, laity – shares the responsibility for our social and political ills. The fact that the church now enjoys almost the greatest level of trust in the Ukrainian society makes us genuinely wonder why the doctrine of the church, its teachings and calls, have such a hard time finding their way into the daily lives of the faithful and our society in general. No matter how loud the preaching of the church, however, the last word will always be from the people, from their free choice: to be on the side of good and truth, or continue to walk in the darkness of sin and iniquity. This reminds me of the famous words of Danylo Zabolotny, who in one of his poems said: “In the land where there is freedom, there is the voice of truth, in the land of captivity everything is lies: There is a lot of wrong, ruled by a rogues’ law.” What will prevail in our country – the voice of truth or of a “rogue” –completely depends on us all and on each individual. Our society needs to continue deep conversion, cleansing, otherwise we will have the same problems that afflict us today: unscrupulous politicians, voters who are ready to sell their votes, unfair and irresponsible employees in different spheres, and so on.
On the other hand, I would not want to portray our Ukrainian reality exclusively in black and white. Fortunately, there are many carriers of light and goodness who show that change is not only possible but also already present. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it,” says St. John the Evangelist at the beginning of his Gospel. This hasn’t gathered a “critical mass” of people who are representative of healthy forces of society and able to offer people a comprehensive program of reform. But, fortunately, these people exist in all spheres of public life. They understand the gospel message of the church well, because it coincides with their ideal of serving their people. It pleases me that these people are usually sincere believers. This means that the church helps educate new leaders of civil society.
You talked about dishonest politicians. In this election, there are many candidates who are Greek Catholics. They use the UGCC without permission of the church for campaigning, knowing that the Synod passed a resolution, which prohibits the church to participate in the political process...
This fills us with anxiety and sorrow. On the one hand, such attempts to use the church in the election process lies in the politicians’ recognition of the authority and influence that the church has over the people. But, on the other hand, the use of the moral authority of the church for one’s own political purposes is unworthy and does not help any candidate for it reveals his profound misunderstanding of the specific role of the church in society. The actions of some political parties and individual politicians can discern a message that everything in the world can be bought or sold. But if the current candidate buy votes, then where is the guarantee that tomorrow he will not sell his own vote and will not change his own political position? “The bad tree bears bad fruit,” says Scripture. Who came to power unjustly will be tempted again and again to live and act unjustly. Do we need such people in the future parliament?
I am convinced that if candidates had something to say to the people, they would not have resorted to such methods as the use of administrative resources or abuse of authority of the church. They would just go to the people, talk to them honestly and openly, answer their questions, explain their position and thus derive confidence and votes. Maybe it is an ideal, but not unattainable. Meanwhile, our current candidates mostly hide behind pictures on billboards and behind the not always honest means of their political strategists. And this cannot but grieve us...
We want to believe that our people will nevertheless show their wisdom and not sell their personal freedom and dignity for a few hundreds hryvnias.
Have you received any specific information about attempts to involve the church in the electoral process?
Such information has been received and, unfortunately, it has not been isolated instances. Sometimes priests do not show sufficient wisdom and determination to thwart such attempts. But there are cases when candidates use the name of the church or its representatives even without the knowledge of the latter. The most recent example of this occurred in the Lviv region. There a candidate distributed leaflets with messages that on his initiative an “ecumenical pilgrimage” to one of the biggest pilgrimage centers in Galicia is being organizing. The leaflets included the names of the churches, where one people could sign up for the pilgrimage. After looking into the matter, we discovered that the priests of the church knew nothing about this “godly initiative” and were quite surprised to read the name of their church on the leaflet. The fathers assured us that they would not advise their parishioners to take part in this pilgrimage.
In Kyiv last week there were leaflets with messages about a meeting of a representative of one of the parties with voters. This would not have been alarming – each candidate and each party registered by the Central Election Committee has the right to organize meetings with citizens – had the address of the meeting place indicated on the leaflet not been our Patriarchal Cathedral. It is superfluous to say that the church has nothing to do with such events. On the contrary, we consider such steps as provocations.
In the Ternopil region a candidate published in his newspaper winners in various categories, and it is known by whom and under which procedure it was established: on the left and right were pictures of high church dignitaries, and between them the candidate placed a photo of himself... I do not think that our church or bishops were very pleased with these “paper” victories, but the candidate probably decided that it would be a good PR move for him... Unfortunately, once again the words of the famous proverb “All that glitters is not gold” are true.
We hope that voters do not always believe what they see or hear from election campaigns but instead very carefully check candidates before entrusting them to represent themselves and their region in the parliament. Bishops of the UGCC in their address on the occasion of the election campaign already advised voters to ask candidates simple but specific questions and seek honest answers from them: What good have you already done for the people? Have you conscientiously and honestly fulfilled your previous political and professional commitments?
Do you plan to once again appeal to your faithful and clergy with a new pastoral letter before the elections?
Time and circumstances will show. Taking advantage of the occasion, however, I would like to repeat our appeal to all the faithful and pastors: use your maximum wisdom and prudence and do not sell your vote and conscience for a handout. We especially appeal to our clergy and ask them not mingle with the dishonest candidates and political factions. Nothing good will come of this neither for the church nor for the society. It is better to multiply our prayers, as the head of the church called for in his message, so that God's mercy and blessing was with our people at this difficult time in our history.
Furthermore, we urge politicians to refrain from unjust methods of running election campaigns and earning the support of their fellow citizens. Buying votes, parliamentary candidates show a great disrespect for their own people, treating them as a commodity that can be bought, and thus suggests a logical assumption – at the earliest opportunity they will sell and betray. So do not be surprised if someone who buys votes today, will tomorrow in the parliament betray the interests of the people and the state.
Every believer should remember the tragic consequences caused by one of the apostles of Christ, who behaved dishonestly with money and for thirty pieces of silver sold his Divine Master. So we do not sell for a worthless penny our conscience and freedom so to not become complicit in evil and multiply the evil which already suppresses us from all sides. Instead, having apologized to the Lord for committed sins, on the day of elections we make a conscience and smart decision that will best serve the common good of the Ukrainian people.
You said that each of the bishops has his own task since the laity of the UGCC are Ukrainians from different continents. Is there a common problem among all Greek Catholic laity of the world?
A common problem, or rather a common task for all, is how to better and truer fulfill God's will. Here lies the goal of Christian life and the secret of human happiness. Another thing is that the circumstances in which the faithful know and fulfill the common tasks are different. Everywhere there are specific favorable moments, as well as unique obstacles, in being consistent Christians. Abroad our faithful must learn to live in new sociopolitical circumstances. Under sufficiently developed democratic principles and rules it is easier to follow certain well-established ethical standards: honesty, responsibility in work, respect for the dignity of others, and so on. At the same time, the major challenge for the spiritual life of our faithful in the West may be secularism, consumerism culture, and liberal ideology.
In Ukraine, even where society remains largely very religious, important tasks are to overcome the consequences of the atheistic past, to bridge the gap between faith and everyday life, to develop skills inherent in a mature civil society: a willingness to actively defend rights and freedoms, be in solidarity with others, care for the environment, respect common rules and regulations, respect the opponent, observe basic traffic rules...
What is the main sign of the laity’s faith?
The Apostle Paul says that only “faith working through love” can bring salvation, and he adds: “If I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.” Faith is not some kind of declaration; to be called a believer it is not enough to make the sign of the cross or to participate in worship. Faith should manifest itself in deeds of love. That is why the Apostle James says, “Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”
Interview by Oksana Klymonchuk
