Bishop Milan (Shashik) Refutes Information about Rusyn Metropolitanate

A press conference of Bishop Milan of the Mukachevo Eparchy, the only Greek Catholic parish in Ukraine, which is subordinated directly to the Vatican, was held on February 16, reported the Voice of the Carpathians.

Sixty-three years ago, on February 16, 1949, the Soviet authorities confiscated the cathedral and residence.

Bishop Milan received the journalists in one of the two recently repaired buildings, which were consecrated by the Apostolic Nuncio in Ukraine last Christmas. They now house catechetical classrooms where a Sunday school is run and meetings are held.

The press conference was organized for the occasion of the consecration of another three repaired rooms on the ground floor to be used by the workers of a youth committee and Bishop Oleksandr Khira Mass Media Center, including the editorial staff of the monthly Eparchial edition Blahovisnyk and an internet website Logos on the life of the Greek Catholic Church in Transcarpathia. The press conference was interrupted by the consecration itself and a short excursion.

At the end of the meeting, Bishop Milan answered the journalists’ questions. In particular, he voiced his position regarding the recent publications in the internet media. Let us remind the readers that on February 4, in Uzhhorod, a public gathering was held. The Transcarpathian Greek Catholic association asked the Catholic leadership to destroy the “Berlin Wall” between the UGCC and the Mukachevo Eparchy. Representatives of the public stated that the eparchy lives its own life and prepares a “political project of establishment of the Rusyn [Ruthenian] church.”  

Bishop Milan responded to the accusations: “We are going through the time before the Lent, and Christians are getting ready to take the path of repentance. It is a shame that people allow others to deceive them… All the accusations regarding the Rusyn Metropolitanate are fiction. I do not know who is the author of this slander but those who write such things, humiliate themselves. I can only say that such publications open up the door to anonymous attacks against Christ’s Church.”