Tuesday, 18 March 2025

Pius XII Against Forced Repatriation


 
Letter of Bishop Ivan Buchko to Pope Pius XII

Pax Christi in Regno Christi!

Rome, December 16, 1945.

Most Holy Father,

prostrate at the feet of Your Holiness, I humbly implore Your most benevolent paternal intercession with the American military authorities in Germany on behalf of the Soviet Ukrainian refugees, who, despite repeated assurances given by the aforementioned authorities that they will no longer be subject to forced repatriation, are being forced in these very days to that unwanted repatriation on the basis of an order given to all refugees of former Soviet citizenship, who are in the American occupation zone, to move by the 8th of December to concentration camps under Soviet command in Neunkirchen and Stuttgart and to surrender themselves into the hands of the Bolsheviks. Today, within the  hour, I received an urgent telegram from the Ukrainian Aid Committee in Malines, Belgium, which informed us that 22,000 (twenty-two thousand) refugees are threatened with forced repatriation, to whom the American command has already refused to give food and lodging in the American camps. The recalcitrant Ukrainian refugees, refusing to surrender to the Soviet command and preferring death, have asked for 15 days of delay or postponement to be able to prepare for a Christian death. The postponement was granted by the friendly officials but the deadline expires on the 23rd of December. In the meantime, refugees in the Hannai camp, refusing to be transferred to the Soviet camps in Stuttgart and Neunkirchen, have committed suicide. Those who are still alive have only hope in the paternal benevolence of Your Holiness, whose powerful intercession and most benevolent paternal protection could still save their lives. On behalf of those unfortunate beings, as a most humble son of Your Holiness, I have permitted myself to submit before the feet of Your Holiness this my most humble supplication, imploring at the same time for them and for myself the most benevolent paternal Apostolic Blessing.

 Audience of Cardinal Eugène Tisserant with Pope Pius XII

Msgr. Bučko informed the Sacred Congregation that he had humbly placed in the hands of the Holy Father through His Excellency Msgr. Montini a petition aimed at obtaining the intervention of His Holiness with the American authorities in order to prevent the forced handover to the Soviets of 22,000 Ukrainian refugees from their zone of occupation, a handover that would be carried out despite the assurances given to the contrary.

The Sacred Congregation is profoundly grateful to the Holy Father for all that has already been done and will be done to avoid the forced repatriation of those refugees, who prefer death by suicide to handover to the Soviets.

Ex audientia Sanctissimi 22 December 1945

The Holy Father expressed His desire to see all Ukrainian refugees spared and to assist them in every way.

Friday, 20 September 2024

Andrey Sheptytsky and Oleksander Koshetz


Koshetz and Sheptytsky, Chicago 1922

On 21 September 2024 we mark the 80th anniversary of the death of the great Ukrainian composer, director, and musicologist, Oleksander Koshyts (often spelled Koshetz). Among his achievements are his Ukrainian folk, sacred, and religious choral compositions. The choral ensembles he directed made history under his baton. He was best known internationally for the performances of the Ukrainian National Chorus, commissioned by the fledgeling Ukrainian National Republic (UNR) to spread the good word about Ukrainian identity and culture to the world, during Ukraine’s struggle for independence from 1918–1923. 

Koshetz had a special link to the city of Winnipeg, where he spent his final years teaching and where his mortal remains are entombed, awaiting the trumpet call of the Final Resurrection. He was one of those, together with fellow musician, Dr Paul Matsenko, who worked to unite the Ukrainian community through music and cultural formation. The two men were Orthodox Christians who worked closely with Catholics and others for the greater Ukrainian cause. Their work gave rise to a number of choirs that fostered ecumenical collaboration in the Province of Manitoba and beyond. The most prominent among them is the O. Koshetz Choir.

Oleksander Koshetz died in 1944, two weeks before another of his great countrymen, Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, whom he knew and much admired. The feeling was mutual. The two met had met in Chicago in 1922, when the maestro was touring with his UNR choir and Sheptytsky was visiting his own church communities in Canada, USA, Brazil, and Argentina. 

Koshetz remembered the grand success of his Chicago concert, after which a dinner was held at a fine hotel. His diary entry for 31 October 1922 recalled: “There were closed to 500 guests all Ukrainian organizations came together, even Catholics with Orthodox which, as they said, was the first such occasion in the history of Ukrainian emigration. Greek Catholic Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky gave a wonderful speech.” It took the work of those two men to achieve such a feat. Although they saw each other again the following day, this were probably the only occasion when they met.


When researching Sheptytsky’s visit to Canada, I stumbled upon correspondence between the Metropolitan and the Maestro. It consists of two letters about a concert which the Ukrainian community in New York had arranged in May 1936 to mark Metropolitan Sheptytsky’s 70th birthday and 35th episcopal anniversary. Koshetz had agreed to conduct a mass ensemble made up of eight Ukrainian choirs from New York and New Jersey. The community had booked Carnegie Hall, where he debuted the-famous Schedryk or Carol of the Bells performed in 1919. The leaflet for the event read as follows:  

 

UKRAINIAN CHOIRS IN A NEW YORK KEY

These are: Boyan Choir from Newark, directed by Teodoziy Kaskiv; Lysenko Choir from Jersey City, dir. Vasyl Hel; the Ukrainian Choir of New YorkdirTeodor OnufrykUkrainian Youth Choir from Brooklyndir. Vasyl Savytsky; Boyan Choir from Yonkers, dir. Mykhailo Fatyuk; Boyan Choir from Bayon, dir. Vasyl Melnychuk; Boyan from Elizabeth, dir. Mykhailo Yadlovsky; Boyan Choir from Passaic, dir. Stefan Grabar. 

Together, these choirs, forming a total of 300 voices under the general direction of the famous conductor and composer 

PROF. OLEKSANDER KOSHYTS,

will give a concert at New York's largest music hall, Carnegie Hall, 6th Ave. & 57th St., New York City, on Green Holiday (Pentecost), Sunday, 31 May 1936, at 8:15 PM.

The Concert will include a sample program of Ukrainian Church Music. Newspapers will provide details. Prominent American church and public representatives have been invited.

This concert is organized to honour

ANDRIY SHEPTYTSKY, METROPOLITAN OF HALYCH,

the greatest living Ukrainian, the true father of the nation, the founder of national Ukrainian institutions, a protector of youth, patron of Ukrainian art and scholarship, martyr of the sufferings of the Ukrainian church and people, well known throughout the world and highly esteemed by his own and others, in celebration of the 70th anniversary of his life and the 35th anniversary of his mission and important office.

We ask all Ukrainians, from near and far, to come en masse to this important holiday in order to honour one whom the world honours and esteems. […]


Metropolitan Andrey was not much honoured in Rome, during most of Pius XI’s pontificate, and congratulations were not forthcoming from the Roman Curia on this occasion. (This attitude began to change the month after the concert, when Cardinal Eugène Tisserant was appointed head of the Vatican department for the Eastern Churches).

            In his citadel on Saint George’s Hill in Lviv (then under Polish rule), Sheptytsky was informed of the American celebrations and sent the following letter to Koshetz:

 

Lviv, 31 May 1936.

Dear Professor, I have heard that the Professor was kind enough to take the trouble to arrange a concert on the occasion of my anniversary, so I hasten to thank you for your efforts and wish you all the best on that occasion. May God bless you.

+Andrey M.[etropolitan]

 

            After the concert, the following article appeared in the American Ukrainian newspaper Svoboda:

 

TRIUMPH OF UKRAINIAN SONG AT CARNEGIE HALL IN NEW YORK

About 2,000 people from New York and the surrounding suburbs had the opportunity to experience the kind of musical pleasure that you can rarely experience in your life. And this pleasure was even more precious for them because it was evoked by enchanting Ukrainian music performed by Ukrainian-American youth with the masterful direction of the great Oleksandr Koshetz. And it was at the Concert of Ukrainian Church Music, which took place on Sunday, May 31, at B Carnegie Hall in New York on the occasion of the 35-year anniversary of the Halych Metropolitan Andrii Sheptytsky.

The grand choir consisted of eight smaller choirs. About 300 male and female singers performed on stage together, all in national Ukrainian costumes. […]

The celebration was opened by Dr. S. Demydchuk in English, and then in Ukrainian, and in the general introduction he explained the reasons for this festivity, as well as the role played by Metropolitan Sheptytsky in Ukrainian public life. Metropolitan Sheptytsky, the interlocutor said, is no longer the name of a person, but of a certain social and cultural movement. The reason is, that name is not only connected with the church, but also with the creation of various public institutions, schools, museums, hospitals, banks, etc. In gratitude, Ukrainians in emigration celebrate this festivity, "in the biggest city, in the biggest concert hall, under the artistic guidance of the greatest conductor, and for the greatest living "son of the Ukrainian nation."

Choral Performances

After the introductory speech, the curtain was opened, and something appeared before the eyes of the audience that touched Ukrainian hearts and filled them with national pride. Three hundred male and female choristers stood in exemplary order on the large stage. Professsor Koshetz then appeared after having been given a loud ovation by the audience during the introduction.

At the magical gesture of the great conductor's hand, the sounds of the music emerged from three hundred breasts, sometimes stronger, sometimes quieter, which immediately captivated the listeners and transported them into a realm of artistic bliss. Koshetz conducted while wonderful human harmonies flowed from his hands. Three hundred faces were turned to the hands of the conductor, and it seemed that they saw nothing else but him. Koshetz went through three hundred keys with his fingers and infused the listeners with a charm for which they will be inexpressibly grateful.

The choir performed ten pieces entirely of a religious character, among which were compositions by Koshetz himself, then Lysenko, Stetsenko, Bortnyansky, and finally a difficult composition from the 18th century by Vedel.

In addition to the performances of the choir, it was pleasant to hear the performance by Miss Luba Kaskiv, who played a composition by Nardini on the violin accompanied by Mr. Kuzmiak on the piano.

Greetings From Americans

Representing Americans was John Lafarge, co-editor of the National Catholic Weekly "America", and Monsignor M. Lavel also spoke on behalf of Cardinal Hayes of New York. Father Lafarge recalled his personal acquaintance with Metropolitan Sheptytsky and emphasized his services to the great Ukrainian people and the Catholic Church. At the end, he wished him a long life. Father Lavelle also remembered that he first met the Metropolitan in 1904 in Rome. His personality was so impressive, Fr. Lavelle remembered, that he was given more attention (here Fr. Lavel humbly apologized) than the Pope himself. Father Lavel also praised the beauty of the Ukrainian Catholic Rite and declared that the Roman Catholic Rite does not in any way want to Romanize Ukrainian Catholics but, on the contrary, wants Ukrainians concisely adhered to their rite, in which they can be just as good and perhaps better Catholics than in the Roman Rite.

 

            Oleksander Koshetz sent Sheptytsky an commemorative album of the event inscribed with a personal dedication. This prompted the following reply from the Metropolitan several months later:

 

Lviv, 29 October 1936.

Dear Maestro, Thank you very much for remembering me and for sending me such a beautiful album with your dedication. I apologize for responding so late but, for a month, a serious illness did not give me the opportunity to read and respond to letters. I would also like to thank all the Ladies and Gentlemen who worked to arrange of the concert on 13 [sic. 31] May 1936. May God bless your work and grant that you may achieve great success. With expressions of the highest regard

+Andrey M.[etropolitan]

 

Metropolitan Maxim Hermaniuk (1911–1996) was a pioneer of ecumenism and made great efforts to establish good relations and to work closely with Orthodox churchmen and laity for the good of the Ukrainian people. Shortly after becoming Archbishop of Winnipeg, he gave his blessing to the Redemptorist Fathers to open a minor seminary in Roblin, Manitoba, to foster priestly and religious vocations among high school boys. For many years, Professor Matsenko would teach the young men who frequented Saint Vladimir’s College and conduct their choir, and those of several Orthodox institutions. The Matsenko Choir and Hoosli Ensemble were founded by the college alumni. In March 1982, the Professor forwarded this Sheptytsky-Koshetz correspondence to Metropolitan Hermaniuk. Upon his death, Paul Matsenko was entombed in the mausoleum in Glen Eden Cemetery, very close to his friend and colleague Oleksander Koshetz.

Tuesday, 21 May 2024

Postwar Ukrainian Parishes in Winnipeg

While preparing a work on the history of the Ukrainian (Greek-)Catholic Church in Canada from the 1930s to 1950s, I came across a few reports referring to the foundation of a number of parish churches in Winnipeg, some of which are this year celebrating significant anniversaries.


            A third wave of Ukrainian immigrants came to Canada after the Second World War. This necessitated pastoral ministry to areas of the city where Ukrainians were migrating from their original base. The North End already had three churches located very close to one another: Saints Vladimir and Olga (as it was historically known in English, rather than Volodymyr and Olha), Saint Nicholas, and Protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary (or Boyd Church). Vladimir and Olga was oldest and smallest building and Saint Nicholas belonged to the Basilian Order.


            When the single Greek-Catholic Ordinariate was divided into three apostolic exarchates, on 3 March 1948, Vladimir and Olga was designated the cathedral church of the Central Exarchate. Since the existing building was unsuitable, its parish priest Father Vasyl Kushnir began to build a large stone and brick edifice modelled after Saint Boniface Cathedral. Saint Nicholas, located directly across the street, also began to build a large church but was only able to complete the basement as a hall. Local Roman Catholic bishops, the Apostolic Delegate, and Auxiliary Bishop Andriy Roboretsky recommended that Saint Nicholas be transferred further north to new suburbs where Canadian Ukrainians were migrating. Nevertheless, Archbishop Ladyka was determined to keep the Basilians at the original location. After fraught negotiations, a new location was agreed upon in 1963 and the current Saint Nicholas was completed in 1966. 


The area further north, where Bishop Roboretsky recommended the Basilians move in 1949, was left without ministry. In 1951, Roboretsky was replaced as auxiliary bishop by Redemptorist Father Maxim Hermaniuk and the Winnipeg Exarchate invited the Redemptorists to begin a mission in West Kildonan. On 17 December 1952, Hermaniuk’s successor as Redemptorist Superior, Father Volodymyr Malanchuk, reported the following to Cardinal Tisserant in Rome:

 

… One of our Fathers has begun work in Winnipeg, in the area of North Main Street, among our neglected people. We are hoping to establish a new community there together with a new centre of pastoral zeal [parish]…

 

And on 15 December 1954, Malanchuk gave the following update:

 

… In Winnipeg, in West Kildonan, our Fathers organized a new parish with 300 families and they have already built a basement which can serve as a temporary church.

 

An agreement establishing Saint Joseph's Parish and its boundaries was signed by Archbishop Ladyka in Winnipeg and Redemptorist Superior General Gaudreau in Rome on 12 April and 24 May 1955. The first parish priest was Father Joseph Denischuk, CSsR.

 

On 17 December 1956, Malanchuk wrote to Father Coussa, Assessor (second-in-command) of the Eastern Congregation: 

 

… In Winnipeg-West Kildonan we have just finished building our monastery next to the parish church. We hope to transfer … the seat of the superior of the vice-province. Winnipeg is situated at the centre of communication between western and eastern Canada and the USA.

            

This year, Saints Peter and Paul Church Ukrainian Catholic Parish celebrates its 75th Anniversary. Archbishop Vasyliy Ladyka mentioned its foundation and progress to Cardinal Tisserant, in a letter darted 29 December 1949:

 

Last year we began the erection of a new a new church in St. Boniface, St. Peters and Paul Church, and we are pleased to say that it is nearing completion, and that the upper part will be used for services this January 7th, 1950, for the first time. The basement has been used till now, as it had been completed quite some time ago. The Catholics of the Roman Rite will be using this basement regularly till they erect their own church in this district. Father Constantine Hawryliw, a newly arrived priest from Europe, is very zealously carrying out his work, helping in many ways in the work itself, and in the spiritual development of this district. The average attendance at this new parish is also well over 200.

 

Saturday, 16 December 2023

The Pontifical Ruthenian College, 1897–1915

Between Roman Universalism and National Consciousness

The Collegio Ruteno in Rome was founded, in 1897, to educate Ruthenian-Ukrainian seminarians from Austrian Galicia in a Catholic universalist spirit (Romanitas). The Ruthenian College eventually fulfilled its purpose, but its early years were characterized by mediocre leadership and burnout among the superiors, and factionalism among the students. College life was played out against the backdrops of political-religious events in Rome and in Galicia. Rather than simply imbuing Ukrainians with Romanitas, the College also brought Ukrainian problems to Rome. 

Very little has been written about the College’s early years perhaps because of the many tragedies and difficulties that occurred. The few works that exist are quasi-hagiographical chronologies that scrupulously avoided controversies. Based on archival sources, this paper seeks to present a contextualized view of the its early history and to reveal aspects passed over by its official chroniclers.

 

Ruthenians in Urbe

            In 1596, a portion of the Orthodox Kyivan Metropolia entered into full communion with the Roman Church (Union of Brest). The same year, two Ruthenian seminarians were sent to Rome to study at the Greek College for three years. One of them, Yosyf Veliamyn Rutsky, later become Kyivan Metropolitan. He obtained four places for his seminarians at the College in 1615, expanded to six in 1623. Thenceforth to 1803, when the College was closed during the Napoleonic occupation, thirty-nine Ruthenian seminarians graduated from the Greek College, including most of the Uniate hierarchy.

Under Austria, Ruthenian seminarians studied at Propaganda Fide’s Theatine College in Lemberg (Lviv). But in 1784, Joseph II abolished the College and founded a Greek-Catholic Major Seminary. After the Greek College was reopened, in 1845, the Austrian Government retuned the Theatine Fund to Propaganda, which facilitated the return of Ruthenian seminarians to Rome. As the proportion of Ruthenians within that College increased, its name was changed to Pontificium Collegium Graecorum et Ruthenorum. From 1845 to 1897, sixty-two Ruthenian seminarians graduated, including the future Cardinal Sylvester Sembratovych, the spiritus movens behind the foundation of a separate college. Besides the Lviv Seminary, Joseph II also founded a college in Vienna known as the Barbareum, next to Saint Barbara’s, the Ruthenian Church in Vienna. Gifted seminarians boarded there and studied at Vienna University.

 

Their Own College

The creation of a Ruthenian seminary in Rome was primarily the result of political-religious issues in Austria. Until the late nineteenth century, the Greek-Catholic clergy was the elite class in Galician Ruthenian society. In the 1840s, the Lviv Greek-Catholic Seminary was one of centres of the Ruthenian national movement. But by the 1870s, both the Lviv and the Vienna seminaries had become nests of Moscophilism, and state and church officials demanded their reform. This was to be one of Sylvester Sembratovych’s primary tasks. His crowning achievement was holding a Provincial Council (the Lviv Synod). The Synod called for the reorganization of the seminary system and praised clerical celibacy. The married clergy saw it as an attempt to assimilate the Ruthenians to the Latin Church and Polish culture.

The Austrian Government had been wanting to suppress the Barbareum in Vienna since 1874. The college was abruptly closed in 1893 after Sembratovych was attacked by Moscophile students (including 2 seminarians). In compensation, the Ministry of Religion and Education agreed to send six more seminarians to the Greek College, bringing the total to ten). The Government also promised to establish seminaries in Lviv’s suffragan eparchies of Przemyśl and Stanyslaviv.

With Leo XIII’s Unionist reforms in full swing, the Greek-Ruthenian College needed a larger building just at the time when Ruthenians were enrolling there in greater numbers. Their increased number provoked conflicts with the College's other nationalities such as Italo-Greeks and especially Romanians. As a result, Sembratovych and his suffragans began to lobby for the creation of a college exclusively for Ruthenians. In his dying year, Sembratovych convinced Propaganda Fide to build a new 4-story building with room for 16 students. It was adjacent to the Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus in Piazza Madonna dei Monti, where the Ruthenian procurature had stood since the 1640s. Emperor Franz Joseph paid 100,000 Lire, Propaganda loaned the College 42,301, and the rest of the total 181,807 Lire was paid by benefactors.

On 18 December 1897, Leo XIII issued the bull Paternam benevolentiam, founding the institution specifically for the Greek-Catholic Ruthenians of the Metropolitan Province of Lviv-Halych (Later, Hungarian eparchs also sent seminarians). In the College, Sembratovych saw one of his principal goals accomplished but he was too ill to attend its opening and died of cancer the following year. In his stead he deputized Bishop Konstantyn Chekhovych of Przemyśl to perform the inaugural blessing on 19 December 1897. Twelve seminarians transferred from the Greek College.

 

Jesuit Superiors (1897–1904)

Sembratovych settled for the Jesuits of the Roman Province, who were already administering the Greek College of St. Athanasius, but only until the Basilian Order could assume command. The Jesuits were very unpopular among Ukrainians in Austria, and tensions between them and their pupils had already shown themselves ta the Greco-Ruthenian College. As a result, Ukrainians were reluctant study in Rome. Another difficulty was that the Italian Jesuits were not familiar with the Byzantine-Ruthenian Rite nor with the Ukrainian language, and culture. They were unable to identify challenges faced by the Greek-Catholic clergy and did not sympathize with their national concerns.

At the beginning of the academic year, the autumn of 1897, Jesuit superiors transferred from the Greek to the Ruthenian College and the Greek College was entrusted to Benedictines. The Jesuit superiors consisted in three priests: a Rector, a Minister, and a Spiritual Director. Two or three Jesuit brothers also served as cooks and sacristans. In addition, lay servants were engaged as porters, cleaners, and waiters. The Minister responsible for all matters concerning discipline and provisions. the spiritual director offered Confessions and spiritual talks, counselling, and preached the annual retreat. Unlike the Greek-College, seminarians worshipped liturgically in the Byzantine Rite only. Nevertheless, outside of the liturgy parallel disciplines were maintained: Latin for the Jesuits and the servants, and Byzantine for the Ukrainians. The Jesuits prayed privately except for the Spiritual Director, who administered Benediction at the end of the day according to the Latin Ritual. Dual disciplines meant that, on certain days, the superiors were feasting while the seminarians were fasting, and vice versa. In addition, the Jesuits also passed on their Latin-style non-liturgical practices and devotions to their charges.

College food was local and of a high standard. The Jesuits maintained a regimented system of meals in which the number and kind of foods was regulated according to the rank of the liturgical feast. In addition to Latin and Ruthenian Feasts, the feasts of major Jesuit Saints were also commemorated, at which the Superiors were served coffee with rosolio (liqueurs) and deserts. Meals were held in silence with readings from spiritual books, as was the custom in all Catholic seminaries. The Superiors took their daily recreation separately.

The first Rectors were Rodolfo Isolani (1897–1899) and Eugenio Polidori (1899–1903). Isolani published books on spirituality and Marian sodalities. Polidori published on the history of Italy (1886), on the exclusion of religion from Italian public education (1892), and a refutation of von Harnack’s rationalist exegesis (The Fourth Gospel, 1903). It is likely that Polidori was appointed to impose stricter discipline, as he appears to have been more austere than others. For example, he discontinued the traditional fave dei morti on All Souls Day, to the disappointment of staff and students alike. 

Polidori’s heart was at the Civiltà Cattolica where he often lunched. After four years, he was appointed superior of that apostolate. On 4 October 1903, Father Giovanni Maria Nobili Vitelleschi (1853–1908) was transferred from the elite Mondragone College to succeed him. The last and most popular Jesuit rector of the college has been airbrushed out of the College’s history by Ukrainian chroniclers. Vitelleschi, was well known for his pedagogical skills. He was a musician and tolerant in discipline. One of his compositions had been admired by Giacomo Puccini. In November, he restored the fave dei morti to everyone’s delight. He made various improvements to the college, including installing electric lighting and buying a pianoforte. He was also the only rector whose biography was published.

The Minister of the College was Father Galeassi. He kept the college chronicle meticulously and oversaw the finances and the day to day running of the instruction. After it was announced that the Jesuits were withdrawing, he lost his initiative and forgot to arrange for festive meals on several Byzantine Rite feast days. In the last month of the Jesuit administration, he was replaced, due to exhaustion. In December 1902 the Spiritual director Pietro Borselli became ill (dying 4 months later) and had to be replaced temporarily by Giovanni Soriani and Pietro Castelloni, and permanently by Pio De Mandato from May 1903.

The Jesuits accepted the charge over the Ruthenians seminarians but, as their chronicle reveals, their concerns were with their Order’s affairs. They prayed privately and continued to teach and hear confessions in other colleges and churches. Guests at the College were mainly Italian Jesuits in transit or on retreat, and alumni from their institutions such as the elite Mondragone college near Frascati. In turn, the College superiors lodged at other Jesuit institutions to rest or make their own retreats

In July 1904, Cardinal Gotti informed the Jesuit General that the College was to be entrusted to the Ukrainian Basilians in November. The College Superiors were officially informed on this on 28 July. On 9 October, shortly after the seminary had returned from summer vacation, Vitelleschi left for his new assignment, leaving the Minister and Spiritual Director in charge until the Basilians took office. The remaining two Jesuits left at the end of the October 1904.

 

Ukrainian teacher and Prefects

The Greek College had to engage a priest of their nationality to teach the Ruthenian seminarians their particular liturgical ritual and music. This arrangement was maintained at the Ruthenian College, but the priest also had an additional duty of celebrating Divine services for the seminarians. The only priest in Rome was the bishops’ procurator, Vasyl Levytsky, who was already functioning in this role at the Greek College. After only a short time, however, he stepped on toes by complaining, on behalf of Bishop Chekhovych, that Jesuits were introducing Latin devotions to the seminarians. By the autumn of 1902, he had lost interest in the College and had to be replaced by Aleksander Ulytsky, who abandoned his post without warning after serving only five months. The new Procurator, Mykhailo Jatskovsky, took over the role in April 1903. On Sundays and feast days, Bulgarian Bishop Lazar Mladenov celebrated Divine Liturgy in the church for the seminarians. Otherwise, services were held in the domestic chapel, especially in winter.

            Given the Jesuits’ reserve, greater influence was exercised over the students by the prefect (a student priest) or the vice-prefect. The Prefects were a go-between between staff and students and wrote the instructions for seminarians in their native tongue. In 1903, Ivan Lutsyk was named prefect after his ordination, and seminarian Yosyf Kotsylovsky was made vice-prefect who was known as the beadle.

 

Basilians (1904–1915)

The Jesuits had been charged, in 1882, with reforming the decadent Basilians into zealous reformers that would educate a clerical and lay elite in a loyal Catholic spirit. By the end of the nineteenth century, Government and Church officials were clamouring for reformed Basilians to take charge of the Greek-Catholic seminary system. In Ruthenian-Ukrainian society, there were heated debates over the role of the Jesuits, which hastened to end their direct involvement in the Greek-Catholic Church. 

Some of the Ruthenian clergy thought it should have been given to Basilians from the beginning. Already in September 1902, the conflict between the Bishops’ procurator and the Jesuits led Sembratovych’s successor, Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, to suggest that members of his own Order might be more suited to run the College. The following summer, the Prefect of Propaganda Fide asked Sheptytsky and the Jesuit Provincial of the Basilians, Father Peter Bapst, if the Basilians were prepared to do so. Sheptytsky dithered for a year, to the annoyance of Bapst, who demanded a decision. In July 1904, Sheptytsky finally agreed, and Bapst accepted on the Basilians’ behalf.

Bapst consulted Sheptytsky on the choice of personnel. He first proposed priests who had studied in Rome and knew Italian, Luka Ivantsiv as Rector and Pavlo Demchuk as Spiritual Director. A brother scholastic was to serve as prefect and a lay brother as cook. Before the decision could be made, the Jesuits resigned from the Basilian reform and the new superiors had to make their own selection. Arseniy Lozynsky was selected over Ivantsiv (fortuitously, it turned out) and he and Demchuk arrived in Rome on 14 October 1904. For two weeks, they observed the workings of the college under the two remaining Jesuits. The Basilians took charge on 1 November 1904.

Like their predecessors, the Basilians stood somewhat aloof from their diocesan seminarians although they were more austere than Jesuits, for instance, in diet. Nevertheless, were unable to deal with the nationalistic conflicts between seminarians. The stress caused Lozynsky to lose his health and, by the end of the academic year, the new Basilian Provincial, Platonid Filas, proposed that he be replaced by Demchuk. Propaganda would not permit this because, as spiritual director, Demchuk had been privy to the seminarians’ private faults. This would constitute a violation of the canonical separation between the internal and the external forums. The Basilian Provincial Council recommended Adrian Davyda, superior of Drohobych. Filas presented the candidate and Cardinal Gotti appointed him rector after obtaining Metropolitan Sheptytsky’s approval.

Father Davyda had a stronger character but was unable to resolve the conflict between the different national tendencies. In June 1907 a group of seminarians complained to the Congregation of about the tensions within the College. Davyda favoured the majority Ukrainophiles and tried to ban Moscophile seminarians, but his proposed rules were not approved by the Congregation.

Father Demchuk’s health also began to fail, and he was recalled to Galicia and replaced with Ivantsiv in March 1908. Luka Ivantsiv suffered from mania and severe scruples and began to complain incessantly to Propaganda about the rector. In July 1908, he had a complete mental collapse and was confined to a religious house in Ancona, where he died.

To resolve the situation, Filas proposed to replace Davyda with Lazar Berezovsky, who had been student prefect in the Lviv Seminary and superior of the Basilian community and press in Zhovkva. Metropolitan Sheptytsky suggested that Davyda remain for a time and later be recalled for health reasons, since Ivantsiv’s accusations had been exaggerated. Gotti asked Father Filas to do just that, but Davyda did not return to Rome so, on 23 September 1908, Berezovsky was named rector.

Lazar Berezovsky’s tenure, from 1908 until the closure of the College in 1915, brought peace and stability to the College. By 1910, the superiors were adding the title, “ad S. Josaphat” to the name of the College, a title which replaced the designation “Ruteno” in 1932. In July 1910, Berezovsky prepared a fresh draft of the College rules, which were approved by Pius X ad experimentum in September 1911. The following year, the esteemed pedagogue Teodoziy Halushchynsky was named spiritual director. During this period, the College rectors became consultants to the Roman Curia on Ruthenian-Ukrainian affairs. 

 

National Identity

Indoctrinating the young Ruthenian-Ukrainians with Roman Universalism was difficult, since their hearts and minds were oriented toward their native land. The principal question among the Ruthenians was national identity and national rights within the Empire. Indeed, this question was the principal problem in Austrian politics of the time. In the year of thew College’s opening, the nationalities question led to a parliamentary crisis and the fall of the government. And a month before the opening, a group of seminarians protested the Propaganda that devotions at the college should be in their own language.

There were two main tendencies of Ruthenian national identity in Galicia: Ukrainophile and Russophile (the Russophiles, in turn, were divided between Old Ruthenophoiles, who were basically church traditionalists, and Moscophiles). Moscophiles saw themselves as a branch of Russian imperial culture; Ukrainophiles saw themselves as part to the culture of Little Rus from Russian Ukraine. In addition, Ruthenians struggled against the assimilation program by the Polish ruling classes. 

Moscophiles were religiously conservative but pro-Orthodox and politically pro-Russian. Ukrainophiles were ideological liberals some of whom gravitated toward anticlericalism and socialism. At first, the Greek-Catholic hierarchy favour one or the other. The student prefects were ordered to write instructions in the neutral phonetic script used by Greek-Catholic chanceries, which was neither Church Slavonic nor vernacular Ukrainian. Many of the Moscophile seminarians belonged to the Lviv Archeparchy because Metropolitan Sheptytsky had not yet made up his mind on the issue. In 1902, he issued a pastoral letter to his clergy, admonishing them not to bicker over national identity. And Fathers Ivantsiv and Demchuk had been proposed for the College because they were neutral, while the majority of Basilians were Ukrainophiles.

In May 1905, the simmering tensions between the factions exploded. The first-year alumni were due to swear the oath that they would be ordained in celibacy. When the Secretary of Propaganda came to receive their oath, five out of eight had scruples about the contents of Alexander VII’s bull, which had been read in the refectory the day before. Rolleri told them that everything would be clarified by the rector but Lozynsky was unable to provide a convincing explanation and had to call for backup from his deputy. Demchuk argued that the archaic contents of the bull was not binding, only the oath. Lozynsky was unable to cope and confined himself to his room. Solemnities were cancelled and a tense atmosphere hung over the college. Lozynsky tried to lay the blame others and sought to expel the leaders of both factions, including the future Bishop Kotsylovsky, the student prefect and a leader of the Ukrainophiles.

Meanwhile, both factions wrote to the Pope and to Cardinal Gotti. The first Basilian chronicler of the College wrote that the Pope threatened to close the college unless harmony was restored. In fact, the Pope’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Merry del Val, called Cardinal Gotti of Propaganda to discuss the situation, but did not propose any drastic measures. Lozynsky assured Propaganda that harmony had been restored but he had lost control and was allowed to leave gracefully, in October 1905.

The conflict simmered quietly for the next two years. Rector Davyda allowed Ukrainian newspapers but forbade the Moscophile Galichanin and wrote to the bishops not to send any more Moscophile seminarians. Lviv Archeparchy ignored him and sent two out of fourThe Ukrainophile party gained a permanent foothold in the 1907 Austrian elections. Metropolitan Sheptytsky began to favour the Ukrainophiles and isolate the Moscophiles. The Rector did the same at the College. In 1906, he expelled four seminarians and, in December 1907, dismissed the leader of the Moscophiles, Ivan Kozorovsky. In March 1908, Davyda attempted to enshrine the ban on Moscophile seminarians in the College rules. Although his draft was rejected his successor’s (approved in 1911) included “inciting political discord” as grounds for expulsion. The national identity conflict was never mentioned in the chronicle after 1906 and the College appears to have avoided any reverberations from the fierce battle waged at the Lviv seminary, in February 1912, which resulted in its closing for several months. At the beginning of that year, several seminarians left the Ruthenian College rather than take the mandatory celibacy oath envisioned in the new rules.

Father Davyda was credited with having given the College a Ukrainian character. Thenceforth it became a place to visit Ukrainian hierarchs, clergy, and pilgrims, as well as leading intellectual figures such as Mykhailo Hrushevsky, Vadym Scherbakivsky, and Modest Sosenko. Metropolitan Sheptytsky made annual visits and Bishop Soter Ortynsky was given a grand send off on his way to the United States to become the first Greek-Catholic bishop in the Americas. 

Despite their Ukrainian focus, students participated in the principal Roman holidays (such as All Saints and All Souls and Corpus Domini) and annual festivities such as the anniversary of the College’s founder, Pope Leo XIII. On occasion, they spoke with Pope Leo and more often with Pius X at private audiences. Each year, superiors and students celebrated the onomastic, birthday, and regnal anniversaries of Emperor Franz Joseph, and brought greetings to the Austro-Hungarian embassy. Seminarians went to the Vatican to see visiting monarchs such as Britain’s Edward VII and Germany’s Wilhelm II. They took part in the mourning for the death of Leo XIII and celebrated the election and coronation of Pius X. The college chronicler also recorded the rector and students attending a rally at the French College to protest the anti-clerical laws, in 1907.

On 28 June 1914, the Basilian chronicler recorded their shock and disappointment at the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife. Ukrainians considered the Austrian heir to the throne sympathetic to their cause. This event and the ensuing First World war completely eclipsed the death of Pius X and the election of Benedict XV, which were passed over by the chronicler.

 

Celibacy

The second major issue at the College was mandatory celibacy, which was tightly connected with the question of national identity. Pressure from the Roman Curia to promote clerical celibacy was looked on as a Polish plot to decapitate one of the core Ukrainian institutions. Ukrainians looked up their married priestly class, highly engaged in national affairs, as a cornerstone of their national movement. And many seminarians were themselves sons of priests. The Papal Legate had attempted to favour celibacy at the 1891 Lviv Synod, prompting fierce opposition from the clergy. 

Some Ukrainian seminarians were reluctant to study in Rome because they had to swear the oath prescribed by Urban VIII and Alexander VII to remain in celibacy. In addition, before receiving a doctorate, they had to have been ordained a deacon. Many chose to return home at their end of their fourth year of theology, without a doctorate, so they could be married before being ordained.

The Jesuit Rectors took a very moderate approach to the issue. Their philosophy was that it was better to encourage voluntary celibacy than force the seminarians. The Jesuits allowed the old oaths to fallen into disuse. Father Polidori had wanted to make the oaths into partial promises because the Ukrainian bishops were more concerned with forced celibacy than with the normative married clergy. Yet, Propaganda Fide ordered him to bring the oath back int practice. Polidori had to call the seminarians together to inform them of the decision. In addition, on 31 May 1900, he gave them a long talk about the oath and the educational and financial benefits of studying in Rome. He also called each seminarian to his room to have a personal discussion about the oath. Most were still reluctant but 12 finally took the oath and two left. The following year, everybody accepted the oath without protest. Polidori continued to promote celibacy as a free choice because he believed that a Roman education was already exerting a powerful influence in that direction.

The debate over the status of the celibacy oath considerably delayed approval the college rules. After approving a draft, on 12 July 1910, Pius X added the proviso that no one was to be formally admitted unless they promised to live in celibacy. Nevertheless, the oath could be delayed for a year after their arrival. In July 1912, Cardinal Gotti ordered that anyone seeking to prolong the oath beyond a year had to be sent home.

 

College Life

The course of theological studies lasted four years. Ukrainians were slightly older than many of their other Roman counterparts because the Austrian authorities required them to complete gymnasium before entering the seminary. The pontifical education system was stricter than in Austria and mature seminarians found it difficult to accept being deprived of previously held freedoms. The seminarians spoke Ukrainian and Polish among themselves but very little Italian, leading Vitelleschi to remark: “In an attempt to be understood, I spoke to them in Trastevere (Roman) dialect and Germanize the endings.”

The academic year began on 1 November. New students wore secular attire for six months or a year, until they swore their oath. After this they were clothed in the blue college cassock with a yellow sash, the Ukrainian national colours, chosen by Sembratovych. Correspondence with outsiders was discouraged except with family, their bishop, and benefactors. During the month of May, each seminarian had to preach a short practice sermon in his native language. Inside College, they were to keep silent in corridors and required permission had from the prefect or beadle to speak with other seminarians. Conversations were limited to 4 to 5 minutes and then only at the student’s door, as they were forbidden from entering their rooms. During free time, they were permitted to speak with others in common room and to go for walks but only in pairs. Cash was to be deposited with the rector. Seminarians were permitted to bathe weekly but not more, except during vacation when they stayed near the sea and groups went swimming daily.

The daily schedule was virtually identical to that of other Roman Colleges. Awards were handed out annually to the best students at Propaganda Fide College. During their last year, seminarians were to dedicate an hour daily to studying the liturgical services and Church Slavonic. Those who remained for higher studies, beyond the fourth year, could be ordained in Rome after taking ordination exams from the Vicariate of Rome. From 1897 to 1915, the Bulgarian Bishop performed these ordinations.

Although it had an historical connection, Piazza Madonna die Monti was not particularly suited for seminary life due to the clamour in the streets. In the piazza, fish, meat, and fruit mongers sold their wares in the morning. At night and into the early morning hours, revellers shouted and sang, accompanied by mandolin and guitar. Father Vitelleschi, whose window faced the Piazza degli Zingari, compared the atmosphere disparagingly to Naples. The Roman climate and diet did not agree with all the seminarians or even the superiors, and some returned home for health reasons. Each year, the college left Rome for the summer. The Jesuits had arranged to rent the seminary in Tivoli. Gita or outings were organized regularly for sightseeing and exercise.

 

The First World War

On 28 July 1914, the College chronicler recorded Austria’s declaration of war on Serbia, when the seminary was still on vacation. They returned to Rome, as usual, in October, but no new diocesan seminarians arrived that year, only three Basilian scholastics, who had been forced to study abroad due to the Russian occupation of Galicia. The College celebrated Christmas but there was to be no Easter because, once Italy entered the war on the Entente side, 8 May 1915, the Austrian Embassy informed its subjects they they must leave the country. On 9 and 10 May, the superiors and eleven seminarians left via Zurich for Vienna, where they were met by Father Filas. The diocesans went to a temporary seminary in Kromeriž, Moravia, run by Father Kotsylovsky. (Among them was future Archbishop Ivan Buchko, who was ordained a priest in Kromeriž. From 1942 until his death in 1974, he resided at the new College building on the Janiculum.) Father Halushchynsky took the Basilian scholastics to a seminary near Vienna owned by the Verbite order. They all returned home once the Russians retreated from Galicia.

Father Berezovsky retuned to direct the College when it was reopened, in 1921. At that time, Ukrainian identity and self-determination became a major issue. To eliminate the title “Ruthenian” but without adopting “Ukrainian” which was banned in Galicia (under Polish rule), the name was changed to “Pontifical College of Saint Josaphat.”

Both Berezovsky and Halushchynsky were destined to spend a lifetime in the Eternal City. Berezovsky served as rector for a second time from in 1921 to 1925 and returned to Rome as a General Counsellor of the Basilian Curia from 1932 to 1946. Halushchynsky became Spiritual Director for a second time in 1931 and served in that position until his appointment as Basilian Superior General, in 1949. Both men died in 1952.

I am very grateful to my friends and colleagues Father Yeronim Hrim, OSBM, Father Joseph Koczera, SJ, and Dr Gianfranco Armando, who lent assistance and advice on this topic.

Presented on 15 December 2023  the international academic conference I collegi per stranieri a Roma, 1850–1915, hosted by the Instituto Nazionale per i Studi Romani. Publication forthcoming in February 2024.

Saturday, 4 November 2023

The Polish Ambassador to the Holy See and the Holocaust

 

Archival research can be like looking for a needle in a haystack. But, along the way, you find some fascinating and even disturbing things of great significance, which you we not seeking.  My field of research is Ukrainian oriented, but Ukraine's story is part of a larger narrative and is interconnected with Polish, Austrian, Russian, and German history. A better understanding of the former can only be had by grasping its context upon the backdrop of the others.

 I used to wonder what the fuss was about in Poland about Auschwitz and why it was considered a memorial for Poles as well as for Jews. Although these reports have an indirect connection to Ukrainian history (there were several Ukrainians at Auschwitz), and perhaps are already published elsewhere, I felt compelled, as a witness before history, to post them. Tragically, the cycle of racial hatred and violence introduced and maintained by the Germans continued, later in the war, between Ukrainians and Poles.


Kazimierz or Casimir Papée (1889–1979), served as Ambassador of Poland to the Holy See from 1939 to 1958. He was born in Lemberg or Lwów, which is Lviv in modern day Ukraine. The majority of the city's population were Poles and in 1919 it became part of the Second Polish Republic. Lwów also had a large Jewish population which exceeded Ukrainians in number. Papée was appointed Ambassador in June 1939, only a few months before the onset of the Second World War. It was a time of high tension between the authoritarian "Regime of the Colonels" in Poland and the Holy See, and the post had remained vacant for two years after the death of long-time ambassador Władyslaw Skrzyński. 

Papée bombarded the Vatican with reports throughout the war. He was one of the strongest voices pressuring the Holy See to speak out against the Holocaust and became a thorn in the side of the papal Secretariat of State (Section for political affairs). He continued to maintain the embassy for the Polish Government in Exile after 1939. Even though his ambassadorial rank was revoked by John XXIII in 1958, he headed the Legation of the Government-in-Exile until his death, in 1979.

Below are English translations of two of Papée's French-language reports to the Vatican Secretariat of State concerning Auschwitz and the Shoah:

Vatican, November 21, 1941 

The situation in occupied Poland

 

[…] III Prison camp in Oświęcim


It is reported from reliable sources that Gestapo agents recently carried out a terrible massacre among those they had locked up in the Oświęcim Camp. It is said that 3,000 inmates were killed there during a single day in October. We still don't know their names.


The Oświęcim Camp – (the Germans gave this locality the name “Auschwitz”) – has existed since the spring of 1940. It was installed in the former barracks of the 73rd Polish Infantry Regiment. The number of prisoners – which can be determined by comparing the numbers that each of them wears sewn into their clothes – comes to 17,000; there would be among them more than 12,000 Poles and more than 4,000 Germans. – It must be emphasized that the vast majority of detainees in this Camp are subject to simple administrative provisions, without any court, in which they could have defended themselves, having ruled against them, and without any accusation made against them: the Gestapo arbitrarily sends there all those who seem dangerous or simply undesirable.


The Camp is surrounded by recently constructed walls, barbed wire and high voltage electrical wires. Surveillance is entrusted to a detachment of the Gestapo, which at its command – a strong military troop of SS men and numerous police dogs. The Camp depends on a higher office of the Gestapo, based in Katowice.


In order to isolate the Camp as far as possible from any contact with the population, last march, the Gestapo deported the inhabitants of the entire two kilometre zone around the barracks. For this purpose, the entire population of 3 neighbouring villages, as well as 80 % of the inhabitants of the town of Oświęcim, were deported. After these expulsions, approximately 5,000 prisoners from the Camp were often employed in work outside the barracks, always under the very strict supervision of the agents. The others never come out.


Recently, 19 prisoners were released. Those who have seen them say that they are almost mad, that several of them have broken limbs and that they are terrible to see. Those who have seen them note, with the deepest emotion, that the very appearance of the prisoners is terrible proof of a cruelty which cries to heaven for vengeance.


Stefan Petekycky from Auschwitz
There are children from 16 months old, and old people over 60 years old. The cold, the hunger, the bodily and moral tortures, to which they are subjected night and day, exterminate them. A crematorium, set up in the middle of the Camp, consumed no less than 10 corpses per day in summer, and up to 60 corpses in winter. Almost none of those who were locked up in the Camp in March 1940 have survived to date. The dead are replaced by new victims who are arrested throughout the country. They are, for the most part, intellectuals, and there are many priests and religious people. Recently, His Excellency Monsignor Wetmański, Auxiliary Bishop of Płock, also joined them.


The women from around Oświęcim, despite the terrible danger to which they were exposed, managed to come to the aid of the prisoners by smuggling them food. The poverty which reigns everywhere restricts these women’s Christian heroic activity to a minimum. No more than 300 prisoners are able to obtain additional food through these clandestine channels, which allows them to survive for some time to come.


Recently, in Warsaw, on the square in front of the central station, a film was shown entitled: “Europe on the front lines against the Bolsheviks”. After speaking about this “crusade”, the loudspeaker asked the question: “Where are you, Poles?” Voices immediately rang out from the entire crowd in response: “In Oświęcim!” - The show had to be suspended and various people were arrested. The word “Oświęcim” is written, like the “V” [Victory] on the walls and palisades, despite the Germans.


One of the Germans, a collaborator of the head of the Gestapo, publicly announced that “the Oświęcim Camp is one of Himmler’s glories”. They call this Camp “Todeslager” [Death camp].


Vatican, November 23, 1942


We are informed from Warsaw...  “[…] Mass executions of Jews continued. In Warsaw, Lwów, Wilno, Lublin, Przemyśl, Przeworsk, Tarnów – the number of Jews killed is calculated by many tens of thousands for each of these cities, not to mention all the others. They are killed by means of asphyxiating gas in rooms specially prepared for this purpose (and often in wagons), and by means of machine-gunning, after which the dead and the half-dead are covered with earth together. There are frequent cases of collective suicides of Jewish families; Jewish mothers throw themselves out of high-story windows with their children. In Lublin, the Germans themselves threw Jewish children onto the streets. In Przeworsk, a crowd of desperate Jews gathered around a cross, invoking the pity of Christ. We see everywhere convoys of Jews being led to death. Rumours circulated about the Germans using their corpses in chemical factories (soap factories).


It is already foreseen that the extermination of the Jews in Poland will soon end and that the special detachments, trained for this work, unable to stop shedding blood every day, will have a pressing need for other victims. Already in Eastern Little Poland [Eastern Galicia], men and women beggars have been hunted down and killed. It is feared that a general suppression of the elderly will soon be ordered. All these measures are taken because the aim is to reduce the number of mouths to feed. The sight of these deeds has immense repercussions on the mentality of the Poles: feelings of hatred continue to grow. [...]


Wednesday, 19 July 2023

Nil Savaryn: Founding Bishop of the Edmonton Eparchy

Savaryn by Julian Bucmaniuk

Bishop Nil Mykola Savaryn was the founding bishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Edmonton. ... Born
 in Staryi Sambir (Western Ukraine) on 19 May 1905, he entered the Basilian Order in 1922 and was ordained a priest in 1931. The following year, he volunteered for mission work in Canada. On 3 April 1943, Pope Pius XII named him titular bishop of Jos and auxiliary bishop. On 3 March 1948, he was named Exarch of Western Canada (Alberta and British Columbia) And on 3 November 1956, he became the first Eparch of Edmonton. Savaryn died on 8 January 1986. See the full biography at The Founding Bishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Edmonton.

A Ukrainian-language version, which combines this and my article on the 75th of the Eparchy Eparchy, has appeared on the site of the UGCC Synod of Bishops.

Monday, 12 June 2023

Ukrainians Immigration to Canada: the Apostolic Delegate 1943

Louis St-Laurent and Bishop Nil Savaryn

A recent article in Canadian Press proclaims that "Canada Is Facing the Largest Wave of Ukrainian Immigration Ever," with a million applications having been filed with the Canadian Government. A new wave of immigration will affect a significant change and in the Ukrainian community in Canada and the country as a whole. 

Ukrainian immigration to Canada began in 1891, when the Government enticed Ukrainians of Austrian Galicia and Bukovyna (today in Western Ukraine) to settle the western Canadian prairies with the offer of free land. Other waves arrived after the First World War, in the the Interwar period, after the Second World War, and following the collapse of the Soviet Union and Ukrainian independence in 1991. The first and last waves were made up of economic migrants whereas others were political refugees fleeing the turmoil brought to their homeland by occupying countries.

In 1897, the plight of Ukrainian settlers became a major issue and concerns in the Ukrainian press and the spiritual welfare of the settlers came to the notice of Catholic Church leaders in Austria, Canada, and Rome. Among those monitoring the situation was the papal representative in Canada the Apostolic Delegate (since 1969 raised to the rank of Apostolic Nuncio, when Canada and the Holy See established full diplomatic relations).

Every three years, the Apostolic Delegate or Nuncio had to send a "Triennial Report" to Rome, outlining the activity of his mission and the situation of the Church and general trends in the country to which he is assigned.

From time to time, the material and spiritual situation of Ukrainians (the majority of which belonged to the Greek-Catholic Church) made its way into these reports. Surprisingly, the Delegate of the time, Idelbrando Antoniutti, did not mention Ukrainian immigration in his 1948 Triennial Report but did dedicate a lengthy section to this topic in his 1940–1942 report, which was sent to Rome in 1943.  Below is an English translation of the relevant passages form the original Italian:


IMIGRANTS

"A serious problem, connected with immigration, is above all that of the Ukrainians of Canada, who according to the latest census rise to 400,000, scattered in the various provinces of the Dominion. Frugal, hardworking, with large families, they made a large and effective contribution to the colonization of Western Canada. Three quarters are Catholics of the Byzantine Rite, belonging to an Exarchate which extends from one end of the Dominion to the other, with its own Ukrainian Bishop having personal jurisdiction over all [of them].

If the birth rate of the Ukrainians which have settled here continues at the current rate, in a century they could reach the figure of eight million in Canada. Yet, their assimilation to the Anglo-Canadians is methodical and progressive, and this will bring far decrease, in time, if not neutralize their national characteristics, starting with the language.

Mr. Walter J. Bossy, inspector of Ukrainian schools erected for his countrymen, asked that French-Canadians do something more for the newcomers of Europe, declaring the following: "If the attraction that English Canadians exert on immigration is considerable from an economic point of view, it is no longer so when one considers the social point of view. The European arriving in Canada would be more easily solicited by the turn of the French spirit than by the manifestations of English culture, if French Canadian would only bother to show him the benefits. But that French-Canadians appear to be indifferent to this.”

In fact, the said gentleman adds that, wishing to make the history of Canada known to the people of his country of origin, he had translated a manual into Ukrainian but he did not find a publisher among the French-Canadians, but among the English . . .

What is said of the Ukrainians, who constitute the most numerous immigrant group, should also be extended to the other foreign communities, Polish, Slavic, German, Italian, Hungarian, etc. The second generation of these immigrants has already lost contact with the country of origin, and the third is almost exclusively Canadian.

Unfortunately the Protestant influence is felt among the newcomers. Sometimes due to political resentments against the leaders of the mother country from which they had to take advantage, sometimes due to economic advantages, most often due to indifference and lack of religious instruction, as for lack of assistance both from the clergy of the countries of origin of both the local one, several immigrants have abandoned their faith to embrace that of the majority. . ."


"Walter" (Volodymyr) Bossy was a well known Ukrainian activist who had his own political-social agenda (see Orest Martynowych's, Ukrainians in Canada: the Interwar years).

There are many differences between the situation of 1943 and today. For one thing, the "faith" of the majority, which exercises an influence, would not be that of Anglo-Protestantism or even Roman Catholicism but of agnostic indifference or secular wokeism. The single Ukrainian Greek Exarchate was subdivided in 1948 and has since become a Metropolitan Church with an Archeparchy in Winnipeg and 4 Eparchies. (although currently, two are still awaiting the appointment of an eparchial bishop.) In addition, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada is Metropolitanate with an Archeparchy and 2 Eparchies. The Province of Quebec, with its discriminating language laws, continues to have less attraction for Ukrainians.

Statesmen, churchmen, and community leaders have already begun considering how to best assist the newcomers, so that they can take their place in contemporary Canadian society and themselves contribute to its prosperous development.