www.byzcath.org Forums News & Events Church News Society of St. Pius X UGCC excommunication

I know our last discussion of this got closed, but here is an update.

Vatican-Lviv � The Vatican Tribunal Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith confirmed the verdict of the College Tribunal of the Lviv Archeparchy of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) regarding Father Vasyl Kovpak who was accused of �committing the crime of schism and was subjected to excommunication.� So said the text of the decree of Archbishop Ihor (Vozniak) of Lviv of the UGCC as of 14 November 2007, which was released on 19 November 2007. The hierarch addressed the clergymen of the Lviv Archeparchy with the request to inform the faithful about the decision of the last jurisdiction.

The case of Father Vasyl Kovpak, who is the leader of the Lefebvrist movement within the UGCC, has been under review for several years now. On 14 July 2006, the College Tribunal of the Lviv Archeparchy condemned his actions; however, Father Vasyl appealed to the Vatican.

RISU�s note: A small group of the Greek Catholic clergy in Ukraine belongs to the well-organized Society of St. Pius X in Western Europe, USA and Australia, which has united with part of the former Catholic clergy which refused to accept certain resolutions of the Second Vatican Council. French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre was its spiritual leader; therefore, the whole movement was named �Lefebvrism.�

Fr Kovpak was consecrated a bishop by the group and so that has sealed his fate.

The whole phenomenon of Latinized parished in the UGCC who are so very stridently against Pat. Lubomyr (one once told me that he was a "scandal" because of his use of "Orthodox in communion with Rome" and other "horrific things he's gotten into") is fascinating, as it is sad.

Not only that, but Orthodox parishes in that whole area are likewise Latinized with Stations of the Cross et al. Then again, if you don't have the devotion to the Sacred Heart there, you are just not a Christian!

Alex

Alex

when did this happen ?


Everything I have seen refers to him as Fr Kovpak

Dear, Blessed Anhelyna,

Probably because the press don't feel obligated to refer to him by his episcopal title he received from you-know-who. This happened not too long ago and Pat. Lubomyr is well aware of this.

He has become quite the leader against His Beatitude Patriarch Lubomyr and is hell-bent on bringing the UGCC back to the 19th century, Austro-Hungarian Empire etc.

Alex

What about the diaspora ?

Should churches here become proactive with things such as the removal of the Stations of the Cross ?

I.F.

Yes indeed.

What a mscandal! The SSPX leading Latinization and dividing the Greek Catholic church in Ukraine. God forbid that this evil movement should spread to the West. We have suffered enough from Latinization and hybridization. Is there any official confirmation that Kovpak was indeed consecrated to the episcopate without election by the Synod of the UGCC?

Alex,

Are you absolutely sure he's been consecrated a bishop?

A new SSPX bishop would cause MAJOR headlines on all the blogs I read, and I haven't heard a peep of it. There have been no SSPX episcopal consecrations since Lefebvre consecrated the four in 1988.

Alexis

What about Lic�nio Rangel in 1991? (Although Bishop Rangel later reconciled with the Catholic Church, in 2001.)

I don't believe Vasyl Kovpak has been consecrated a bishop.

Alexis,

I pobably read the same blogs. However, it must be pointed out that Fr. Kovpak's group is called the Priestly Society of St. Josaphat Kuntsevych or the SSJK for short. So it may not have been picked up by those whole follow the SSPX.

I'll ask my family when I talk to them to-morrow. Since the liturgical situation in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles is so bad, the vast majority of my family attends SSPX chapels. My mother, myself and a cousin or two are the only dissidents. LOL.
Actually, one of my cousins and her husband and parents-in-law switched rites many years ago and now attend a Byzantine Catholic parish.

Kovpak was consecrated by Fellay, as two priests here have indicated to me and one of them had a news story about it.

I assumed it was common knowledge.

Kovpak has been a vicious thorn in the side of Pat. Lubomyr and that is what is the unfortunate, scandalous thing about the whole situation.

Alex

Peter,

You're right about Rangel!

Alex,

Oh, well his consecration is news to me!

Alexis

I believe that the Society of St. Pius makes commits a grave error if they have consecrated this priest to episcopacy, and in giving legitimacy as Traditionalists to this group that defends Latinizations.

They should have known that Latinization is the face Modernism takes in the East, by supressing Eastern traditions that are ancient and approving innovations alien to the Byzantine-Kyivan tradition.

I am also led to believe that a consecration did not take place, as this would be a unconvenient step backwards n the normalization of Communion between the SSPX and the Vatican, specialy now that the SSPX is trying to have an agreement.

I think the point of the SSPX involvement in the whole issue is that they do not accept the Second Vatican Council. Thus it was natural to align themselves with another Catholic group also opposed to the changes mandated by the Council. The Latinizations that the SSJK support were those in popular use before the Vatican II: using Church Slavonic rather than the vernacular, recitation of the Holy Rosary, Stations of the Cross, Benediction with the Monstrance, statues in churches, devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus & Immaculate Heart of Mary, kneeling for Holy Communion, and a few other things.

These practices were/are still very wide-spread. Some of the UGCC parishes here in Philadelphia still have the Holy Rosary and Stations of the Cross.

The Basilians of St. Josaphat in Ukraine seem to still have some of these as well.

http://www.osbm.in.ua/ukr/photo/8/3/24
http://www.osbm.in.ua/ukr/photo/8/3/20
http://www.osbm.in.ua/ukr/photo/8/3/21
http://www.osbm.in.ua/ukr/photo/17/1/6