www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall How Patriarch Sviatoslav Learned About the Church

Q: Were you not afraid of being discovered by the secret police?

Archbishop Schevchuk: As a teenager, at that time I was not aware of the dangers because it was completely a secret and every teenager had his own secret. Neither my mother nor my father were aware of this and this was my personal secret.

Q: We have heard or read about the secret masses under Communism. What was your experience?

Archbishop Schevchuk: Without the Eucharist, the Church would not exist. The holy Eucharist was the central point of our life. I remember once a priest I met. He never talked at great length about the sufferings, persecutions and tortures, but he mentioned that even in prison, all the priests would celebrate the liturgy. We were amazed; how could this be possible? Where did you get a Chalice and a Paten? He took off his glasses and said: 'This is what we used; one lens served as the chalice with a drop of wine and on the other a piece of bread was placed, which served as the paten. This is how they celebrated the liturgy in the prison or around the premises of the concentration camps.