Just a story I'd like to share...
A few hours ago, the six-man group I sing with enjoyed the humble honor of singing for a Latin Mass presided by Francis Cardinal George of Chicago. The occasion was the Annual Convention of the Illinois Knights of Columbus, and was attended by nearly 1,000 Knights and their families.
His Eminence delivered the homily, during which he spoke at length of his visit to Ukraine last week to celebrate the opening of the first Catholic University in that country since the fall of Communism. He spoke of being deeply moved at meeting a Ukraine women, the widow of a Byzantine Catholic priest. He went on to relate how, when Orthodoxy was made the state religion, the Byzantine Catholics were forced to abandon Catholicism and adopt Orthodoxy under threat of death. Many did, indeed, convert, he said, but a number of BCs refused to sever communion with Rome and, instead, went "underground" with their worship.
This woman's husband was one of those priests. He refused to abandoned his Catholicism, choosing instead to minister to his congregation in secret, at risk of certain punishment.
He told how she would carry on her person the Gifts to be used at the Liturgies that her husband would celebrate, knowing that if he were searched, as was often the case, inprisonment or worse would surely be in store for him. Eventually, the priest was found out, arrested and sent to Siberia. The years of forced labor took their inevitable toll on him, and he died shortly after his eventual release.
His Eminence told how he attempted to thank the woman for her sacrifices and her ceaseless loyalty to her Catholic faith. The woman, he said, stopped him in mid-sentence, telling him instead how deeply honored and blessed she felt to have been able to make the sacrifices she did. His Eminence told of being deeply moved by this woman's intense fidelity to her Byzantine Catholicism.
As quite possibly the only Byzantine Catholic in the entire assembly I, too, was very moved, not only by the story the Cardinal told, but also by the fact that this represented the first time in my experience that I can recall a prelate of such high standing in the Latin Church using the opportunity of a very public homily to bring about an awareness of the "Other Lung" of our Mother Church.
Perhaps the words of JPII's Orientale Lumen are beginning to make a bit of headway. As a Byzantine Catholic, this was indeed both a proud and humbling day for me, my friends!
Slava Isusu Christu!
Al (a pilgrim)
