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Last Updated: 19 February 2013

Dublin - 17-Feb-2009 - On February 7-10, 2009, Bishop Hlib (Lonchyna), curial bishop, Apostolic Visitator for Ukrainian Greek-Catholics in Ireland, made a pastoral visit to the city of Dublin (Ireland). In this city for many years now the community of faithful of the UGCC, which Archimandrite Serge Kelleher has served for many years, has lived and developed. The bishop stayed with Archbishop of Dublin Reverend Dermund Martin.

The meeting with the community took place on Sunday February 8 at 16.00 in St. Kevin’s Oratory, which is a side chapel of the local Roman Catholic cathedral. A sign of the growth and future of the community was the administering of the sacrament of baptism during the Divine Liturgy. Father Serge baptized little Mark Marchuk, son of Vadym and Inna Marchuk, and Bishop Hlib administered to him the sacrament of confirmation and the holy Eucharist.

The sermon focused on the persons of the publican and the Pharisee, because the Gospel presented this parable that day. According to Bishop Hlib, the great surprise of divine mercy comes up in the parable: God forgives even great faults when a man repents and tries to improve his life, and God does not justify the one who stands before Him with a sense of righteousness and the conviction that he does not need to repent.

Information Department of the UGCC - ugcc.org.ua

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Last Updated: 19 February 2013

Bill Could Repeat Stalin's Expropriation

By Chiara Santomiero

BUCHAREST, Romania, FEB. 17, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Sixty years after it happened in Communist times, the Catholic Church in Romania is again afraid that the state will expropriate their property if a controversial bill is approved.

Bishop Virgil Bercea of the Byzantine Eparchy of Oradea Mare explained, "If this bill is approved, what happened in 1948 will be repeated, when Stalin denied the Church in Romania united with Rome, Greek [Byzantine] Catholic, the right to exist, subtracting goods and imprisoning their bishops."

The prelate, who is also responsible for the laity commission of the Catholic bishops' conference of Romania, told ZENIT of his concern about the bill. He explained that this bill about the legal regulations of real estate belonging to the Orthodox and Byzantine faiths in Romania was discussed from Jan. 27-29 in the juridical committee of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies.

The bill provides, among other things, that "in rural areas, where there are parish communities of both confessions, and monasteries, […] the sacred goods -- places of worship, parish houses, cemetery and land belonging to them -- will be owned by the majority religion."

"Inevitably," Bishop Bercea pointed out, "this rule will harm us, as the Greek Catholic Church has always been a minority, but extremely vital in the life of the country."

Letter of appeal

Archbishop Lucian Muresan, the major archbishop of the Romanian Church united to Rome, sent a letter to the president and the prime minister of Romania to express "dismay" and to request the withdrawal of a bill that would "cause moral and material damage to our Church and violate the constitutional rights of the Greek Catholic faithful."

The letter reads: "The Romanian state, the successor to the Communist state of 1948, has the moral obligation to restore to the Church everything that has been confiscated. We ask only what belongs to us according to the law, in accordance with the Constitution of Romania and international laws."

"In Oradea," Bishop Bercea said, "We had 220 churches; 19 have been returned to us." He added, "Often, we simply ask to be able to celebrate in the same building of worship at different times from the Orthodox."

Stalin seized the assets of the Byzantine Church, which became the property of the Orthodox Church. At this time, priests, religious and bishops were considered outlaws, and many suffered imprisonment or even martyrdom.

Prayer for harmony

The bishop explained that there are cases in some localities where there are two churches, originally an Orthodox and a Byzantine Catholic. He said, "The Orthodox celebrate one Sunday in one church and the other Sunday in the other, leaving one closed alternately, while we are obliged to celebrate in homes, in schools or even outdoors."

The bishop remarked on the "pity" of this threatening situation "on the part of the hierarchy of the Orthodox Church, which is not shared by all the bishops, as there are places where [the two Churches] live in harmony and where the Orthodox Church, if it has not returned all property that belonged to the Greek-Catholic Church, at least [returned] that which was needed."

It is also an attitude, he said, that "does not spread among people, because here the families are often constituted by Orthodox and Greek Catholics, as well as Romanians, Germans and Hungarians."

"We are conscious," concludes Bishop Bercea, "of being too small to be able to prevent the adoption of the law. We put our efforts and that of those who want to support us into prayer."

Feb. 11 marked a day of prayer and fasting for members of the Byzantine Catholic Church, to pray for aid in this situation.

ZE09021706 - 2009-02-17
Permalink: http://www.zenit.org/article-25119?l=english

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CWNews.com - 20090217 - Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan was enthroned in Beirut on Sunday as the new head of the Syrian Catholic Church, an Eastern Catholic Church with an estimated 132,000 members.

Source(s): these links will take you to other sites, in a new window.

• New Syrian Catholic patriarch installed in Lebanon (CNS)
• Beirut celebrating new Syriac Catholic patriarch (AsiaNews)
• New Syrian Catholic Patriarch comes from American diocese (CWN)
• The Syrian Catholic Church (CNEWA)

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Moscow (CWNews.com - 20090213) - Although the new Patriarch of Moscow has been an advocate of stronger ecumenical ties with Rome, a "summit meeting" with the Pope is still blocked by disagreements over Catholic missionary activity in Eastern Europe, according to Russian Orthodox Bishop Hilarion of Vienna. The Russian prelate said that newly elected Patriarch Kirill "will do everything to remove all obstacles" that impede ecumenical progress, but will not rush into a meeting without adequate preparation.

Source(s): these links will take you to other sites, in a new window.

• Russian church: impediments to pope meeting remain (AP)
• Moscow Patriarchate: Obstacles to meeting between Patriarch Kirill and Pope Benedict XVI are still there (Interfax)

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Feb. 10, 2009 (CWNews.com) - The Romanian Catholic Church has set February 11 as a day of strict fasting and prayer, as the Eastern-rite Church confronts a crisis in Romania.

Since the fall of that country's Communist regime, the Romanian Catholic Church has sought the return of parish properties that were confiscated during the Stalin era and turned over to Romanian Orthodox control. The Romanian Catholic Church, which endured fierce persecution under Communism, survived underground and returned to vigorous public life after the repressive regime led by Nicolae Ceausescu finally fell in 1989.

Still most of the confiscated church property remained under Orthodox control, and in many instances Eastern-rite Catholics have been forced to worship in schools and other public buildings, or even outdoors, rather than in the churches built by their forefathers. In a country where Orthodox believers form a clear majority, the Romanian government has been reluctant to press for restoration of Catholic properties. Disputes over the legal ownership of churches have caused considerable conflict between the two Eastern churches.

The situation is complicated by the fact that some church buildings have now been used by Orthodox congregations for decades. Moreover, the Romanian Catholic Church was decimated by the years of brutal Communist persecution. There were about 2.5 million Eastern-rite Catholics in Romania before the Communist takeover; today the number is closer to 250,000. In some towns there are not Catholics remaining to claim ownership of an old church.

In 2007, legislation was introduced in the Romanian parliament that would have severely curtailed the efforts by Catholics to regain church property: including artwork and furnishings as well as the buildings themselves. Although the proposal was defeated, it has been introduced again this year, prompting what leaders of the Romanian Catholic Church see as a crisis for their community.

Major Archbishop Lucian Muresan of Alba Iulia-Fagaras, the leader of the Romanian Catholic Church, has called his people to fast and pray for justice on February 11. In the United States, the Bishop John Michael Botean, who heads the American eparchy of the Romanian Catholic Church, has asked all parishes to join in solidarity with that fast. In addition to fasting, he proposed that the faithful "go to the church you are blessed to have free and unhindered use of in order to pray on that day that God’s will be done in Romania—and injustice is not God’s will.

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09.02.2009, [17:21] // UOC-MP //RISU.ORG.UA

KYIV—During a press-conference in Kyiv, the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), Metropolitan Volodymyr (Sabodan), gave the following answer to a question about the possible renewal of the patriarchal see in Kyiv: “In principle, why not, if the right time comes?” At the same time, he noted that “this [autocephaly] is received by common believers not very actively and not quite positively.” RISU’s Ukrainian site posted this story on 5 February 2009.

People fear that some changes in the church’s structure can harm them. People have painful associations with the very word ‘autocephaly.’ They do not understand this notion, and, even more so, they are afraid of the situation behind the notion. Therefore, there will be no autocephaly at this time. And when its time will come, I also cannot tell. The Lord knows,” stressed Metropolitan Volodymyr.