The new head of the Ukrainian
Catholic Church, its youngest bishop, said he believes the other bishops
elected him to promote unity within the church and with other
Christians.
The 40-year-old Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kiev-Halych, visiting Rome to meet Pope Benedict XVI, told Catholic News Service he believes he was elected "despite my age."
Ukrainian bishops from around the world, who met in a synod in late
March to elect a new major archbishop for their church, were looking for
a leader who could "unite the church in Ukraine and outside Ukraine,"
who could "promote the unity of Christians in Ukraine and establish some
sort of dialogue with the new Ukrainian government," he told CNS March
30 at the Ukrainian church office in Rome.
Archbishop Shevchuk said the suffering -- including imprisonment and
martyrdom -- endured by Ukrainian Catholics under the Soviet regime from
1946 to 1989 "was a sacrifice for communion with the See of Peter" and
the Catholic Church.
In 1946, the Soviet government dissolved the Ukrainian Catholic Church
by forcibly uniting it with the Russian Orthodox Church. But for more
than 40 years, Ukrainian Catholics continued to live and to worship
clandestinely.
Archbishop Shevchuk said there are tensions between generations of
Ukrainian Catholics over relations with the Orthodox, considering the
fact that older Catholics risked their freedom and even their lives to
remain Catholic.
But, he said, people seem excited by his election, "and I think this is
the work of the Holy Spirit, which is the spirit of unity. And that's
why I was so courageous to open my arms to the Orthodox without fear and
with great assurance that my church, which I represent, is an open
church."
While the majority of Ukrainians are Orthodox, they are divided into
three churches: one in communion with the Russian Orthodox Church, one
with a patriarch in Kiev and the third known as the Autocephalous
Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
All three Orthodox communities sent bishops to Archbishop Shevchuk's enthronement, or installation, liturgy March 27.
"For Eastern Christians, liturgy is the main expression of doctrine and
of the life of the church. When we were chanting the creed, I approached
each of them saying, 'Christ is among us' -- that is the liturgical
greeting -- and each of them responded, 'Yes, he is and will be,'" the
archbishop said.
With the exchange of greetings in such a solemn setting, "maybe we
started a new moment in our relationship and I hope this new openness in
the dialogue will grow," he said.
Archbishop Shevchuk, who was born in Ukraine and entered the seminary
after the Ukrainian Catholic Church won its right to live freely, was
the apostolic administrator of a Ukrainian diocese in Argentina at the
time of his election.
Being so far from home and from the headquarters of his church, he said
he kept in touch and up-to-date through the Internet and the church's
website.
He has a Blackberry phone, but no Facebook page. He said that as major
archbishop he plans to continue developing a media strategy for his
church because communications is key to promoting unity.
Speaking to reporters immediately after a private meeting with the pope
March 31, Archbishop Shevchuk said the purpose of the meeting was to
express his communion with the pope and to thank him. "Confirming the
election of such a young bishop is a sign of great trust," he said.
For decades, the heads of the Ukrainian Catholic Church and many of its
faithful have been calling on the Vatican to give the major archbishop
the title "patriarch" -- a title that recognizes the holder as the
father of a self-governing church and a title which would place him on
par with the heads of the Orthodox churches.
Archbishop Shevchuk said that while having the title is important
recognition of the maturity of an Eastern church like his, convincing
the pope to grant the title is not his first priority.
"The No. 1 priority for each head of a church is evangelization,
preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ in today's world," he said. "Of
course, our church is growing, is developing its structures ... but we
are conscious that the decision about the patriarchate belongs to the
Holy Father and we would never press him. We respect his freedom."
Archbishop Shevchuk also said his age is not really so shocking when one
considers the fact that the average age of his priests is about 35.
"In our tradition, we do have a married clergy, but a married clergy is
not the main reason we have so many young priests," he said.
The large number of priests in their 30s and 40s today is the result of
young people looking for strong values when communism fell apart 20
years ago and finding those values in the church, the archbishop said.
Religious orders, which accept only candidates willing to embrace
celibacy, were just as full as the seminaries, which accept married men,
he said.
"The possibility of being a married priest is not the main cause of an
increase or decrease in vocations to the priesthood because this
vocation comes from God," he said.