INTERVIEW WITH “NC NEWS SERVICE” IN THE U.S. (“MOSCOW, ROME, AND CARDINAL SLIPYJ: HOPE FOR THE FUTURE”)

In an interview with NC News Service during the U.S. visit, Cardinal Slipyi discussed two private audiences he had earlier this year with Pope Paul VI. In both audiences, he said, the Pope indicated to him that the controversial issue of establishing patriarchal status for the Ukrainian rite would be reconsidered and that there was reason for optimism in the matter.

Cardinal Slipyj said he is certain that there will be a patriarchate. "I am sure, perhaps today, perhaps tomorrow, but it will come", he said.

"The Holy Father is preoccupied with Moscow and the Eastern European churches", the cardinal continued. "When these considerations are finished, then our situation will be resolved.

The whole trend now is to find a method of co-existence, and to see our role so we can make a contribution to that dialogue"

It was reported that U.S. Ukrainian-rite experts interpreted Cardinal Slipy's optimistic appraisal as indicative, despite strictures placed on his travel activity in recent years, of support for the view that the case of a Ukrainian-rite patriarchate is being taken more seriously by the Vatican now.

The Cardinal's New York statement follows.

It is, indeed a great blessing of God for a former prisoner of the Soviet Union to find himself in New York City. I have long dreamed of visiting this famous city in the greatest democracy of the world. During my internment in labor camps I had often regretted that this dream had not materialized. My regrets were too hasty. God has his own ways. I lived to see freedom again. I lived to come twice to New York City — the fortress for the defense of human rights. You who live here have the duty to utilize both your freedom and the world forum available to you for the defense of human rights for all persecuted and discriminated people and groups — the Ukrainians among them. Your opportunities for this constitute a portion of the five evangelical talents which you have the responsibility not only to preserve but to multiply.

In my life I have seen and experienced much pain, much sorrow and havoc brought about by two world powers in the years between the wars. In this age of sophisticated technology, political, religious and social injustices have had more serious connotations – the destruction of civilization.

Diplomats must talk and seek understandings but they must remember that a surrender of basic principles of justice and human dignity is not an understanding but a capitulation. My people, my church, and I have experienced the bitter fruits of the negation of basic human rights. I do not wish this same experience upon anyone. I stand in defense of the rights of all.

Naturally since God has made me a member of a particular church and a given people, my first duty is the defense of the rights of this church and this people — the Ukrainian Catholic Church and its faithful. I take this opportunity to point out a fact which is generally unknown or too frequently overlooked – and that is that while other religious groups in the Soviet Union, such as the Baptist and the Jews, suffer discrimination, the Ukrainian Catholics and Orthodox are the groups suffering the greatest injustice. Both these churches have been denied the right to a legal existence. They do not have a single church open to serve the pastoral needs of their faithful either in the Soviet Union or in their own Ukrainian Republic.

Those for whom it is politically inconvenient for our church to flourish have called the defense of the rights of our particular (Pomisna) church by me and the hierarchs of our church political and nationalistic moves. This is not so. Our efforts are governed by purely pastoral considerations, by consideration for basic human rights. They are a simple defense of our human dignity. Can spokesmen for the Baptists or the Jews in the Soviet Union who defend the rights of their communities be criticized for their efforts? Indeed they cannot! And the mayor of your great city, John Lindsay, gave testimony to this during his recent trip to the Soviet Union when he spoke out in defense of the rights of Soviet Jewry.

The situation of the Ukrainian Catholic Church is most unfortunate because of the policy of rapprochement with Moscow initiated by some groups within the Roman Curia. This policy has caused the Vatican – which might be expected to offer a vigorous defense of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in its homeland – to remain silent. Appeasers seek to ease their consciences by arguing that Christ established one Church. The Church is one in degma but not in form. To put the record straight, the controversy between the Ukrainian Catholic bishops and the Vatican does not involve dogmatic differences in any way. What is at stake is an administrative question. We are living in a very difficult period of church history — perhaps more difficult than ever before in history. But our cause is God's cause and with God's help we shall accomplish what we have ondertaken to do. We shall win aniversal recognition that our Ukrainian Church is a Patriarchate!