By Askold Lozynskyj
There is probably no Ukrainian Catholic who is not happy about the new appointment of the Ukrainian bishop from Melbourne, Australia, Mykola Bychok, as Cardinal of the Ecumenical Catholic Church. The Ukrainian Catholic Church is the largest in Eastern Europe and has long deserved the appointment of a cardinal. Therefore, even the harshest critics of Pope Francis should not only rejoice, but also praise the appointment of Cardinal Bychok and pray for him. He has a long and difficult road ahead of him because of his youth and the obvious fact that his choice was a political one.
The subject of the appointment itself is more than a little unexpected. Bishop Mykola Bychok will be the youngest Cardinal in the Church. He will also be probably the furthest removed geographically from the Vatican, even though communication networks are extraordinary today. He was born in Ukraine (Ternopil), served as a pastor in Ukraine and in America, and recently served as bishop for Ukrainian Catholics in Australia. He will be the only Cardinal from Australia, and as the Supreme Archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, nominally referred to as Patriarch Sviatoslav Shevchuk, said, Cardinal Mykola Bychok will represent the interests of Australia and also promote the interests of our UCC in the Vatican. Patriarch Sviatoslav obediently provided a diplomatic explanation of geographical need by the Vatican.
But beyond the euphoria, even if artificial, many questions hang in the air and probably require a somewhat less diplomatic but real response. Why was the primate of the Ukrainian Catholic Church not nominated as Cardinal? After all, he is the head of the Ukrainian Catholic Synod of Bishops. But that is the point. Pope Francis does not want this. This would be a recognition of the autonomy of the Ukrainian Catholic Church or, God forbid, its Patriarchal state.
Pope Francis is not a friend of Ukrainians. In addition, as a person, he is very weak emotionally, subject to normal human weaknesses. These weaknesses are apparent in his behaviour, including his delusions of a historic achievement of unity of Christian churches. For this reason, he even patronizes bandits Russian Strongman Putin and his lackey so called Patriarch Kiril. Religion is often an opiate, sometimes very useful for establishing a moral way of life, but very often it provides confusion such that the clergy is somehow above people, and blindness regarding the person of the Pope, that he acts under the influence of the Holy Spirit and therefore cannot make mistakes.
I ask why is the Ukrainian Catholic Church so disliked in the Vatican? This is a very difficult question, but one that has a logical and obvious answer.
A martyr for the Church after 17 years of Soviet camps, Patriarch Josif Slipyj was not only respected in the whole world because of his martyrdom, but also feared because he raised questions that undermined the authority of the Vatican when he posed the right of the Patriarchate of the Eastern rite Catholic Church according to Vatican II. Even spokesmen of the Ukrainian Church treated him with some trepidation, because Joseph Slipyj was firm and principled in his convictions. This personality was greater than anyone in the Vatican, including
the Holy Father, the Pope. Those who came after Patriarch Josyf were and are far from his greatness and even ceased to prolong his efforts, albeit mindlessly. Nevertheless, the concept of the autonomy of the Ukrainian Catholic Church is particularly disturbing for people like Pope Francis both as pontiff and human.
There is also a second argument. The connections and deals between the Vatican and Moscow are quite old, and they also have to do with financial matters. The Vatican is not only the capital of the Universal Catholic Church, but also the State and one of the largest capitalist real estate owners in the whole world. The Vatican Bank is at the service of investors, including Moscow, and this happens without transparency. The Catholic Church in America does not file tax returns.
In September 2023, the office of Ukraine’s President Zelensky himself called Pope Francis a Russophile and accused him of financial cooperation with the Kremlin and Russian oligarchs to bypass Western sanctions imposed in view of the war. The Vatican routinely denied it but obviously did not open its books for investigation.
The discussion surrounding the finances of the Vatican is a very difficult matter particularly because there is no mechanism to impose transparency. The emotions and perhaps jealousy of Pope Francis as a person, in particular, taking into account his past back in Argentina, and as a Jesuit are also not easy to unravel. One thing that can be said with certainty is that even for the most devoted faithful of the Catholic Church, during the election of Francis as Pope, the Holy Spirit was absent.
Besides all that, Ukrainian Catholics have their Cardinal to share with Australia. And they should rejoice.
October 10, 2024