AUSTRALIAN BISHOP PROMOTES NEW UKRAINIAN CATECHISM

 

On Tuesday 6 November 2016 clergy from around the Archeparchy of Winnipeg gathered at the parish hall of the Cathedral Parish of Saints Volodymyr and Olha on McGregor Avenue in Winnipeg for a conference that was primarily dedicated to the new English edition of Catechism, “Christ Our Pascha”.

 

The keynote presenter was Redemptorist Bishop Peter Stasiuk, CSsR from Melbourne, Australia. He also serves as the Head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church’s Synodal Commission on Catechesis. In this capacity he headed the commission that for many years developed a new all-encompassing Catechism. It was finally published in 2012. Since there is an estimated 20 million Ukrainians living outside of the Ukraine, many of them Ukrainian Catholics, there is an obvious need to translate the Catechism into the various languages where the diaspora now lives. It has been translated into a number of languages and finally into English this year.

 

Bishop Peter gave a history of the publications of catechisms for the Ukrainian Catholic Church over the centuries. He explained that the need for this Catechism was not so much to reproduce a translation of one of the good Catechisms issued by the Catholic Church. A number of Catechisms published by the Roman Catholic Church and simply translated into Ukrainian – including the most recent “Catechism of the Catholic Church” promulgated by Pope St. John Paul in 1992 – were readily available to Ukrainian Catholics. However, the bishops felt strongly that what was really needed was a catechism that was composed entirely by and for Ukrainian Catholics that took into account the unique thousand-year history, theology, spirituality, liturgy, hagiography and ecclesiology of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Thus it was that in 2012, “Christ our Pascha” – a complete three-part Catechism was published.

 

Bishop Peter has Manitoba roots even though he has been serving in Australia as a bishop for over 23 years. Since the Church in Ukraine came out from the ‘catacombs’ almost 30 years ago, he has also made many trips to Ukraine to assist in various capacities. At this conference, he also spoke of the plans to produce entire school and parish programs of catechesis based on Christ Our Pascha. There are plans to produce a youth version similar to the Vatican's famous YouCat.

 

Three members of Canada’s National Catechism Commission (NCC) - Winnipeg’s Vicky Adams and Sisters Marijka Konderewicz, SSMI and Bonni Komarnicki, SSMI from Saskatoon - also presented additional information about the Catechism and what the NCC is developing. Some teaching aides will be available soon on the Royal Doors website – free to be downloaded and used in parish programs.

 

Also during the Clergy Conference, Metropolitan Lawrence announced the new appointments to the Archeparchy of Winnipeg’s Presbyteral Council and College of Eparchial Consultors. An election was held at the last regular Clergy Conference in October and they were announced today. The College, which serves as an advisory body to the Archbishop, will consist of both ex-officio and elected members. The Metropolitan announced the members and presented them with a document of appointment. This includes the Chancellor, Fr. Michael Kwiatkowski and both Provincial Superiors of the Religious Orders based in Winnipeg, Fr. Gabriel Haber, OSBM and Fr. Larry Kondra, CSsR. Also the Deans of Manitoba, Fr. Oleh Bodnarski of Dauphin and Fr. Darren Kawiuk of Winnipeg. Then there were the priests elected by their peers… Monsignor Michael Buyachok, Fr. Dmytro Dnistrian, CSsR, and Fr. Yaroslav Buduykevych.  

 

Two rare copies of the icon of the Mother of God – Our Lady, Door of Mercy – chosen by Pope Francis to be the Icon of the Jubilee Year of Mercy, were presented to the two Pastors of the designated Jubilee Year churches within the Archeparchy. Monsignor Michael Buyachok accepted an Icon on behalf of the Cathedral Church of Sts. Volodymyr and Olha. Redemptorist Fr. Dmytro Dnistrian accepted an Icon on behalf of the Blessed Vasyl’ Velychkovsky Martyr’s Shrine housed with St. Joseph Church. Both Winnipeg churches had a Holy Door established that pilgrims could visit to experience spiritual renewal and receive the plenary indulgence throughout the Jubilee Year. The year comes to a close in Winnipeg on November 20^th.

 

The clergy that attended the Conference also had a Jubilee Year experience of their own. They gathered before the Holy Door entrance of the Cathedral and prayed Pope Francis’ Jubilee Year prayer together as well as the Indulgence prayers. They entered together and prayed the Jubilee Moleben’ to the Compassionate Christ, led by the Rector of the Cathedral, Msgr. Buyachok.

 

The Ladies of the parish hosted the conference participants to an exquisite lunch in the lower level of the Cathedral hall.