His Holiness

                                                                                                                                             Benedict XVI

                                                                                                                                             Supreme Pontiff

                                                                                                                                             Vatican City

 

                                         Appointment of new Head

 

                        of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church (UGCC)

 

                    and of a new Bishops’ Synod of the UGCC in Ukraine

 

Your Holiness,

we hereby announce to You that on 3rd August 2008 a new Bishops’ Synod of the UGCC was appointed and at the same time a new representative of the UGCC was elected, namely Archbishop Michailo Osidach (aged 78).

 

The reason for the appointment of the new UGCC Synod was the fact that the former representative of the UGCC Card. L. Husar publicly proclaims heresies in his book, wherefore according to Gal 1:8 he automatically excommunicated himself from the Church. We published this anathema on 15th June 2008.

 

The main duty of a bishop is to preach Christ’s Gospel and to see to the purity of faith in his eparchy.

 

Other 17 bishops of the UGCC were warned several times and eventually, on 13th July 2008, they were publicly called to renounce unity with the apostate Card. L. Husar and with his heresies by 2nd August 2008, the feast of St. Elijah the Prophet.

 

However, these bishops separated neither from Card. L. Husar nor from his heresies publicly proclaimed in the book “Discussions with His Beatitude Card. L. Husar: On Postconfessional Christianity” (ISBN 966-8197-10-0, ISBN 966-9197-46-1). His heresies concern the most essential truths of the Christian and Catholic faith.

 

The new Synod takes into consideration, as a mitigating circumstance, the psychological pressure on the individual bishops. They were beholden to the apostate L. Husar in different ways. This was at the price of betrayal of Jesus Christ, of His Gospel and His Spirit. The new Synod will accept these anathemized bishops on condition that they will publicly repent, i.e. that they will renounce both spiritual and external unity with the apostate L. Husar and at the same time they will renounce his public heresies. If they do so, the only punishment will then be that for a period of 6 years their names will not be mentioned in the Divine Liturgy and they will have no voice in dealing with the essential issues of the new Synod.

 

The names of the apostate bishops are the following: I. Voznyak, H. Lonchyna, V. Vijtyshyn, S. Mudryi, B. Dzyurakh, D. Lyakhovych, M. Koltun, J. Voronovskyi, Y. Pryriz, J. Gbur, M. Simkaylo, V. Semenyuk, S. Menyok, J. Hovera, V. Ivasyuk, M. Shashik, T. Senkiv.

 

Names of the new bishops and eparchies assigned to them:

- Supreme Archbishop Michailo Osidach; Suffragan of the Supreme Archbishop: Bishop Irynej Bilyk OSBM – Archeparchy of Kiev and Exarchate of Donetsk

- Bishop Markian Hitiuk OSBM – Archeparchy of Lvov

- Bishop Eliáš Dohnal OSBM – Eparchy of Ivano-Frankivsk

- Bishop Metod?j Špi?ík OSBM – Eparchy of Drohobych

- Bishop Josaphat Kavatsiv OSBM-III., Bishop Teodozij Ivashkiv OSBM-III. – Eparchy of Stryi

- The new Bishops’ Synod appointed Fathers Bohdan Ivanyuk and Ivan Kachanyuk temporary administrators of Eparchy of Kolomiya

- Bishop Timotej P. Sojka OSBM-III. – Eparchy of Buchach

- Bishop Samuel R. Oberhauser OSBM-III. – Eparchy of Ternopol

- Bishop Joseph Kholod OSBM – Eparchy of Zhovkva

- Bishop Basil P. Kolodi OSBM-III. – Eparchy of Uzhgorod

- Father Roman Shelepko OSBM (temporary administrator) – Exarchate of Odessa

- Father Atanazij Kulynych (temporary administrator) – Exarchate of Lutsk

 

These bishops:

1)      renounced historic-critical theology (HCT) and the spirit behind it,

2)      renounced syncretism and the spirit of occultism,

3)      promised not to ordain homosexual priests or consecrate homosexual bishops.

 

They likewise promised to spend two days a month in common prayers, in fellowship, in apostolic teaching and in liturgy (the model of the Church acc. to Acts 2:42).

 

Through these four biblical principles they also want to renew the clergy and the parishes, and they committed themselves, too, to celebrate the seventh day according to these biblical principles (Acts 2:42).

 

Your Holiness, we hereby made all the secret bishops of the UGCC public, and we ask You for Your blessing. At the same time we hereby promise faithfulness to our Lord Jesus Christ as well as to You, and we promise to fight against heresies and against the spirit of apostasy and to strive for the spiritual resurrection of our Church and our nation.

 

If You should have any special demands upon our new Synod or any objections to it, please, invite our whole new Synod to Vatican and personally present to us Your demands and plans.

 

Since we are well acquainted with the psychological pressure You are exposed to even on the part of the dicasteries, we are aware that whatever decrees from these dicasteries we cannot accept as binding.

 

Yours in Christ,

the action committee of the new Bishops’ Synod of the UGCC

+ Eliáš Dohnal OSBM

+ Metod?j Špi?ík OSBM

+ Markian Hitiuk OSBM

+ Samuel R. Oberhauser

 

                                                                                                                                     Pidhirtsi, 3rd August 2008

 

Copies to:

-   Cardinals and Bishops of the Catholic Church

-   Patriarchs and Bishops of the Orthodox Churches

 

Address: Bishops’ Synod of the UGCC, Pidhirtsi 19, Brody dist., Lvov reg., 80660, Ukraine

fax: 00380 3266 30 637, www.community.org.ua