A reply to the article from the newspaper Gazeta po ukrajinsky

1)     The title of the article is false and therefore defamatory. Nobody has excommunicated us from the Church! The department of information of the UGCC brought distorted information and the authoress consciously did not publish the truthful explanatory standpoint. The tribunals of the Zhovkva eparchy and of the Major Archbishopric were not competent to try us. As monks of pontifical right we do not fall within the jurisdiction of Card. L. Husar. Apart from that, the right to judge Catholic bishops lies with the Holy Father alone.

2)     Our recent so-called dismissal from the Order took place without trial and without evidence of guilt and is invalid. We have brought an accusation against the crime of the Supreme Tribunal with the Holy Father and we demand punishment of the culprits. Nonetheless, the Basilians had our alleged dismissal announced in all their churches these days.

3)     The dean M. Mazurchuk wilfully, without any evidence and without the official standpoint of competent state authorities blackened our names by imputing to us criminal activity (hypnotism, sect, criminal organization, illegal stay in Ukraine) and the newspaper editors purposefully published this lie and slander without our commentary! Both the dean and the editors of Gazeta po ukrajinsky thus committed a criminal offence.

a)      We are no sect, but bishops and members of the Catholic Church.

b)      We have never committed any offence against the law of whatever state.

c)      We overtly fight against hypnosis and point out its negative spiritual consequences.

d)      The members of the orthodox Catholic Bishops’ Synod of the UGCC who are foreign citizens reside in Ukraine legally.

e)      Miracles of healing and conversions in Pidhirtsi are worked by the Lord Jesus in witness of the true preaching of His Gospel.

4)      The authoress of the article lifted only parts of statements from her interview with us and cited them out of context, thus showing them in false light.

5)      Although we had asked for the possibility of checking up on the article, the editors did not send it to us in time. Only after a repeated request, one day before the issue, the authoress sent us the article by e-mail. We immediately expressed categorical disagreement over its publication, for there was evident manipulation and misinterpretation. We repeated this categorical prohibition two more times; nonetheless, the editors did publish the article along with the manipulated interview with us.

6)      Where is the core of the problem? There is an internally ecclesiastical conflict between us who defend the orthodox doctrine of the Catholic Church and those hierarchs who proclaim heresies or live a life unworthy of a Christian.

THE HEAD OF THE UGCC CARD. L. HUSAR PUBLICLY PREACHES HERESIES AND APPOINTS PEOPLE WITH THE SAME APOSTATIC SPIRIT AND IDEOLOGY TO THE KEY POSTS IN THE UGCC. It was not us but L. Husar and his Synod who took the direction and created conditions in the UGCC which genuine and conscious Greek Catholics cannot approve of, nor spiritually live in. The analysis of Card. L. Husar’s heresies is published on www.community.org.ua (Letters from UA 8,9/2008).

For the sake of defence of our Church we received episcopal consecration and joined with other orthodox bishops of the UGCC, who had been consecrated in the time of illegality during Communism. We established Orthodox Catholic Bishops’ Synod of the UGCC which numbers nine members. We announced this our step of faith to the Holy Father Benedict XVI, who confirmed our consecration by tacit consent.

This whole matter is internally ecclesiastical and the conflict between the orthodox and the apostatic Synod of the UGCC can be settled by the Holy Father alone.

7)      The negative attitude of the authoress as well as of the dean M. Mazurchuk towards the three members of the orthodox Synod who are not citizens of Ukraine is not honest. Sts. Cyril and Methodius, the Apostles of Slavs, were foreigners and Metropolitan A. Sheptytskyi was a Polish nobleman. They all, however, on the pattern of Christ, worked towards the salvation of souls in the nation to which God had sent them.

Members of the orthodox Catholic Synod of the UGCC

+ Markian OSBM, + Metod?j OSBM, + Eliáš OSBM, + Samuel OSBM

                                                                                                                                              Pidhirtsi, 25th May 2009