Response to the article: “Not God’s works”

Newspaper “Nasha Batkivshchina” N. 35; author: an employee of the Lvov Regional Council Mr Jevhen Pavelko (pensioner).

The author turned to the Archbishop of the Ukrainian orthodox Greek-Catholic Church Mikhailo Osidach and to his Secretary, Bishop Markian Hitiuk OSBM. The matter concerns proclamation of heresies by ex-Head of the UGCC, L. Husar, his excommunication and establishment of the new Bishops’ Synod and new structure for the UGCC faithful under the name of the Ukrainian orthodox Greek-Catholic Church – abbreviated to UOGCC. Therefore we are forced to answer him publicly.

Quotation from the article by Mr E.P.: “A desire to get rid of heresies among the clergy of the Greek-Catholic confession does not necessarily need a split...”

Response: We who point to heresies are not causing a split but those who uphold them! One can get rid of heresies in one way only – by separating from them. If even after a public appeal the heretic does not retract his heresies, he automatically falls under God’s anathema (see Gal 1:8-9) and in the Western Church he also incurs a latae sententiae penalty according to can. 1364 §1 CIC, i.e. excommunication from the Church.

Quotation: “A more simple and more effective way would be to submit the problem, if it exists, for consideration to the Synod of our Church and to comply with its resolution.”

Response: The problem really exists but it is not possible that it should be dealt with by the Synod of those bishops who are in unity with the heresies of L. Husar. Why? Because they fell under the same God’s punishment of anathema as ex-Card. L. Husar.

Quotation: “Never and nowhere have I heard that the Patriarch of the UGCC L. Husar proclaims heresies and that he is excommunicated from the Church. It is certainly just a wish or conscious disinformation.”

Response: The fact that ex-Card. L. Husar never was and is not a Patriarch is one reality and the fact that he has been excommunicated from the Church is neither disinformation nor a wish, it is the second reality. The fact that he proclaims heresies is testified in his book “Discussions with His Beatitude L. Husar: On Postconfessional Christianity”. E.g.: In this book he denies, among other things, the eternity of hell and claims that noone will go there for ever (pg. 61, first edition).

Quotation: “You are doing dissenting, ungodly works. The Church is the Body of Christ and it must not be torn in order to favour people, even if they hold the office of bishop.”

Response: We, orthodox Catholic bishops, defend the essence of the faith which ensures salvation, we do not tear the Body of Christ. Dissenting, ungodly works are done by ex-Card. L. Husar by his proclamation of heresies as well as by the heretical bishops united with him.

Quotation: “Our ancestors were subordinated to the Vatican and started a process of integration of the disrupted Body of Christ into a whole; they were not disrupting it as You are trying to.”

Response: We are not disrupting the Body of Christ; we are in true unity with our ancestors. We are subordinated directly to the Holy Father and not to the structure which nowadays shelters itself behind his authority but is doing quite the opposite of what the Pope wants and what he represents. The Body of Christ is being broken by those who proclaim and uphold heresies. By this very fact they have been excluded from the Mystical Body of Christ. Now they are holding the official Church posts illegally.

Quotation: “To whom do You and Your adherents want to be subordinated, if the operating Greek-Catholic Church remains under the roof of the Roman Pontiff?”

We as orthodox Catholic bishops are in true unity with the Pope and with the truths of the faith which he represents. L. Husar and bishops who did not dissociate themselves from heresies and from the spirit of heresy cannot be in true interior unity with the Pope. They are in unity with those Vatican prelates who have the same spirit of apostasy as they do. Heretics are not under the roof of the Pope but of the antipapal structure. We represent the true UGCC; we only dissociate ourselves from Husar’s heresies which deny the nature of the UGCC. We added the word “orthodox” to the name of the UGCC only in order to express the internal difference between us, bishops who represent the true faith of the UGCC, and L. Husar along with the Synod united with him who preach a false faith. We were forced to separate from the heretical structure and to apply to the state authorities for registration that we thus may give an opportunity for priests and the faithful who are kept under the sway of the heretical hierarchy. Unfortunately, the apostatical hierarchy influences the state bodies at the highest posts into not permitting the registration of the orthodox Greek-Catholic Church. However, it is not possible to make unity with heresies and heretics in any case for it would be at variance with the essence of the Gospel.

Quotation: “The President of our state, the supreme representatives of all Orthodox confessions, except for Russian, are well-disposed towards the idea of integration into a single Ukrainian local Orthodox Church... one nation, one Church, one spirit...”

Response: You speak about a single Orthodox Church. The President visited the Holy Father this year and the Pope rejected this idea.

Quotation: “In conclusion I would like to remind You that the Age of Pisces is drawing to an end and there begins a new age – the Age of Aquarius, the Age of the Living God. The age of communion of morally pure spiritual people with the Living God.”

Response: You write: “The Age of Pisces is drawing to an end”, whereby You actually deny what You stated so eagerly about the Catholic and even about the Orthodox Church. You say that the time of Aquarius has come. Aquarius is a symbol of the New Age. This movement is antichristian and its aim is to replace Christianity with a so-called new global religion but without God, without Jesus Christ. The aim of this new religion is to teach people to open up to different spiritual forces and to so-called energies. We, on the other hand, warn believers that the Church and the Gospel call these powers and energies demons and the worship of them idolatry. This so-called “Living God” of the Age of Aquarius is not the God of Christians, but the devil himself. Professing the faith in the so-called “Living God” Aquarius leads to and ends in the place which is called hell! We remind that the spiritual association of Freemasons, which has its lodge even in Lvov, worships this so-called “Living God” of the Age of Aquarius!

                                                                           + Markian OSBM

                                                                Secretary of the Bishops’ Synod

                                             of the Ukrainian orthodox Greek-Catholic Church (UOGCC)

Address: Synod of the UOGCC, 3 Sosnova St., Lvov - Bryukhovychi, 79491, Ukraine

www.community.org.ua; pidhirci.community@gmail.com