3rd November 2008

                                                                                                                                                                 Archbishop

                                                                                                                                 H.E. Josaphat Kavatsiv OSBM

                                                                                                                                                              Town of Stryi 

                                      Letter to Bishop J. Kavatsiv

Your Excellency,

the new UGCC Synod hereby wants to express to You great gratitude and appreciation for Your merits and bravery in the defence of orthodoxy and fidelity to Christ – as in the times of the Communist regime so nowadays too when the situation is far more dangerous and harder. Without Your manly faith and perseverance the Greek-Catholic Church in Ukraine would be greatly impoverished. We know that those who seek the disruption of Christianity and call themselves apostles, though they are no apostles, also seek Your moral liquidation and the destruction of the work You did in Christ. In these hard moments, when You have to boldly rise into action again, we want to stand by Your side and to help You overcome God’s enemy. We remind You that our UGCC is in an extraordinary situation. Card. L. Husar publicly proclaims a different faith through his heresies and is thus excluded from Christ’s Church. The fact that he still occupies the office changes nothing about it. In his book “Discussions with His Beatitude L. Husar: On Postconfessional Christianity” Card. L. Husar proclaims the following heresies:

1)       he casts doubt on the Divinity of Christ

2)       he casts doubt on the Virginity of the Mother of God

3)       he casts doubt on the eternity of hell and on eternal damnation

4)       he propagates occultism and syncretism

5)       he divines by pendulum

6)       he approves of homosexual activity and of doctrinal and moral relativism

7)       he casts doubt on the primacy and infallibility of the Pope

8)       he propagates reincarnation

By preaching these heresies he has drawn down God’s anathema upon himself, that is, a curse according to Gal 1:8-9. The official synod of the UGCC in Ukraine is in unity with these heresies. In spite of the public call to separate themselves from these heresies the members of the Synod confessed unity with Card. L. Husar and with his heresies, and therefore this anathema also fell upon 17 UGCC bishops. To the above-mentioned heresies Bishop Senkiv added yet some other related to relativism and syncretism with paganism. We emphasize that this is an extraordinary situation which can be treated only by the Holy Father, and that complexly in the whole UGCC in Ukraine. Bishop Senkiv is an apostate and has illegally usurped the Church rule in Stryi. He denied Christ, His salvific teaching as well as the bleeding Church. In these extraordinary conditions, however, there has been a new Bishops’ Synod established. The fact that the Holy Father did not condemn us is an expression of his consent to the establishment of our new Synod. The Holy Father has great hope in us, orthodox bishops, that in the fight for purification of the Church from heresies he will not be left alone. If he considered us harmful to the Church, as it is being falsely stated by our enemies, he would have declared it publicly long time ago. It is necessary to know that Cardinal Husar and his Synod have overtly fallen away from Christ and the Church and that we represent the true Catholic teaching in the UGCC and truly confess the primacy of the Pope.

We are convinced in Christ that the so-called visitation of the apostate bishop T. Senkiv in Your church, which is to take place on 9th November 2008, is the devil’s attack and if it takes place, You will lose the church, the parish and the whole eparchy where the Holy Spirit and the Church have appointed You as a bishop. Do not believe that a compromise with this spirit of apostasy will guarantee You a quiet life in Your old age and recognition of Your apostolic office. They will not give up until they morally kill You.

We beseech You for the love of Christ and for His suffering which He underwent for the sake of every one of us, do not permit the apostate bishop to occupy Your church and to destroy God’s Church on Your territory. Realize that supposing he enters Your church and celebrates the Divine Liturgy with his people, it means that You recognize his jurisdiction over Yourself, that You renounce us, the new orthodox Synod of the UGCC, and that You renounce Your episcopal service as well as Your faithful. By this gesture You at the same time approve of the heresies of the apostate bishop Senkiv and become a partaker of them. In Your church and Your parish the apostate bishop Senkiv has no competence, no jurisdiction and no right.

Your Excellency, we are with You and we are willing to carry the cross along with You and to fight until death. Remember Your glorious past. It was You who set an example to many as well as to us of a brave fight for the true teaching and for Christ’s Church. Summon up the courage and offer resistance to the devil whom You have overcome together with Christ so many times. Do not allow the crown of glory and the great name of an invincible Christ’s warrior to be taken away from You in the autumn of Your life.

Therefore we ask You with the meekness of Christ: receive Bishop Teodozij, Your spiritual son, and appoint him Your suffragan and later also successor. Allow him to celebrate the Divine Liturgy with You every Sunday starting from 8th November 2008 and thus to support You in the further fight.

As for the assistant priest: It is necessary that he himself should resolve whether he will remain faithful to Christ and to You or he will join the enemies of Christ and thus also Your enemies: “No one can serve two masters.” (Mt 6:24)

We are convinced that the feast of the great martyr St. Demetrius (8th November), a victor in the spiritual battle, is the last chance God gives You to save the town of Stryi from the liquidation plan of the apostatic hierarchy.

Unless on Saturday 8th November 2008, on the feast of the victor Demetrius, You make this step of faith and announce to Your faithful that Bishop Teodozij is Your suffragan bishop and unless You offer resistance to the pressures of T. Senkiv and prevent him from his arrogant and criminal action against You, the Greek-Catholic Church on Your territory will be buried.

Dearest brother in episcopal service, we pray for You that You may bravely stand the decisive fight.

In Christ,

Your fellow brothers

+ Mychailo

Head of the UGCC

+ Markian OSBM

Secretary of Synod of the UGCC

Members of the standing Synod of the UGCC:

+ Eliáš OSBM

+ Metod?j OSBM

+ Samuel