Ascension by Pavlo Syrokvasha (Bila Tserkva, kiev, Ukraine) 1996
Truth re the Russia-Ukraine War and the Greco-Catholic Church
It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set
by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit
has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses
…to the ends of the earth (Acts 1: 7-8)
At Ascension time, our minds cannot get around; our hearts break; our eyes cannot believe what we see in Ukraine since 24 February, the “dark” almost diabolical nature of Putin’s war. As a child I remember the strength and faith of my Ukrainian neighbors, I never doubted the Ukrainians would fight for their homeland, truth, and freedom. Poverty, newfound freedom after World War II, and living Greco-Catholic faith with devotion to Mary imbued them. In time, as artisans, they built a landmark replica[1] of the wooden Churches of the Greco-Catholic Church. With the drift towards secular modernity, Sacred Heart Church is a witness of faith.
In the West to be “academic” means to use scientific, objective methods, to study complex issues by following sources. Ukrainians are a separate Rite in the Catholic Church:
In 1991, independent Ukraine an “unexpected nation” was born which surprised the West. Theology programs, religious studies and Church history have found that distinguishing between Ukraine and Russia is a problem. Why?
The problem in post-Vatican II inspired ecumenical dialogue is a highly romanticized view of history and theology which carries the day with Western Ecumenists. In the dialogical endeavor, Ukraine disappears. Consequences?
In scholarly works on the gift of Eastern Christianity, Ukraine is almost never mentioned. The Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate and its influence on the Tsars and Soviet Union is the image of the “grand narrative.”
The Christianization of Rus is the proper historical and theological terminology. Use Rusian,[2] Rusyan, or Kievan. A proper balance is reached by understanding the Romanov Empire (1613-1917) with its multi- ethnic and multi-religious parts.
There is a Church of Moscow, the Muscovite Church, but it is erroneous to speak of the baptism of Russia. There was no “Russian Christianity” in the medieval period, in the time when the event known as “the Baptism of Rus 988” Ukraine is not part of the Church of Moscow. A superficial study of history fuels misinformation in the Western media.
Worse is the role of the clergy in the Russian Orthodox Church and Patriarch Kirill, who function as Russian propaganda, willingly, as co-inventors of the concept of the so-called “Russian World” or “Russian Space” which they want the West to buy. They deny Ukrainian independence since 1991. They want Ukrainians under the Patriarch of Moscow.
This has everything to do with the toxic “Russian World” ideology with its RACIST undertones and the claims over the neighboring nations like Ukraine and Belarus. A caveat to theologians and Church historians who have to address the aggregate of political and military constructions that only appear “benevolent.”
Eight tips for sounding the alarm:
Overlooking a disciplined academic, scientific and objective study of the range of primary sources. That includes knowing the languages.
Failing to step back enough for reflection on the complex issues.
Lack of critical analysis of the political engagements over centuries.
Being too willing to give a pass to the flawed military engagements.
Insufficiency of moral engagement; to take Ukrainians for what they are.
Deficiency in taking the deep view to history; weak fact checking; short cuts that rely on experts who publish in prestigious places.
Failing to remember the famine, Holodomor in 1932-1933, under Stalin. Millions of Ukrainians died when food was kept from reaching them.
Presupposing that the theology of the Greco-Catholic Church leaves nothing to be discovered, but only mixes Orthodox and Catholic theology.
Vatican II, Orientalium Ecclesiarum,[3] was approved on the same day as the engine driving the Council, Lumen Gentium. The Eastern Churches are held with high esteem for the institutions, liturgical rites, ecclesiatical traditions and their established standards of the Christian life. However, its cursoriness short changes Ukrainians their “union and difference” within the Holy Spirit by the same faith, the same sacraments and the same government.
Ukraine is part of the Greco-Catholic Church. Today, the Catholic University in Lviv counters the Russian state and Russian narrative that dominates the media. Knowledge of the history and languages of the old Soviet Union means knowing many languages other than Russian. Reality has changed! There is a quagmire of colonialism. The Ukrainian war is global. To study, to teach, to reach understanding cannot be solely with a Russian lens or Russian markers as if Russia subsumed the existence of all of the old nations. Western universities need to sound the alarm, not condone, nor fail to identify the gift of difference.
The contemporary Ukrainian religious scene differs from religious life in Russia which is dominated by the Russian Orthodox Church and lacks any democratic character. The gift of the contemporary Ukrainian Greco-Catholic Church and its future will be reached by studying Ukrainian Christianity on its own terms, with its democratic character.[4] To have finally arrived at the right question may not be much, but I hope it is not nothing.
Fr. Ed Ondrako, OFM Conv. eondrako@alumni.nd.edu
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[1] Sacred Heart Church is in Johnson City, New York. I never cease to be moved by remembering history. [2] Rusian, Rusyan, is the correct spelling. They are used interchangeably with Kievan. [3] Vatican II, Lumen Gentium, and the Decree on the Churches of the Eastern Rite, 21 Nov. 1964. [4] Special thanks to Rev. Dr. Yury Avvakumov, Univ. of Notre Dame theologian and historian.
Fr. Edward J. Ondrako, OFM Conventual
Research Fellow Pontifical Faculty of St. Bonaventure, Rome
Visiting Scholar, McGrath Institute for Church Life
University of Notre Dame
Ascension 2022
During the May 25, 2022 Daily Mass at the Chancery of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta, celebrated by Most Rev. Gregory J. Hartmayer, OFM Conv., a friar of our province who serves as Archbishop of Atlanta, his homily speaks on prayerfulness at this time of unrest and grief in our world, and so much more.
Pictured is an altered image of a Chapter at the Portiuncula (“Little Portion” as St. Francis called the St. Mary of the Angels chapel) from “The Little Flowers of St. Francis,” published in 1919 by J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd. London. The book is an English translation by Thomas Okey of “I Fioretti di S. Francesco,” by Antonio Cesari (1822) of collected tales of St Francis of Assisi. Original stories were in Latin from about 150 years after the 1226 death of St Francis
Please keep the friars of our province in your prayers as their delegates gather this week for the Ordinary Provincial Chapter 2022. A modern Franciscan Chapter is reminiscent of the 1221 version when St. Francis of Assisi called more than 3,000 friars to come together as family, to the Portiuncula chapel, in Assisi, for a general meeting or “Chapter of Mats.” At that time, the friars lived in huts made from reeds and brought their sleeping mats with them, to the area surrounding the chapel to have a place to sit. Modern day friars, instead meet in a conference center, get to sit on actual chairs, and sleep in “real” beds. It is however still thought of as a coming together as a family, offering witness of brotherhood and celebrating Franciscan life. Days are filled with meetings, presentations as well as the much-needed work of organizing the general needs of the friars and ministries of the Province. Chapter is also a time to enjoy Franciscan Brotherhood. Our province is grateful to those to whom we minister, and all of those who prayerfully support our work, who are praying for our friar delegates, as well as the outgoing and incoming leadership. We will share some photos after the Ordinary Provincial Chapter 2022 (May 23-27, 2022).
Our Lady of the Angels Province friar, Fr. Nicholas Swiatek, OFM Conv. (above center) serves as a parish priest for the Catholic Seto Church (dedicated to St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe), in Seto-Shi, Aichi-Ken, Japan. After his 1968 Ordination, Friar Nicholas spent six years serving in ministry in the USA, before heading to Japan to learn the language and serve as a Missionary. After 33 years ministering there, he returned to the USA in 2001 for just a decade before requesting to return to serve his beloved people of Japan. He will turn 81 in August and still is a strong presence among “his” people.
Joyfully, on Saturday, May 21, 2022, in Tokyo’s Akabane Church, (dedicated to Our Lady of Assumption), the Most Reverend Tarcisius Isao Kikuchi, S.V.D., the Archbishop of Tokyo ordained two friars to the Diaconate. Pictured above are Friar Timothy Maria Nakanori Kosuke, OFM Conv., Friar Nicholas and Friar Michael Toyama Akira, OFM Conv. after the historic moment shared by Friar Nicholas. It has been many years since the last Ordinations there. Friar Timothy and Friar Michael are both friars of the Japanese Province of the Immaculate Conception of the B.V.M.
A reflection by our Assistant General, Fr. Jude Winkler, OFM Conv., on his recent visit with the Minister General, to our Syracuse, NY pastoral ministry of Assumption Church.
After several years without it due to the pandemic, the friars, staff, volunteers and pilgrims of our province’s Shrine of St. Anthony ministry, in Ellicott City, MD, are excited to again host the St. Anthony Festival, on Saturday, June 11, 2022! Guest presenter, Patrick Madrid is a noted author, apologist, and radio host for Relevant Radio. Patrick will be talking about the Eucharist and the biblical sources of Catholicism! The day will begin at 11:00 a.m. with Patrick’s first talk. All present will have the opportunity to gather for Noon Mass and Adoration until 3:00 p.m. Patrick will also give a second talk at 2:00 p.m. The Festival will end with a 4:00 p.m. Vigil Mass in the Chapel.
Mark your calendars and join us on this day as we celebrate the Feast of St. Anthony (June 13th).
May 20, 2022: Our Baltimore, MD high school ministry ~ Archbishop Curley High School gathered to celebrate the Golden Friars Liturgy to honor the 50th Reunion of the Curley Class of 1972. The main celebrant of the Mass was the President of Curley & a member of the Class of ’70 ~ Fr. Donald Grzymski OFM Conv. (pictured below). Fr. Bart Karwacki, OFM Conv., the Guardian of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Friary, concelebrated with Friar Donald.
Congratulations to Friar Lawrence and the rest of the Curley Class of 1972!
Included among the Curley’s class of ’72 honorees was Our Lady of the Angels Province friar ~ Br. Lawrence LaFlame, OFM Conv. (seated in the insert with some of his classmates in attendance). Friar Lawrence is a Theology and Philosophy Instructor at Curley. After graduating from Curley, and before he became a friar of our province, he served in the US Navy as a Sonarman. Fr. Lawrence holds a B.A. and M.A. in Philosophy as well as a M.A. in Theology. He spent 19 years teaching at our Athol Springs, NY high school ministry ~ St. Francis High School, where he taught Latin, Theology, and World History. Friar Lawrence, Friar Donald, and Friar Bart live in community with two more friars in the IHM Friary.
From Newman as a Critic of Modernity To Vatican II as Newman’s Council
I have nothing of that high perfection, which belongs to the writings of saints,
…I trust that I may claim …[in] what I have written, … an honest intention, absence of private ends, temper of obedience, willingness to be corrected, dread of error,
desire to serve Holy Church, and, through Divine Mercy, a fair measure of success.[1]
Since 1969,[2] I’ve been privileged to study John Henry Newman.[3] Imagine my joy on Sunday morning, 19 October 2019, at St. Peter’s, Rome, when Pope Francis canonized Newman. I cannot emphasize enough why Newman was prophetic in his denunciation of modern rationalist forms of Christianity which, in his view, has capitulated to secular reason fully established in the 19th century as both the default intellectual position as well as the[4] new social imaginary. Using Newman’s Idea of a University as a standard, I intend to hand on why Newman as prophet of lamentation and as prophet of jubilation helps to “Rebuild the Church.”
To plumb deeper into lamentation and jubilation as Newman’s critique of secular forms of Christianity he regarded as counterfeit, is to shout out Newman’s prophetic voice in defense of the picture of God as totally Other. To appropriate human response rests on religious fear and awe. It is an honest view of human beings as sinners that are capable through grace of becoming saints (jubilation) or scoundrels (lamentation). It means conviction that faith has prerogatives over instrumental or moral reason, that what matters is making judgments about behavior that pertain to one’s salvation. It means recognizing Newman’s prudent resistance to and refutation of highly processed forms of Christianity in modernity. It means recognizing how secular Christianity disguises itself as genuine and immunizes itself. A more recent and pernicious phenomenon is “weaponized incomprehensibility”[5] that is besieging our values.
As a standard, was Newman’s Idea of a University a success or failure? A dismal failure for it never became a reality. TheIdea of a University was based on the Oxford model with its roots in Aristotle’s system of broad cultural education, paideia, and linked to the origin of the modern university as founded by the Catholic Church in the 13th century at Paris, Padua, Bologna, and Oxford. A university is not a seminary, and that misunderstanding with the Irish Bishops was not bridged. Yet Newman wrote a classic, a coherent and powerful vision of the concept of university that has a signified, adequate, expressed, enormous influence as synthesis with all its details to this day. Shortly before he died, Fr. Hesburgh, C.S.C said to me: Newman’s Idea of a University was just that, a powerful synthesis whose principles helped him to lead the University of Notre Dame for thirty-five years as its president.
Newman’s quote upon acceptance of the cardinalate encapsulates his debt to the ancient classical system proximate to his Oxford classical studies. He embraces his limits as a creature and sinner with freedom and self-transcendence. His understanding and commitment to Church AND World reflect an inheritor of that line from the great saints as Francis of Assisi, and a precursor of Vatican II’s emphasis on reform, renewal, and updating. Understanding Aristotle’s paideia, the Medieval universities, the Oxford model as a youth, contributed to the university curriculum he created for Dublin. Negotiation between Church AND World is constitutive of the Roman Catholic Church.[6] Fr. Hesburgh saw his work at Notre Dame as a progression of Newman, with philosophy as a synthetic state of mind providing integration.
Pope St. John XXIII’s call for Aggiornamento did not equate with thinking that updating for the whole Church meant only when the Church was fully egalitarian. Second, there was never a break with the past at Vatican II, for it would not be the Catholic way. The Church negotiates because it is “in” AND “for” the World, but the Church is not the World. The Church has a supernatural end. TheDocuments of Vatican II give expression to the balance of two lines of interpretation which are ongoing. Lumen Gentium, on the mystery of the Church, and Gaudium et Spes, on the Church AND World, are a balance between the two lines of interpretation. The dominant interpretation after Vatican II, which is the wrong interpretive strategy to Pope Benedict XVI, is the lens of social justice as the only interpretation of the purpose of the Catholic Church.[7]
In The Idea of a University, Newman avoids being clever or appearing to win. To be clever gets old and, ironically, never grows. To be clever is to be permanently frozen. The beauty of argument is towards development of a bridge between views. Second level order of reflection on the data of Christian faith in history and interpreting the development of the Church’s institutions assists theology as a form of knowledge that is public, one that is able to draw conclusions that verify its intuitions, and enable a person to intervene in public space.
Newman’s gentleman[8] in TheIdea of a University describes a “gentleman” not of Christianity, but of civilization, a good citizen. St. Paul’s Christian character in its most graceful form and with its most beautiful hues depends on lifelong formation and cultivation of virtue that is more than ornamental. The Idea of a University lists the Church’s duties: to cure and keep its members from sin by teaching justice and chastity, the judgment to come, faith, hope, devotion and honesty, with elements of charity that puts souls on the way of salvation, aspiring to be heroic, attaining to various degrees of what is beautiful.[9] In the 21st century information explosion we gasp for air trying to answer what constitutes a university education. I read Newman’s Idea of a University as a serene text that is more and more relevant today.
Fr. Edward J. Ondrako, OFM Conv., Univ. of Notre Dame, Easter Reflection 4 eondrako@alumni.nd.edu
________________________________________
[1] J. H. Newman, Biglietto Speech, 12 May 1879. Given upon acceptance of the cardinalate. [2] P. D. Fehlner, OFM Conv. was the first to teach Newman a Franciscan systematic approach. [3] A. J. Boekraad, MHM in 1973-1974; John Ford, C.S.C at CUA in 2006; Oxford Conf. with I. Ker et. al, @ Nat Inst of Newman Studies; SJHNA Conferences; C. O’Regan at Notre Dame since 2010; Dissert. at Syracuse University on Newman and Gladstone,1994; Ed., Newman Scotus Reader, 2015, rpt canoniz. issue, 2019; Dissert. at Notre Dame, Rebuild My Church, 2021. [4]The Documents of Vatican II with Notes and Index (Vatican Trans: 2009, rpt. 2020). [5] Weaponized incomprehensibility implies: “if I do not understand something, you are the fool.” [6] The difficulty was compounded by the refusal of the Catholic Church to negotiate with modernity. [7] Responsible complaints from the faithful most often are in this register, i.e., too social justice oriented. [8]Idea, 208-210. [9]Idea, 203.
Fr. Edward J. Ondrako, OFM Conventual
Research Fellow Pontifical Faculty of St. Bonaventure, Rome
Visiting Scholar, McGrath Institute for Church Life
University of Notre Dame
May 20, 2022
Friar James at prayer, along with the participants at the Mariological Society of America May 2022 Meeting
The Very Reverend Fr. James McCurry, OFM Conv. is finishing out the end of his eight years as Minister Provincial of Our Lady of the Angels Province (2014-2022), attending the May 2022 Mariological Society of America Meeting, at the Marytown National Shrine of St. Maximilian Kolbe, in Libertyville, IL.
It is important to note that Friar James also served as Minister Provincial of St. Anthony of Padua Province from 2010-2014, prior to the Union with Immaculate Conception Province which created Our Lady of the Angels Province in 2014. He also served as General Delegate for our friars of England and Ireland from 2005-2010.
As we close out this Quadriennium, we thank Friar James for his many years of Administrative ministry. We also thank the outgoing Definitory: Fr. Jude Surowiec, OFM Conv., Br. Tom Purcell, OFM Conv., Br. Frank Grimaldi, OFM Conv., Fr. Gary Johnson, OFM Conv., Fr. Ericson de la Pena, OFM Conv., Fr. Michael Heine, OFM Conv. (Vicar Provincial), and Fr. Richard-Jacob Forcier, OFM Conv. (Province Secretary ~ 2010-2022), for their sacrificial service for our province’s community at large.
Next week, during our Ordinary Provincial Chapter 2022 our newly elected Minister Provincial, Fr. Michael Heine, OFM Conv. will take his Oath of Office, with the blessing of our Order’s Minister General, the Most Reverend Fr. Carlos Trovarelli, OFM Conv. Also during the Chapter, our friar delegates in attendance will elect a new Definitory.
Please keep all of our friars in your prayers as they prepare for the next four years.
Currently, Our Lady of the Angels Province has two men in the first formal year of formation, in the St. Bonaventure Friary – Interprovince Postulancy (Chicago, IL). Together with their Postulancy Assistant Director – Fr. Joseph Bayne, OFM Conv. (a friar of our province – pictured at center), the Postulants – Marvin Fernandez and Connor Ouly took some time to visit a bit of our province roots with a stop at picturesque Corpus Christi Church (Buffalo, NY). Corpus Christi Church was established in 1898 by +Friar Hyacinth Fudzinski, OFM Conv. (1855-1925) to accommodate a rapidly growing Polish immigrant community in the densely populated Buffalo neighborhood. +Friar Hyacinth was a friar of the St. Anthony of Padua Province USA, which is now known as Our Lady of the Angels Province after the 2014 union with Immaculate Conception Province. (Read more about our Province History and the History of the Franciscan Friars Conventual in the USA). This site was also the original home of our Father Justin Rosary Hour ministry (Hamburg, NY). Our friars served the faithful of Corpus Christi Church, until 2003.
Friar Joe, Marvin and Connor were in the area to help a friar of the St. Bonaventure Province move into our Father Justin Senior Friars Residence (Hamburg, NY). Our province’s two soon-to-be Novices were thrilled to take in the rich Franciscan history present in Buffalo, NY. They even got to enjoy lunch at Anchor Bar, often considered the home of the original Buffalo Wings, as a part of the pilgrimage.
Our Lady of the Angels Province friar, Fr. Nicholas Swiatek, OFM Conv. (above center) serves as a parish priest for the
From Newman as a Critic of Modernity
