Good 10 Minute Intro. to Ukrainian Catholic History

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Brother mardukm had asked me if I could post a link to a newly released film on the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in the years when it lived underground in secrecy with its hierarchy killed or sent to the Gulag (1946-1988) under the Soviet Union. I couldn’t but I found a nice 10 minute video from a CatholicRadio channel on Youtube that touches on this with a good introduction on the origins of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, which might be rewarding in understanding our Church’s history.

It’s worth the watch.

youtube.com/watch?v=ccCzNfhGf7E

God Bless.
 
Lord, God, grant the Ukranian Catholic Church your life and vigor!!!

Holy Theotokos of the Immaculate Conception, pray for the needs of the Ukranian Catholic Church.

THAT WAS AWESOME!!! I’m sure the whole video is even better.

The video got me to thinking and believing on the deepest level in the Catholic identity of the UGCC. I am so proud to have you as my brother in the Catholic Faith.

Blessings,
Marduk
 
Thanks Marduk! :):)🙂

And I as well am proud to have someone as smart as you as a brother in the Catholic Faith. You are one of the brightest posters around here on the whole Forum.

God Bless! 🙂

Andrew
 
Formosus said:
👍

Awesome video! Any idea where I can acquire the full thing?
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Thanks Formosus. I have no idea except for perhaps contacting the Catholic Radio and Television Program here:
crtn.org/V2/intro.php?seccion=2&vemos=desarrollo&numero=793&busqueda=Emerging%20from%20the%20Catacombs&pag=1&

They have some other videos on Ukraine posted on youtube which I might check out tonight, but this is the first I have come across them. 😊 I am not even sure it can be ordered in DVD format as I have never come across this company before. (Though it sure is nice to find new resources). The more the better. 😃

As I said, Brother Marduk asked if I had a link to the current documentary released by our Church for the years it survived in the underground and I did not. I checked youtube and found a trailer for this other film, Emerging from the Catacombs. I have no idea what the rest of the documentary looks like but I’ll look into it. 🙂

Andrew.
 
Well, that’s certainly one way of understanding the Union of Brest… :rolleyes:
 
In keeping with the purpose of the Eastern Catholicism Forum as stated by the CAF Administrator, which “is to provide a community for Eastern Catholics and to help Latin Catholics better appreciate the Church’s Eastern heritage,” I thought it worthwhile on the subject of the Union of Brest to link to a very good article written by Reverend Borys Gudziak Ph.D., Rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Ukraine, on the Union which reestablished communion between the Ukrainian (then called Ruthenian) Church and Rome in 1596 as written of here in a book specifically on the Union of Brest:
books.google.ca/books?id=9FN9gT7CQw4C&pg=PA17&dq=Borys+Gudziak&cd=1#v=onepage&q=Borys%20Gudziak&f=false

The link is to the article on the subject previewed in Google Books.
 
Христос воскрес!

Wonderful job, Andriy!!!

Fr. Borys’ Crisis and Reform is the definitive historical work on the Union of Brest. I also recommend the wonderful new movie of Oles Yanchuk on Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, which has English subtitles. stores.iconandbook.com/Detail.bok?no=821
 
Diak said:
Христос воскрес!

Wonderful job, Andriy!!!

Fr. Borys’ Crisis and Reform is the definitive historical work on the Union of Brest. I also recommend the wonderful new movie of Oles Yanchuk on Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, which has English subtitles. stores.iconandbook.com/Detail.bok?no=821
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Воістину Воскрес отче!

The movie on Metropolitan Sheptytsky is quite wonderful. Ironically, I just began watching it yesterday and will finish the end tonight! It is moving. 🙂
 
Dear friends,

thanks for your interest in our documentary. The best way to get the full film is via the national offices of the Charity Aid to the Church in Need which supports the activity of Catholic Radio and Television Network.

You can find your National office here:
acn-intl.org/pg/help.html?p=EN,19,22,1,

God bless,
Benedikt for CRTN

PS: You might also be interested in our new web project www.wheregodweeps.org where we offer full video and audio content about the persecuted church.
 
BenediktCRTN said:
Dear friends,

thanks for your interest in our documentary. The best way to get the full film is via the national offices of the Charity Aid to the Church in Need which supports the activity of Catholic Radio and Television Network.

You can find your National office here:
acn-intl.org/pg/help.html?p=EN,19,22,1,

God bless,
Benedikt for CRTN
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Dear Benedikt. Thank you for the link and information.

God Bless. 🙂 🙂
 
I learn so much more from your posts.
It was really hard to watch the communists tear down the churches and destroy the religious art. Did people manage to save any of the relics?
 
HyeDetroit said:
I learn so much more from your posts.
It was really hard to watch the communists tear down the churches and destroy the religious art. Did people manage to save any of the relics?
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Thanks HyeDetroit. In some villages people hid the church icons. As for stuff like old church bells, during the genocidal collectivization campaign in Eastern and Central Ukraine in 1932-33, there were “babski bunty” or “rebellions by grandmothers” to protect the Churches, as Robert Conquest wrote in his book “Harvest of Sorrow” about the terror-famine in Ukraine. The Soviet Secret Police would put down these rebellions by little old ladies and confiscate much of worth that had been there in the churches for generations.

What wasn’t hidden successfully the Communists would attempt to use these church (from Ukraine and Orthodox Russia, etc) valuables to sell on the world market to gain money for any future proletarian revolution and the consolidation of the Soviet Dictatorship. There was always a rumour that the American magnate Armand Hammer (Occidental Petroleum) who met Lenin personally and did business with him, helped the Soviets get money on the international markets for any relics or church gold. Not sure. Some did miraculously survive though.

Some churches simply became museums or warehouses. The church had been the focal point of village life and towns. Not anymore under the Soviets.
 
Thanks HyeDetroit. In some villages people hid the church icons. As for stuff like old church bells, during the genocidal collectivization campaign in Eastern and Central Ukraine in 1932-33, there were “babski bunty” or “rebellions by grandmothers” to protect the Churches, as Robert Conquest wrote in his book “Harvest of Sorrow” about the terror-famine in Ukraine. The Soviet Secret Police would put down these rebellions by little old ladies and confiscate much of worth that had been there in the churches for generations.
Click to expand...
What wasn’t hidden successfully the Communists would attempt to use these church (from Ukraine and Orthodox Russia, etc) valuables to sell on the world market to gain money for any future proletarian revolution and the consolidation of the Soviet Dictatorship. There was always a rumour that the American magnate Armand Hammer (Occidental Petroleum) who met Lenin personally and did business with him, helped the Soviets get money on the international markets for any relics or church gold. Not sure. Some did miraculously survive though.
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Some churches simply became museums or warehouses. The church had been the focal point of village life and towns. Not anymore under the Soviets.
Click to expand...
As Andriy has well said, it was largely the faithful who hid holy items such as chalices, antimensia, icons, etc. Sometimes there were well-designed networks so that each person did not have all of the items necessary for Liturgy in case their house was the one raided. The restoration has also been nothing short of miraculous.

Iconography has been greatly renewed; Pan Pavlo Petrushak at Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) has been tirelessly restoring icons that were attempted to be destroyed, were hidden, damaged by smoke and water, etc. He teaches the summer Iconography Institute at UCU which I highly recommend (my son attended and loved it), and is the world’s expert in traditional Carpathian-style iconography. He is also an expert in the theology and styles of iconography, and is the curator of the Sheptytsky Museum that houses hundreds of traditional icons from all over the world.
 
KyivAndrew said:
Dear Benedikt. Thank you for the link and information.

God Bless. 🙂 🙂
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Dear Andrew,

you’re welcome.

It is important for us to have people who take interest in our programs and also share the news.

Our programs are broad casted on the catholic stations like EWTN, Catholic TV or K-TO. Not everyone can watch these stations so it is good to distribute via the internet.

You might want to know that we currently prepare a program on the Soviet Gulag camps in Eastern Siberia (Magadan). Our film team went there some months ago to interview the last survivors of the camps. The film is scheduled for release for Winter 2010/2011.

Best regards,
Benedikt
 
BenediktCRTN said:
You might want to know that we currently prepare a program on the Soviet Gulag camps in Eastern Siberia (Magadan). Our film team went there some months ago to interview the last survivors of the camps. The film is scheduled for release for Winter 2010/2011.

Best regards,
Benedikt
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Dear Benedikt. Thanks for the heads-up on your coming documentary on the Soviet Gulag. This is very good. The world knows little of what believers had to suffer under the Soviet Regime and the incredible death toll resulting from Communist Crimes. May God Bless you and your organization in furthering the world’s knowledge of the suffering Church throughout the world, wherever the Church suffers, in the areas that are little-known by the wider Western public. 👍

Best regards,

Andrew 🙂
 
Христос Воскрес!

Excellent project, Benedikt - I’ve been involved with funerals of several of these heroes in our Ukrainian Greek Catholic parishes who emigrated to the US in recent years, and it is so important to collect their first-hand accounts while we still have them to talk to.
 
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