Ukrainian Catholic patriarch visits Minersville students
MINERSVILLE — It was a joyful and historic time on Tuesday as the patriarch of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church visited St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church in Minersville and met with the children of the parish school.
His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, native of Ukraine, is the spiritual leader of Ukrainian Catholics around the world and is the archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Kyiv, Ukraine. He is visiting the United States and spent the day visiting Ukrainian Catholic churches in Schuylkill, Northumberland and Columbia counties, with his first stop being the longest as he enjoyed a program by the students of St. Nicholas School, located near the church.
The patriarch was visiting the area with Metropolitan-Archbishop Stefan Soroka, archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia. Soroka is the spiritual shepherd of Ukrainian Catholics in the United States.
Joined by local clergy, Shevchuk and Soroka entered the church and sat in front as the students, led by Sister Natalya Stoczanyn, SSMI, who is serving in the deanery from the Immaculate Conception Province, directed them in song during the program.
The church bells rang loudly as Shevchuk, Soroka and the clergy processed up the center aisle. As they sat down, they were greeted by eighth-grader Hunter Shimko, who was wearing traditional Ukraine garb. The students who participated in the narrations and presentations also wore Ukrainian clothing.
“We, the students of St. Nicholas School in Minersville, have the great honor of welcoming you to the South Anthracite Coal Region,” Shimko said.
Throughout the program, the children sang songs in English, Ukrainian and Spanish, along with using a form of sign language. The use of the languages impressed Shevchuk, who speaks Ukrainian, English, Spanish, Polish, Russian, Italian, Greek, Latin and Old Slavonic.
In addition to Shimko, other student narrators told the story of the coal region and the Ukrainian immigrants who settled in the area. Narrators were Nadia Zimmerman, sixth grade; Jack Dean, fifth grade; Hayden Lapointe, fifth grade; Francesca Modica, seventh grade; and Remington Montag, pre-kindergarten.
Throughout the program, gifts were presented to the patriarch. Bread and salt were presented by kindergartners Erica Miller and Justin Wachter, a bust of a coal miner made of anthracite coal was presented by third-grader Logan Hutsko and traditional Ukrainian embroidery was presented by fifth-grader Caitlin Miller.
After the students sang “America the Beautiful,” Shevchuk went to the microphone and spoke to the children, teachers, and the public who attended.
“It is a particular pleasure, privilege and joy for me to be here with you today,” he said. “I have to say that I am very impressed by your intelligence, impressed by your knowledge of four different languages, which is incredible. I was impressed how you handled those two difficult words — beatitude and spirituality. Thank you so much for keeping spiritual joy here at school, and you are also very obedient when how Sister (Stoczanyn) was making signs to you and how quick you were to respond. That was just outstanding.”
He continued, “I’d like to bring to you greetings from the children of Ukraine, the land of your ancestors. I have to assure you that I will pray for you, for each one of you, and please pray for your friends (in Ukraine), because right now in Ukraine so many children like you have no place to live, no school to go and a lack of the basic things to survive, especially in the winter.”
He thanked everyone at St. Nicholas School and the work that is done there.
The children had the opportunity to ask questions of the patriarch, with the Rev. Mark Fesniak, pastor, picking students to ask questions. During the question-and-answer period, the children learned that he is 45, enjoys watching soccer as his favorite sport and played it when it was younger, his favorite food is borscht, his brother is a priest serving in Ohio, and learned the English language over time while visiting the United States.
At the end of the question time, Soroka said, “Clearly, his selection to be patriarch was of God, just as it is for our priests or sisters when called to serve. God calls and inspires them and they’re called to serve all of us and his holy church. We are so grateful that the patriarch had such a willing and open heart to respond to God’s call, first as a priest, then as a bishop, and now as the spiritual father of our whole church. He said ‘Yes.’ ”
After the program, the patriarch and clergy went to the rectory for lunch, and then went on the tour of area churches.
Shevchuk, 45, was elected head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church on March 23, 2011, at age 40. As a church leader in Ukraine, he has witnessed the suffering inflicted on the people of Ukraine by the war in the eastern part of his homeland. In October, he participated in the World Synod of Bishops convoked by Pope Francis at the Vatican.
According to the biography on Wikipedia, he was born in Stryi, Ukrainian SSR, and ordained as a priest on June 26, 1994. From 2002 to 2005 he worked as head of the secretariat of Patriarch Lubomyr Husar. He is an alumnus of the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas Angelicum, where in 1999 he obtained a doctorate in theology.
Having completed his theological training, he served as rector of the seminary of Lviv, Ukraine. On Jan. 14, 2009, he was appointed auxiliary bishop of the Eparchy of Santa María del Patrocinio en Buenos Aires, Argentina, and consecrated bishop on Apr. 7, 2009, by Archbishop Ihor Vozniak. On April 10, 2010, he was appointed Apostolic Administrator of the same diocese and worked with Jorge Mario Cardinal Bergoglio, now Pope Francis.
On March 23, 2011, he was elected major archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church to replace the retired Major Archbishop Lubomyr Husar. This decision was confirmed by Pope Benedict XVI on March 25, and was enthroned on March 27.