(Vatican Radio) Two papal appointments in the past two days have given Ukrainian Catholics
in France and the UK a greater sense of pastoral presence and stability.
Pope
Benedict XVI elevated the Ukrainian Apostolic Exarchate in Great Britain to the rank
of Eparchy on Friday. He followed up on Saturday with an announcement, elevating the
exarchate in France to the same rank.
The two bishops appointed to serve as
eparchs are both American-born Ukrainian Catholics, who have served the Byzantine
Catholic Church in the Ukraine and Europe for more than a decade.
Bishop Hlib
Borys Sviatoslav Lonchyna, a native of Steubenville, Ohio, will head the Ukrainian
Catholic Eparchy of the Holy Family of London. And Bishop Borys Gudziak, a native
of Syracuse, NY, will lead the eparchy of St. Wladimir the Great of Paris. Both were
previously serving these territories as exarchs.
Bishop Gudziak shared with
Vatican Radio how the Byzantine Church in France offers accompaniment and a sense
of security for the Ukrainian Catholic community:
“Most of our faithful now
are refugees… they’re illegal migrants, they live in fear, anxiety. They cannot engage
in the system, and they are on the edge all the time. So this uncomfortable spiritual
and psychological position is something that needs to be addressed and ministered
to by the Church.”
So what does the change from exarchate to eparchy mean?
Well, an exarchate in the Eastern Catholic Church is similar to an apostolic vicariate
in the Latin Rite, which is usually established in a missionary region as provisional,
in the hope that the faithful will grow in sufficient number to establish a diocese.
As well, the territory of a vicariate or exarchate remains directly under
the jurisdiction of the pope and is administered in his name by a vicar or exarch.
In the case of a diocese or eparchy, however, the jurisdiction derives directly from
the bishop.
The Ukrainian communities in France and the UK each number about
35,000.