ПРИЧИНИ КОНФЛІКТІВ МІЖ УКРАЇНСЬКИМИ ГРЕКО-КАТОЛИЦЬКИМИ ІММІГРАНТАМИ ТА ІЄРАРХІЄЮ РИМО-КАТОЛИЦЬКОЇ ЦЕРКВИ У КАНАДІ (1895–1914)

Abstract

Ukrainian immigration has played a significant role in the economic development of Canada as well as in the formation of religious diversity in the country. Most Ukrainians who came to Canada during the first wave of immigration (1891-1914) belonged to the Greek Catholic Church in Galicia, and their interactions with the Roman Catholic clergy were not straightforward, primarily due to differences in their languages and rites. In the article the competition in the mission territories in Western Canada among the Roman Catholic Franco- and Anglo-Canadian clergy formed a phenomenon of rivalry between them and aggravated the religious situation has been ascertained. The issues of jurisdiction of the bishop of the Greek Catholic Church in Galicia over immigrants, the presence of married clergy, and the ownership of acquired church property became decisive in the religious life of Ukrainian immigrants during the first wave has been proved. The unwillingness of the Roman Catholic hierarchy to understand the needs of Greek Catholics led to their transition to other denominations. The article shows that in order to stop the conversion of Greek Catholics to other denominations, the Commission of Oriental Rites in 1909 recognized the expediency of appointing a Ukrainian bishop to Canada. The establishment of the Ruthenian Ordinariate in Canada in 1912 and the granting of full jurisdiction to Bishop N. Budka in the management of communities hastened their unification into a single ecclesiastical institution and helped resolve conflicts at the first stage of the religious life of Ukrainian Greek Catholics in Canada. The peculiarity of the relationship between Ukrainian Greek Catholics and the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church was: 1) the Roman Catholic Church was superconservative and in making decisions guided by the rules of law, not the requirements of the time; 2) Ukrainian Greek Catholic immigrants grew from a “small problem” to a “big opportunity” for Roman Catholic Church in the renewal of religious life as opposed to Protestants; 3) the experience of this relationship contributed to the further establishment of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in other countries.