Greek Catholic Research Articles

Na drodze ku przełomowi. Cerkiew greckokatolicka w Polsce lat 80. XX w.

TOWARDS A BREAKTHROUGH: GREEK CATHOLIC CHURCH IN POLAND IN THE 1980s The 1980s brought certain policy changes towards the Greek Catholic Church in the communist-run People’s Republic of Poland. While the communist government never recognized this community (this occurred only after the free elections in June 1989) de jure, during the 1980s, the activities of the Greek Catholic clergy began to be tolerated to some degree. This lenient treatment also included some tolerance for the activities of the laity and official contacts with representatives of the hierarchy in exile. Furthermore, the last decade of Polish communist rule in Poland brought substantial changes among the Greek Catholics,or, more broadly, within the Ukrainian minority in Poland. During this time, a new generation of lay activists and young clergymen became active. In addition, Ukrainians in Poland expanded their relations with the Polish majority, including contacts with the democratic anti-communist opposition, among others. As a result, Ukrainian themes appeared in the so called second circuit (samizdat) publications distributed in Poland. These changes coincided with other phenomena and events of the decade, such as the creation of an active Greek Catholic laity or the celebration of the Millennium of the Baptism of Kyivan Rus’ in 1988. All of these changes resulted in strengthening the Greek Catholic Church in Poland, which was swiftly reborn as an independent community after the fall of communism.

From Catacombs to Freedom: Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Face of Socio-political Changes in Central and Eastern Europe (late 1980s – early 1990s)

The paper analyzes the details of the movement for legalizing the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) in the late 1980s and early 1990s, which acquired a special momentum in face of socio-political changes in the USSR and the other countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The UGCC, which was officially liquidated by the Soviet government in 1946, managed to form underground structures and continue pastoral activities. In the 1980s, the human rights organization Committee for the Protection of the Ukrainian Catholic Church (UCC) was formed and began to actively seek the official legalization of the UGCC. Western politicians and the Ukrainian diaspora became important factors influencing Soviet power. A combination of various factors, both internal and external, at the end of 1989 resulted in the authorities being forced to recognize the right of Greek Catholics to legally register their communities. Thus, a long ‘catacomb’ period came to an end and the UGCC received an opportunity to develop.

Religion in the Process of Nation-Building in Ukraine: Case Study on the UGCC and Military Chaplaincy

Priests of various faiths have tried to accompany Ukrainian soldiers as military chaplains since the very beginning of the fighting in eastern Ukraine. Finally, the Ukrainian parliament regularized the status of the military chaplaincy adopting a relevant law. Analyzing the process of shaping the chaplaincy allows us to better understand the place of religious communities and religion itself in the social life of post-Soviet Ukraine. It also allows for an examination of the nation-building process from a different and very interesting perspective. The article consists of three parts. The first one briefly presents the process of institutionalizing the military service of priests in Ukraine. In the next part, the significance of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church’s (UGCC) special activity in the field of military chaplaincy is demonstrated. The third part attempts to explain the reasons why the UGCC, despite a number of objective limitations, plays the leading role in the sphere of chaplaincy in Ukraine.

Jak sufragana chełmskiego kijami pobito, czyli o rozruchach religijnych w Hrubieszowie i Czerniczynie z marca–kwietnia 1636 r. Oblata protestacji i obdukcji Abrahama Śladkowskiego oraz oględzin ran jego kapelana, siostrzeńca i woźnicy w urzędzie grodzkim grabowieckim

One of the main areas of conflict between the Uniates and the Orthodox in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the early 17th century was the issue of rights to use places of worship. In order to settle the related feuds, a commission was established in 1635 to repartition Orthodox churches in royal towns in proportion to the number of Greek Catholics and Disuniates residing there. One of the centers covered by its efforts was Hrubieszow in the Chełm region, where officials granted the Orthodox the right to own two temples. Despite the verdict, which was favorable to themselves, the non-Uniates there caused riots, during which they attacked a Greek Catholic temple, Catholic clergy and townspeople of the Latin rite. In addition, upon hearing of the arrival of Chelm suffragan Abraham Sladkowski to Czerniczyn, located nearby, they decided to attack the clergyman, to which they convinced the peasants living there. Under their influence, the peasants first attacked the local orthodox church and battered the pop who was in charge of it, and then beat up the aforementioned dignitary, who had arrived there upon hearing of the unrest, not sparing the people accompanying him. As a result of actions taken by the Uniate bishop of Chelm, Methodius Terlecki, the culprits of the incidents were to answer for their actions with their lives and property. However, the punishment was waived after the townspeople did public penance and adopted the Uniate religion.

UKRAINIANS IN SLOVAKIA (ACCORDING TO THE RESULTS OF THE 2021 POPULATION CENSUS)

The article is devoted to the analysis of data concerning Ukrainians in Slovakia. The cultural and demographic criteria of the 2021 population census program became the information basis of the study.
 Despite the increase in the number of Ukrainians compared to the previous population census of 2011, the prospects for further growth in their number are rather doubtful. The Ukrainian autochthonous population is certainly being assimilated, but it is not known how the life trajectories of Ukrainian labor migrants will develop: whether they will move to Slovakia permanently, or return to Ukraine. The situation is similar with Ukrainian refugees after February 2022, who may move to live permanently, wait for the improvement of the situation in Ukraine to return, or consider Slovakia as an intermediate stage for emigration to another country.
 In general, the total number of Ukrainians and Ruthenians corresponds to the population census of 2001. That is, in the 20 years that passed between censuses, the presence of labor migration had absolutely no effect on the growth of the number of both Ukrainians and Ruthenians. In general, Ruthenians exert a destabilizing influence on Ukrainians. The analysis of the combinations "ethnicity", "other ethnicity" and "mother tongue" proves that Ukrainians and Ruthenians assimilate, quite a significant number of Ruthenians and Ukrainians keep their ethnic identity as a second one, instead, the main ethnicity and mother tongue are Slovak. The ethnic environment in which Ukrainians live can be characterized as quite homogeneous, and some of the largest ethnic minorities live compactly along the borders of their historical homelands.
 The homogeneity of the ethnic environment determines the homogeneity of the degree of multilingualism. Among the most numerous ethnic groups living in Slovakia, Ukrainians were the least likely to indicate the language of their ethnic group as their mother tongue. The presence of labor migration led to the fact that every tenth Ukrainian in the country indicated Russian as their mouther language.
 Compared to the most numerous ethnic groups in Slovakia, the age structure of Ukrainians has the highest share of people of working age, which allowed us to assume that a part of Ukrainians in Slovakia is represented by labor migrants. Additionally, it was found that the high share of Greek Catholics and Orthodox at the level of municipalities coincides with the compact settlement of Ukrainians and Ruthenians in the Pryashiv and Košice regions. Due to assimilation, the majority of Greek Catholics and Orthodox are Slovaks, not Ukrainians and Ruthenians, that is, ethnic and linguistic identity has been lost, but religious affiliation has been preserved.
 Keywords: Ukrainian diaspora, Ukrainians abroad, census of population, ethnicity, mother tongue, religious affiliation, index of ethnic diversity, index of linguistic diversity, ethnolinguistic correspondence.

Bukovyna in the life of metropolitan Andrei Sheptytskyi

Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytskyi earned the love and respect of Ukrainians during his lifetime with his selfless work. He did not only pay great attention to the development of the Greek Catholic Church, but also made every effort to raise the level of education, social importance, and ultimately restore and elevate the national dignity of the Ukrainian people. At the same time, it was equally important for him to carry out his pastoral ministry both in Galicia, where a large part of faithful Greek Catholics lived, and in the outskirts. Bukovyna occupied a special place in Andrei Sheptytskyi’s activities. Here, the Greek Catholic denomination was insignificant and accounted for only 3% of the total population of Bukovyna. But the metropolitan saw the need to support all local Ukrainians in a difficult period of formation of national aspirations. Cultural spaces were gradually filled with real life. But already from the beginning of the 20th century the Ukrainian people entered a difficult period of transformational processes and also needed strong economic and church support. In Bukovyna, where the majority of Ukrainians belonged to the Orthodox faith, the church became a field of confrontation with local Romanian politicians who sought to create a Romanian majority here for their own further political projects. Thus, the bishop saw the need for significant efforts to support the entire Ukrainian population of Bukovyna. At the same time, he believed that such activities should be carried out in full agreement with the authorities, representatives of other faiths and nationalities living in the region.A careful study of all historical aspects, a living acquaintance with the real capabilities of the people of Bukovyna, the search for the most effective ways of developing the Ukrainian cause – all this became part of his four visits to Bukovyna at the end of the 19th – at the beginning of the 20th century. All of them were filled not only with the performance of pastoral duties, but also with communication with believers, politicians, and scientists of various faiths. This was one of the most important contributions of Metropolitan Sheptytskyi to the development of the Ukrainian cause in the region. Because with each of his visits, he raised the prestige of the entire Greek Catholic Church on the one hand and the Ukrainian people on the other.

Civil society of Western Ukraine and Europe in the context of the Ukrainian Holodomor events of 1932-1933

The article examines the Holodomor national tragedy of 1932-1933 in the context of the reaction to it by the population of neighboring Ukraine and more distant countries, as well as international organizations. It is emphasized that the Holodomor was a deliberate action of the communist authorities against the Ukrainian peasantry as a source of disobedience to the authorities and national resistance. It is shown that despite the efforts of the Bolshevik government to hide the glaring facts of the famine and the conformist support of the majority of foreign journalists accredited in the USSR, this information still received publicity in the world thanks to individual journalists of influential British newspapers and the work of foreign embassies and consulates in the USSR. It provoked a civil wave of help in various countries, but did not cause official condemnation of the Bolshevik policy by the member states of the League of Nations and the Catholic Church as an influential player in the international politics of the time. The role of public organizations and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in the organization of assistance to illegal refugees from Ukraine and protest movements condemning the policy of the USSR towards Ukrainian peasants is considered. It was concluded that the first and subsequent recognitions of the Holodomor of 1932-1933 in Ukraine as genocide at the level of influential countries and international organizations, as well as the criminal proceedings carried out in Ukraine on the fact of committing the crime of genocide of 1932-1933 in Ukraine as a crime against humanity permit modern Ukrainians not only to consolidate the memory of the Holodomor as a significant historical narrative for the entire society, but also to re-understand this traumatic experience, renewing the nation and its values and outlook guidelines.

THE DUBNO SEMINARY OF THE EASTERN RITE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEO-UNION PROCESS IN VOLYN

А Union of the Eastern Rite, also called neo-Union, appeared in Volyn in 1925. Its widening took place under the control of Lutsk Catholic Bishop Adolf Shelonzhek, and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic clergy was not allowed to participate in this process. In the absence of a separate neo-Union clergy, the bishop relied on apostates from Orthodoxy, known as "defections" by the people, who underwent short-term retraining at the Lutsk Catholic Seminary and also temporarily transferred certain Latin priests to the Eastern Rite. Since this staff policy did not justify itself, in the autumn of 1928, Shelonzhek opened a Seminary of the Eastern Rite in Dubno. Due to unresolved financial problems, it stopped functioning in a year and resumed work only in 1931, when it was taken over by the Vatican, where the curriculum was drawn up. Reverend Anthony Dabrovskyi was appointed to be the rector of the Seminary. Although the main burden of financing the educational institution continued to be borne by the Lutsk Diocese, most of its students came from outside Volyn and were appointed to the Uniate parishes of other voivodeships after graduation. The teachers of the Dubno Seminary changed often, and the number of simultaneous students rarely exceeded forty people for five courses, tending to decrease in the second half of the 1930s. The spiritual care of the seminarians was carried out by the apostolic visitor, Bishop Mykola Charnetskyi, who ordained the graduates to holy orders but had no influence on their parish appointments. By 1939, only 23 graduates of the Dubno Seminary became priests, of which only six received parishes in the Lutsk Diocese. After the establishment of Soviet power in Volyn, the educational institution ceased its work, and its property was nationalized.

All Roads Lead to New Rome: The Canonical Origins and Status of the Orthodox and Greek Catholic Churches of Ukraine

This article provides a brief account of the historical origins and canonical status of the three modern Orthodox and Greek-Catholic churches of Ukraine: the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate, and the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church. It contains four parts. The first briefly recounts the origins of Byzantine Christianity and the fused form of state and church governance that developed in Constantinople from the 4th to the 15th centuries. The second examines the Great Schism of 1054, which cleaved Eastern and Western Christianity, sending Eastern Orthodox Christianity down the path of territory- or nation-based churches constituted by eucharistic ecclesiology; this would ultimately give rise to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate in the Slavic lands that would become Ukraine. The third part considers two modern schisms, the Little Schism of 1596, which produced the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, and the Final Schism of 2018–2019, which brought into existence the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Drawing upon eucharistic ecclesiology, the final part offers brief concluding reflections concerning the ongoing implications of these three schisms for Orthodox Christianity in Ukraine.

Aspects of Ukrainian traditional conservatism

the article is devoted to the analysis of aspects of Ukrainian traditional conservatism in the context of sustainable development and information society. Possibilities of implementing the fundamental heritage of the domestic conservative school in political and social life are explored. It is proposed to consider the stages and basic concepts of scientific communication. Attention is paid to the historical connection between Galician conservatism and the ideology of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. The article deals with aspects of Ukrainian ideology of conservatism as a factor in the preservation of national identity in the information society.

Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Chełm in 1863: Structure, Institutions and Clergy

The purpose of the paper is presentation of selected issues concerning the organisational structure, institutions, and clergy of the Uniate Eparchy of Chełm.
 Scientific novelty. The basis of the presented study is the information contained in the schematism intended for the year 1863. The print is entitled ‘List of the clergy of the Chełm Eparchy of the Greek Catholic Rite for the year 1863’. It was published in Warsaw in 1864. Eleven years later (1875), the eparchy ceased to exist as a result of decisions made by Tsar Alexander II and the Holy Ruling Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church.
 Conclusions. The eparchy, and its clergy, have already produced several important publications. Monographs and articles by scholars associated with the university centres of Lublin (the Catholic University of Lublin and Maria Curie-Skłodowska University) are good examples. Witold Kołbuk, Janusz Kania, Andrzej Gil, Jan Lewandowski and Artur Korbowicz should be mentioned here above all. Some of the above-mentioned authors used, to a greater or lesser extent, the list of the clergy of 1863 (schematism), when compiling their works. Nevertheless, the document has not received a separate study. Because of the cognitive value of the document, it has been decided to introduce it into scientific circulation in the form of this study. Information obtained from the 1863 schema has been supplemented or verified on the basis of archival documents produced by the Greek-Catholic Consistory of Chełm, stored in the State Archive in Lublin. The whole is supplemented by Polish and, to a lesser extent, Ukrainian and Russian studies.
 This publication presents the condition of the Uniate Eparchy of Chełm in 1863. As a result of the conducted analyses, it seemed that at the beginning of the 1860s the eparchy remained in good shape and position. There were several important elements to this picture. First, almost all consistory offices were staffed. Secondly, diocesan institutions carried out the tasks entrusted to them. Finally, thirdly, the authorities, despite the lack of clergy, managed to provide pastoral care to the faithful in all existing parishes.
 The reality, however, was less optimistic. The legal situation of the eparchy at that time gradually deteriorated. Practically, the fate of the eparchy was sealed after the January Uprising. In the post-uprising period, the tsarist authorities introduced a number of changes that disrupted the historically shaped order. As a result, the Uniate bishopric with its capital in Chełm was liquidated after almost 280 years of functioning.

CTITORI ȘI BINEFĂCĂTORI AI BISERICILOR ȘI ȘCOLILOR CONFESIONALE ORTODOXE ȘI GRECO-CATOLICE DIN SCAUNELE SECUIEȘTI CIUC, GIURGEU, ODORHEI ȘI TREISCAUNE, ÎN SECOLUL AL XVIII-LEA ȘI PRIMA JUMĂTATE A SECOLULUI AL XIX-LEA

The issue of the history of the Romanians from the former Szekler seats of Ciuc, Giurgeu, Odorhei and Treiscaune and of the main identity institutions – the church (Orthodox and Greek Catholic) and the confessional schools that functioned under the auspices of these churches has been little researched. Benefiting from access to ecclesiastical and secular documentary sources, little researched, the present study aims to introduce into the scientific circuit information about the state of places of worship and confessional schools built by members of some Romanian communities with a small number of members, most of them living in ethnically mixed localities, with a numerically majority Szekler/Hungarian population. In these conditions, an important role was played by the solidarity of the Romanians living on both sides of the Carpathians, who we find among the founders of the modest wooden churches, and after 1785, also of stone, and of the confessional school buildings. This solidarity was also manifested between the Romanian communities in the area. When a Romanian community, with a larger number of believers, managed to build a new church, the old one was donated to neighboring communities with few believers, thus witnessing the phenomenon called “traveling churches”. Where communities with a small number of Romanians have not managed to maintain their church, we witness the acceleration of the denationalization process and, finally, the disappearance of these communities. Instead, where it was possible to save the Orthodox and Greek-Catholic churches and the confessional schools in the Romanian language, religion and school were the main factors promoting Christian teaching, religious education, Romanian culture and traditions, thus ensuring the perpetuation of the Romanian identity in -a multi-ethnic and multi-confessional area, in most cases refractory to alterity.

DUPĂ UN AN: RAPOARTE DESPRE STAREA BISERICII GRECO CATOLICE TRIMISE NUNȚIATURII APOSTOLICE DE LA BUCUREȘTI ANALIZĂ DE DOCUMENTE

The present article analyzes three documents from the Apostolic Archives in Vatican in the Romanian Nunciature files, a document that was sent to cardinal Eugene Tisserant in 1949, at that time he ad ing the Congregation for the Oriental Churches by the Regent of the Romanian Nunciature in Bucharest Gerald O Hara to account for the situation of the Greek Catholic Church in Romania, one year after the forced union with the Romanian Orthodox Church and t he dismemberment of the church. The document is a report in letter form sent by Gheorghe Dănilă, the substitute vicar for Alba Iulia and F ăgăraș Archbishopric after the imprisonment of Metropolitan Ioan Suciu. The last documen t is a collection of questions coming from Transylvanian Greek Catholic clergy demanding clarification from the Nunciature regarding the issue of clergymen returning to the Catholic faith after the forced union with the Orthodox Church.

УКРАЇНСЬКА ПРАВОСЛАВНА СПІЛЬНОТА В ПІВНІЧНІЙ АМЕРИЦІ В МІЖВОЄННИЙ ПЕРІОД

The article deals with the development of the Ukrainian Orthodox movement on the North American continent during the interwar period. It began with the mass conversion of Greek Catholics to Orthodoxy and led to the establishing of two separate church communities in Canada and the United States. The first UOC-USA parishes were founded in 1919, mostly by former Ukrainian Catholics from Galicia or Orthodox from Transcarpathia and Bukovyna. In 1924 Archbishop Ioan Teodorovych of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox church, formed in Kyiv, was dispatched to serve as a hierarch for the new churches in the United States and Canada. The UOC-USA grew quickly, and by 1932 it included 32 parishes and 25 priests. Large numbers of Ukrainians who had formerly belonged to the Russian Orthodox church and the Ukrainian Catholic church joined the newly formed Ukrainian Orthodox church in Canada. After 1924 the UOCC insisted on retaining its administrative independence under Rev Semen Sawchuk as church administrator and president of the consistory. By the end of 1928 the church had approximately 64,000 followers, organized in 152 parishes served by 21 priests. The church, priests, and faithful refused to join the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the USA because they questioned the canonicity of Archbishop Ioan Teodorovych's episcopal consecration. Rev Yosyf Zhuk (a Catholic priest from Galicia) was selected as the church's bishop in 1931 and he was succeeded by Bishop Bohdan Shpylka (consecrated in 1937) under the jurisdiction of the patriarch of Constantinople. Some priests and faithful, however, questioned the canonicity of Ioan Teodorovych’s episcopal ordination and formed the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of America under the jurisdiction of the patriarch of Constantinople. The Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese was founded in 1938 when a group of 37 Ruthenian Eastern Catholic parishes, under the leadership of Fr. Orestes Chornock, were received into the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

The religious and legal dimension of the russian war against Ukraine against the background of social and state transformations xx—xxi centuries

The article defines the nature of the Russian war against Ukraine in the context of social and state transformations of the 20th — 21st centuries. It is emphasized that this is a war of different worlds, mentalities, worldviews, ways of life, values, etc., which has been going on for many centuries in various forms (direct and mediated, open and veiled, hot and cold). The role of the religious-legal factor in the Russian war against Ukraine at various stages of Ukrainian state formation (periods of the Ukrainian People’s Republic, Soviet, modern) is revealed. It is emphasized that it was during the time of the Ukrainian People’s Republic that the legal basis for the organization of the Ukrainian Local Orthodox Church, confessional differentiation and the establishment of freedom of conscience and interconfessional tolerance in Ukrainian society was created. Emphasized attention is paid to the fact that in the Soviet period, the Russian war against Ukraine continued in a new, veiled, hidden, invisible (at first glance) form with the active use of the religious factor. The results of this period have been determined, namely: rampant militant/ scientific atheism, radical extermination, Russification of Ukrainian Orthodoxy, liquidation of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, etc. Special attention is paid to the Soviet secular/political religion (Marxism-Leninism) as a key basis for the implementation of an aggressive policy regarding the historical memory and cultural identity of the Ukrainian people and a manipulative tool for the destruction of Ukrainian history, culture, worldview, nation, state and law in the information, hybrid, total, full-scale and other Russia’s wars against Ukraine. The article substantiates that improved legislation with an effective legal mechanism for its implementation, a strong civil society with developed institutions, including the institution of religion (church), adequate guarantees of religious rights and freedoms are important factors in ensuring state, national, religious security and victory of Ukraine (at the current stage) in the war waged against it by the Russian Federation.

Issues of war and defense of the motherland in the catechisms of the modern Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church

The article examines the provisions of the catechisms of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church regarding the war and its challenges, as well as the defense of the Motherland. A comparative analysis of relevant thematic instructions in the Catechism “Christ is our Easter” (published in 2011), the Catechism for youth “We walk with Christ” (published in 2021) and the “Catechism of the Christian Warrior” (published in 2022) was carried out. It was determined that the provisions of the UGCC's own fundamental doctrinal documents, its Catechisms, regarding the problems of war and defense of the Motherland, were formed, clarified and supplemented according to the circumstances and needs of the time. The catechism of the UGCC “Christ is our Easter” contains general Christian considerations on the subject under consideration, which are principled, establishing, and refer to how civilized peoples should conduct themselves. The catechism for youth, created in the previous years of the undeclared Russian Federation's “hybrid” war against Ukraine, covers the issues related to the war and the defense of the Motherland in a substantive way and closer to current Ukrainian realities, although it still has some idealistic approach. The Catechism of the Christian Warrior, the preparation of which was completed and the publication was carried out during the full-scale military offensive of the aggressor, is a set of thorough and competent advises for Ukrainian soldiers, where things are called by their names, and there are no provisions that can cause doubts due to experience and be problematically achievable for implementation. Therefore, it is concluded that especially this Catechism, together with and in addition to the two previous ones, is a useful and timely contribution of the UGCC to the instruction of Ukrainians during the war, and therefore to Ukraine's victory over the enemy.

OFFICIAL FESTIVE CEREMONIES IN POLOTSKY AND VITEBSK VOIVODESHIPS (LANDS) IN THE XV – XVIII CENTURIES

One of the main mechanisms that unite people, forms and demonstrates a certain system of values, the difference in the perception of the surrounding world is a celebration, a holiday. They mark the most important milestones of life: personal (birth, marriage, death) and social. Already at the beginning of the 15th century, in the cities and towns of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a peculiar urban culture began to form. Various ceremonies, processions, rituals dedicated to both secular and church holidays and celebrations become its integral part. In the context of the forced closure of Orthodox churches and monasteries, the spread of Greek Catholic Church, it was the city holiday that became the bridge that united the inhabitants of the city of various confessions and social strata.

ЦІННІСНО-ЗМІСТОВИЙ ВИМІР “УКРАЇНСЬКОГО ЧАСУ” НАЦІОНАЛЬНОЇ ГРОМАДИ В РАДІОПРОСТОРІ КАНАДИ

The article examines the historical stages of formation, elaborates the current state and value-content support of radio initiatives of Ukrainian emigration using the example of the radio program "Ukrainian Time" (Montreal, Canada). Unique data from the first person was obtained during direct communication with the producer of the media initiative with more than thirty years of work experience, an active figure in the Ukrainian community S. Kuklevsky. The chronology of the continuous existence of the radio program from its foundation in 1963 by I. Oparyk and V. Gladun is traced; a meaningful contribution to its development by two generations of a creative team of talented authors headed by the current producer S. Kuklevsky. The names of the media activists involved in the creation of the radio program were included in the scientific media discourse: O. Onyshchenko, O. Shak (hosts), L. Gavrylov (information sector), N. Fedoseeva (journalist), priests of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Fr. I. Oschipko and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Fr. I. Kutash, producer S. Kuklevsky. The orientation of its authors to the implementation of convergent tools of modern radio broadcasting is characterized, in particular, the broadcast of issues on the channel of the same name on "Youtube" and information support and a page on the social network "Facebook". The high role and importance of the radio program as an integrator of the community around national values and the Ukrainian cause and the belief that only a powerful united community can have a successful, high-quality, long-term representation in the media space are determined. And in order to make the community like this, you need to be included in its life, it is not necessary to organize event attractions, but to join them, listen to programs, speak Ukrainian with children, sing our songs.

Status chrześcijan w Libanie według Règlement z 1861 oraz 1864 roku

Lebanon’s experiment with power sharing dates back to 1861 and 1864. Règlement, the law regulating relations between of all the ethnic-religious groups of Lebanon (Maronite Christians, Sunni Muslims, Christian Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholics, the Shi’a Muslims, and the Druze) was a novel, very interesting solution for multi-ethnic society of Lebanon. This society was divided along confessional lines concentrating in distinct geographical regions. The Ottoman governor had to be a appointed by Constantinople, non-Lebanese Catholic with the authorization of the five foreign guarantors (from England, France, Germany, Austria and Russia). Each of the six mentioned communities was allotted two seats on the twelve-member administrative council that helped the governor rule. According to the Règlement, all members of the administrative and judiciary councils as well as local officials of smaller counties were to be nominated and chosen by the leaders of the respective communities and appointed by the government. The Règlement Organique transformed Mount Lebanon into a fully autonomous Ottoman province with political institutions based on power sharing among its various denominations under an Ottoman-European consortium protectorate giving a half century communal peace (1864–1920) to Mount Lebanon.

Greek Catholics in Prague (1918–1950)

Before the establishment of Czechoslovakia, a small community of Greek Catholics lived in Prague. Mostly they were soldiers, but after the First World War, Greek Catholic believers from the east of the republic began to move to the new metropolis and their numbers grew both in the city and in the Czech lands. Belonging to a religious denomination motivated them to associate and form a Greek Catholic parish as an offi cial branch of the church. The small community added to the colourful mosaic of the religious and cultural life of the town. This study examines the eff orts to formalize the parish and presents the involvement of local church members in religious, cultural and charitable areas. The positive development taking place between 1918 and 1938 was disrupted by political changes in the Central European area. The consequences of the rise of Nazism and Communism, which marked the lives of both priests and individual believers, are illustrated through the example of a small community. Their fates are intertwined with those of the Czechoslovak Republic and the Greek Catholic Church.