Martyred bishop was declared as a Patron of prison ministry.

On July 20, before a crowd of 200,000 faithful at the Marian Shrine of Our Lady of Zarvanytsia in Ukraine, Patriarch Sviatoslav Shevchuk solemnly proclaimed Blessed Bishop and Martyr Vasyl Velychkovsky as patron of prison ministry for the Ukrainian Catholic Church. The blessed hieromartyr and years-long prisoner of the Soviet GULAG and the locum tenens of the underground Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine.the figure of the Blessed Vasyl was elected not by chance: he got to the NKVD confines, and during his stay in inhuman conditions in the death ward the saint showed by his own example how to preserve human dignity and teach it other people.

This honour and gift is given not only for the people of Ukraine but in a particular way also to the faithful in North America.

Blessed Vasyl lived his last year of life in Winnipeg. He died in 1973 and his holy relics, a fully intact body, are now enshrined in St. Joseph's Ukrainian Catholic Church there.

Born in Ukraine, Blessed Vasyl became a powerful Redemptorist missionary. After the Second World War, the Soviet Communist government declared the Ukrainian Catholic Church illegal. All the bishops and hundreds of priests were arrested and imprisoned.

Blessed Vasyl was arrested Aug, 7, 1945. Found guilty of anti-Soviet propaganda, he was sentenced to die by firing squad.

While on death row, he began his prison ministry. Finding himself in a cell with other

criminals also on death row, at their request he began to catechize them, prepare them for the sacrament of Reconciliation, hear their confessions and secretly celebrate the Divine Liturgy.

These prisoners, who were condemned to death for the crimes they committed (murder, rape, thievery, etc.) had lost hope in life. Through Blessed Vasyl's ministry, they not only recovered hope but found a new freedom in Christ as they faced their imminent death.

Blessed Vasyl's own sentence was later commuted to 10 years of hard labour in prison camps. Most of those years were spent in Vorkuta, Russia, above the Arctic Circle. Again while working in the coal mines, he began a ministry with his fellow prisoners.

In the deep mine shafts, he created a small chapel in a niche. Here he spent time praying the rosary for the prisoners and the guards, confessing the prisoners, counselling and consoling them, and occasionally celebrating the Divine Liturgy for the trusted few.

The Divine Liturgy was celebrated using a table spoon for the chalice and paten, prison bread for the hosts and wine made from raisins which he received in care packages from home.

After his release in 1955, Blessed Vasyl began to actively organize an underground Church. Having the courage to conduct secret services, he encouraged others to serve the faithful who found themselves enslaved by the Soviet system, their freedoms stripped from them, in particular their freedom to worship God.

In 1963, Metropolitan Josyf Slipyj secretly consecrated him a bishop in a Moscow hotel room. As a bishop, he intensified his underground pastoral ministry. He consecrated other bishops and thus re-established a hierarchy for the illegal Ukrainian Catholic Church.

ARRESTED, TORTURED

In 1969, he was again arrested and imprisoned for three years where he was tortured physically, chemically and with electricity. Upon his release, he was exiled from Ukraine, went to Rome and then to Canada.

In 1973, he died within a year of his arrival as a result of the torture he endured in prison. On June 27, 2001 Pope John Paul II beatified him as a martyr.

The synod of the Ukrainian Catholic bishops chose Blessed Vasyl to be patron of prison ministry because of his faithfulness and zeal for the salvation of prisoners who lack hope in life. His example gives a witness and encouragement to those who themselves do prison ministry.

He is also a patron of all who find themselves enslaved by the circumstances of their life.

POWERFUL INTERCESSOR

Blessed Vasyl has already shown himself to be a powerful intercessor as is seen by the numerous blessings and healings recorded at the Bishop Velychkovsky Martyr's Shrine.

Now the Church has given him a special ministry of intercession, inspiration and assistance to all those who minister in any way to those who are enslaved, whether they be in prison or in any oppressive situation in life.

September 8, 2014

FR. JOHN SIANCHUK, CSSR

SPECIAL TO THE Western Catholic Reporter.


Head the Office for pastoral care of the UGCC in prison system Fr. Costyantyn Panteley notes that the NKVD arrested the blessed Vasyl for his pastoral activity and the court ruled death verdict for him. Soon the verdict was changed for ten years of imprisonment in concentration camps of Vorkuta. But neither the death threat nor the long years spent in captivity had shaken the priests’ faith.

Having received the death verdict and staying for three month in a death ward the blessed Vasyl found himself among prisoners who understood with a trembling heart that their life would finish soon and everything connected with their relations with God acquired extremely important meaning. How to preserve dignity? How not to be in despair? How not to be asking for mercy? They turned to him so that he strengthened them”, Fr. Costyantyn noted.

Criminals are used for the terror against the Ukrainian people.

Because of occupation and annexation of Crimea by Russia in March, 2014 Crimean territorial body of the SPSoUk together with 4 prisons temporarily occurred out of management by Criminal Executive Service of Ukraine. Situation with functioning of Penitentiary Service in regions of Donetsk and Lugansk is very hard after invasion of Russian troops during an undeclared war of 2014. There are 36 prisons in both regions. Regular pastoral care became impossible now.

 

The tendency to diminishing the number of convicts has gained a permanent character. Since  2001 it was reduced by one-half. Prison population reported for September 1, 2014 had number 92,592 people. It makes up a share of Ukrainian society: 205 prisoners per 100,000 people. (It was 347 per 100,000 people for July 2011, as Prison Brief for Ukraine of the International Centre for Prison Studies has informed). But now the alarming fact is that during 2014 Russian military intervention in Ukraine hundreds dangerous convicted criminals from prisons in regions of Donetsk and Lugansk were armed and are used for the terror against the Ukrainian people.^[1][2]

Meeting of the ICCPPC-Europe working group in London.

13-15.06.2014 in Parish House of Our Lady Help of Christians in West Byfleet (Surrey, on the London & South Western Railway) has been held the Meeting of representatives of the ICCPPC of European countries under the guidance of Mngr. Malachy Keegan, who accepted the role of European Coordinator as long as Fr. Mark Helfer has resigned from the position of European Regional Representative of ICCPPC.

Fr. Robert Friskovec (Slovenia), Péter Takács (Hungary), Rev. Msgr. Malachy Keegan (Great Britain), Martin Schmitz (Germany), Martins Kruklis (Latvia), and Fr. Constantin Panteley (Ukraine) (from right to left).

This working group of The ICCPPC-Europe has discussed the main contemporary problems of European region and  developed approaches  how to revive International communication and solidarity of European Catholic Prison Ministry in the ICCPPC.

The tasks are as follows:

1)      communication development: to collect all actual contacts of national representatives for the ICСPPC-Europe, create share database and initiate ones a month Skype conferences to spread news and to exchange the information (responsible Fr. Robert Friskovec and Fr. Constantin Panteley);

2)      connection with the Board of the ICCPPC for more active cooperation and common support (responsible Martin Schmitz);

3)      for every annual meetings have to be organized trainings and other issues of pastoral support (responsible Mngr. Malachy Keegan);
4)      European fundraising & resources (responsible Fr. Robert Friskovec and Martin Schmitz);

5)      living contacts with Holly See (Fr. Brian Gowans);

6)      Social doctrine of the Church in penitentiary policy, human rights protection, lobbying, mapping political situation, analisis of legislations in European countries, links with UN Office in Geneva (we would like to ask Mark Platzer and Christian Kuhn)

7)      theological reflections on prison ministry, spirituality and applied theology (responsible Péter Takács and Fr. Constantin Panteley).

The working group has expressed support and living prayer for Ukraine in very hard but, still, inspiring for other countries time during 24-th year of independence, when Russia breaks the International low, escalates aggression and provides hybrid war.