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In Loyal Service to the Pope This month i would like to share with you an article written by Stephen R., MJ who was one of two members sent to Ukraine in 1990 to found Miles Jesu in the Soviet Union. “I pledge allegiance to the Vicar of Christ, Pope Benedict XVI, and I resolve to work for the salvation of souls, practicing and spreading the official teachings of the Catholic Church, according to my own capacity.” An essential charism of Miles Jesu, and a theme of this month’s Miles Jesu monthly, is its unswerving loyalty to the Pope, the Vicar of Christ on earth. One of the seven prayers of Perseverance we pray each night in our Miles Jesu communities around the world is “for perseverance in loyalty to the Holy Father and Holy Church”. This loyalty to our Holy Father should mark every member of Miles Jesu, vinculum and domus. Father General has given us an example of this in founding Miles Jesu in the Soviet Union fifteen years ago. As a Claretian seminarian, Father General asked his superiors if he might be sent to Russia as a missionary. His superiors had other plans for the young seminarian and great works were waiting to be undertaken in the United States. Father, who had a vow of obedience, went to the United States. For over thirty years Father labored around the world, building up the Cursillo Movement, founding Miles Jesu, and through Miles Jesu, inspiring many works for the salvation of souls. In 1989 the situation in Eastern Europe began to change quickly, beginning with the fall of the Berlin Wall. Father’s desire to someday work in the Soviet Union as a missionary, and Miles Jesu’s loyalty to the Holy Father, came together in the founding of the Miles Jesu communities in Eastern Europe. After the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe, Pope John Paul II called for missionaries to evangelize those lands and Father General responded. He met with Archbishop Volodymyr Sterniuk, Head of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church locum tenens, who was convalescing in a hospital in Rome, and there Father offered the services of Miles Jesu to the Archbishop. The humble Archbishop received Father warmly and gratefully accepted his offer of two young men to help the Catholic Church in Ukraine. As Father has said, the martyrs of Ukraine during the time of the Soviet Union are martyrs for loyalty to the Holy Father. Why is that? The Communists of the last century demanded the total liquidation of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church and that all its members become Russian Orthodox. The Orthodox and Ukrainian Catholic Rite are so similar it would have been easy for Catholics to switch over and continue practicing the same rituals. The Orthodox have valid priestly orders, their Sacraments are valid, so what’s different? The Orthodox do not recognize the Pope as the Vicar of Christ, as the successor of St. Peter, appointed by Jesus Christ Himself. It was for this reason, their love for the Pope and the Catholic Church, that countless Ukrainian men and women, religious and lay, were willing to suffer the death camps of the Soviet Union. A concrete example is Cardinal Slipiy, who was the head of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church at the time of the liquidation in 1946. The Soviets offered Cardinal Slipiy a position as the Archbishop of Kiev, Ukraine if he would become Orthodox and leave the Catholic Church. Cardinal Slipiy refused and spent 18 years in Siberia. This year marks the fifteenth anniversary of Miles Jesu’s presence in Ukraine. There are now boys and girls orphanages, soup kitchens, and medical clinics. There are vocation retreats inspiring young men and women from around Eastern Europe to follow their consecrated vocations in Miles Jesu. They are doing what they do because Father General followed God’s inspiration and corresponded to God’s graces. Father made these things happen by giving us a vision, inspiring us to do great things for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. He’s multiplied himself, so to speak, by forming leaders in those around him. God knows how we sometimes let him down, but Father has been there from the start, helping us rise up again and keep on going - loving God, loving His Catholic Church and loving His Vicar on earth, the Pope. |