Dear Parishioners,

I know that many of you are familiar with the artificial famine imposed on Ukraine by Joseph Stalin 90 years ago, killing millions of people by starvation. We had some members of our church who suffered under this horrible plan but survived, though many in their families did not. They have gone to their rest, but we still remember their suffering.

This Sunday we will serve the Panachida for those souls who died this under this Communist plot, remembering the time of holodomor (famine).

Below is a link to a page from the website of our Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, with a short video of our patriarch addressing the Kyiv Security Forum, linking the Holodomor with the current war. It is in Ukrainian, with English subtitles.

Let us pray for Ukraine and all the faithful in that land. Let us remember the souls who have suffered greatly under Communism and the current Russian regime.

Patriarch's address

Father Richard Janowicz, pastor
rjano@aol.com

Dear Parishioners,

As you may have read, the Vatican Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith recently published a declaration "Fiducia Supplicans" which allows that unmarried people living together as a "couple" may receive some kind of blessing from priests under certain circumstances.

Patriarch Sviatoslav has declared that such blessings may not be given by the clergy of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. Part of his message is as follows:

"According to the traditions of the Byzantine rite, the concept of 'blessing' means approval, permission, or even an order for a specific type of action, prayer, and ascetic practices, including certain types of fasting and prayer. Certainly, the blessing of a priest always has an evangelizing and catechetical dimension and, therefore, can in no way contradict the teaching of the Catholic Church about the family as a faithful, indissoluble, and fertile union of love between a man and a woman, which Our Lord Jesus Christ elevated to the dignity of the Holy Sacrament of Matrimony. Pastoral discernment urges us to avoid ambiguous gestures, statements, and concepts that would distort or misrepresent God’s word and the teachings of the Church."

If you would like to read the rest of this short decree you can do so here:

Patriarch's message

Father Richard Janowicz, pastor
rjano@aol.com