Slipyj request refused
Pope Paul bluntly told Cardinal Josef Slipyj, Archbishop Major of the Ukraine, in a private audience in Rome on Monday that he would not grant his request to create a Ukrainian patriarchate.
In the presence of six other Ukraine bishops, the Pope said that it would not be in the interest of the Ukrainian church itself. He also denied a reported request that the Ukrainian church be permitted the ordination of married men.
He said: «Let us also raise with you, with all respect to persons, the uneasiness spread by certain Ukrainian communities and their pastors. We speak of the expectation of a patriarchal title which, in the present situation, the See of Rome sees no possibility of granting.
«We have already had occasion to make our feelings on this known, but it still happens that this position is interpreted, in certain circles at least, as a misconception on the part of the Holy See concerning the aspirations of Ukrainian Catholics».
Catholic Herald, Friday, December 17, 1976
Pope refuses Ukrainian Catholic request
From Our Own Correspondent, Rome, Dec 13, 1976
Cardinal Slipyj, the exiled head of the Ukrainian Roman Catholic community, was told by the Pope at an audience today that he would not be created a Patriarch.
The Pope has repeatedly refused Ukrainian Catholic requests to create a Patriarchate for fear of reopening conflict with the Russian Orthodox Church.
Cardinal Slipyj, aged 84, has lived in Rome since ending 18 years’ imprisonment in Siberia in 1963.
The Times, Tuesday, December 14, 1976, London.
Pope cautious
THE SPIRITUAL LEADER OF UKRAINIAN CATHOLICS told the Pope yesterday that his Church has been «sentenced to death» in the Soviet Union and its priests imprisoned and deported. The Pope, in a cautious response, praised the Ukrainians’ «heroic» fidelity to the Church but said it would be unwise to set up a Ukrainian patriarchate in exile.
The Guardian, December 14,1976.
