Youth `best youth evangelists': Eparch

By Laureen McMahon

Eparch Kenneth Nowakowski of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy (diocese) of New Westminster helped produce a document now under consideration at the Eastern Catholic Synod in Philadelphia.

Jeff Graham / The B.C. Catholic Newly ordained Eparch Nowakowski of New Westminster (left) listens to a homily with fellow bishops during his ordination Mass.

"When I was the rector of Holy Spirit Seminary in Ottawa, all rectors of Ukrainian seminaries in the world came together to draft a document on priestly formation for this synod," the eparch said.

He spoke to The B.C. Catholic on the eve of the synod from Philadelphia, having just returned from the Vatican, where he had attended a school for newly-ordained bishops.

"By the way," he said during the interview, "I must let Roman Catholics in Vancouver know that almost everyone I met at the Vatican asked me how Archbishop Michael Miller is doing. They were singing his praises and saying they wanted to congratulate Vancouver for getting someone with his extraordinary talents!"

The Sept. 26 to Oct. 6 dates for the synod, which will move to Washington Oct. 4, were chosen to coincide with the centennial celebration of the arrival in America of the first Byzantine Catholic bishop, Bishop Stephen Ortynsky.

Ukrainians seek a renewal

At the synod, the first Eastern Catholic synod to be held in the United States, the world's Ukrainian Catholic bishops are discussing evangelization, priestly formation, and youth ministry.

An important item on the synod agenda, said Eparch Nowakowski, is finding ways to standardize priestly formation in the Ukrainian Catholic Church.

The priestly formation document, said the eparch, closely examined and compared Ukrainian Catholic seminary formation programs around the world in the light of Pope John Paul II's instructions on the formation of priests.

"The Pope emphasized four pillars of formation; pastoral, human, academic, and spiritual. We looked at both the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops' document on priestly formation and the one from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops."

The rectors, Eparch Nowakowski continued, also examined how well seminary formation was doing with regard to Eastern spirituality, the Eastern church fathers and their writings, and Eastern canon law.

"We presented our findings to last year's Synod of Catholic Bishops in Ukraine and they requested we meet again, so in August I travelled to Lviv, Ukraine, this time as a bishop, not as a rector."

It is the document which came from that meeting which the synod is considering.

Concerns about young people drifting away from the Ukrainian Catholic Church of their heritage, said the eparch, are "significant" and will also be a topic for discussion at the Philadelphia synod.

Last August, the Synod of Catholic Bishops in Ukraine organized a sobor, a meeting of hierarchy, clergy, and laity which looks at topics such as the role of lay organizations in the church.

"Our subject was youth and youth evangelization," the eparch explained.

Youth representatives travelled from Canada, the U.S., South America, and Australia, as well as closer regions. "We confronted questions such as why are we losing our youth and what can we do to attract them back?"

"For us in New Westminster, it's a very important to know because we see in our parishes that most people are middle-aged and older. We have few young people, so we have begun to listen to our youth to try to discern how to reach them, and have discovered that the best evangelizers of the youth are the youth themselves!"

It's important, said Eparch Nowakowski, that young people engaged in youth evangelization be given the right training to learn the necessary skills.

"When I return to the New Westminster Diocese, my goal is to organize three or four days at each of our parishes in B.C where I will meet the pastors, talk to parish councils, and do a lot of listening.

"I will return to talk to the pastoral council of the eparchy about youth and our other needs and challenges."

The Ukrainian Catholic Church is one of 22 Eastern Catholic churches that originated in Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa. In Ukraine, the Eastern-rite Church is larger than the Latin-rite Catholic Church.

The Ukrainian Catholic Church is fully in union with Rome but has maintained the liturgical and spiritual heritage shared with the Orthodox churches. The Ukrainian Church has its own distinctive liturgical and legal systems, but is considered equal in dignity, rights, and obligations to the Latin tradition within the Catholic Church.

The synod will also consider liturgical renewal as there is concern that the Eastern church's liturgical traditions have become more like the Latin-rite Church.

With files from CNS.