A: Icons, or sacred images, are important because for us they represent “windows into heaven.” Our understanding of their meaning goes back to the time of the Iconoclast heresy in the eighth century. Prior to that time, there were always some Christians in the East who, holding to a literal interpretation of Exodus 20, 4, used no images and were suspicious of those who did. When Christian Syria came under Muslim rule in the seventh century, many more Christians gave up the use of icons, simply because it got them more tolerance from their overlords. By the eighth century, many within the Byzantine Empire were suggesting that by getting rid of images, the Church could convert both the Muslims and the Jews. Finally, in 726 the emperor Leo III published an edict prohibiting all use of icons in churches, using soldiers to confiscate and destroy any icons found. These circumstances caused the Church to study the question very carefully, and the conclusions of this study were promulgated at the Second Council of Nicaea in 786. The council emphasized the doctrine that man was created in the image and likeness of God, and although that likeness was lost and the image tarnished by the sin of Adam and Eve, they are now restored in Christ, who in His sacred humanity is the perfect icon of God (c.f. John 14, 9: “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father”). Therefore, images of Christ and His saints can now reflect the reality of the unseen God in a way that was impossible before the fulfillment of Christ’s mission on earth, and we worship the unseen God through them. The style of artwork deliberately avoids the naturalism of classic Greek art, since its intent is not merely to reflect the beauty of nature, but to go beyond it and point towards the unseen beauty of heaven.

Q: What do we mean by such terms as “Ukrainian Catholic Church,” “Byzantine Rite” and “Eastern Rite?” Do they all mean the same thing?

A: There are 21 Eastern Churches that are in communion with the Church of Rome, “the mother and teacher of all Churches.” Most of these, such as the Maronite (Lebanese), Armenian and Ethiopian Catholic Churches have their own unique rites, while several, including the Ukrainian, Melkite (Syrian) and Ruthenian Catholic Churches use the Byzantine Rite of Constantinople, which is also the rite of the Greek and Russian Orthodox Churches. This rite was brought to us by Saint Volodymyr, whose emissaries were so impressed by it that they said, “we didn’t know if we were in heaven or on earth.” (For more about the different Eastern Catholic Churches, see Orientale Lumen - Eastern Catholic Churches in the United States.)

Q: Are Ukrainian Catholics *really* under the Pope?

A: We Ukrainian Catholics find it painful that many Roman Catholics do not know who we are or how we could be united to the Church of Rome without using the Roman Rite. Saint Josaphat, to whom our eparchy (diocese) is dedicated, gave his life for that union, which guaranteed our right to maintain—as Catholics—all of our Byzantine traditions. Vatican II reaffirmed that right, insisting that “the variety within the Church in no way harms its unity; rather it manifests it.” (Orientalium Ecclesiarum, Ch. 2) Pope John Paul II has repeatedly emphasized the importance of the Eastern Catholic Churches, particularly in his apostolic letter Orientale Lumen (The Light Of The East), in which he says: “the venerable and ancient tradition of the Eastern Churches is an integral part of the heritage of Christ's Church … the members of the Catholic Church of the Latin tradition must also be fully acquainted with this treasure and thus feel, with the Pope, a passionate longing that the full manifestation of the Church's catholicity be restored to the Church and to the world.” (Orientale Lumen, Ch. 1). Pope John Paul has particularly honored us by his historic visit to Ukraine in 2001, during which he said: “Thank you, dear brothers and sisters, who are part of this Christian community, ‘faithful unto death’ (Rev 2:10). It has been my long-standing wish to express my admiration and appreciation for the heroic witness that you have borne during the long winter of persecution in the past century.”

Q: Why do Ukrainian Catholics and other Eastern Christians make the Sign of the Cross from right to left, instead of from left to right?

A: This is an interesting question, since the right has been recognized as the side of honor from ancient times, and historians say there is evidence that originally all Christians made the Sign of the Cross from right to left.  What is not clear is how or why they would have changed this practice in the West.  A more likely explanation seems to be that the practice was introduced in the West during the Dark Ages (~800-1100 A.D.), and the people quite literally "got it backwards."  In any event, there is no evidence that God is displeased with the Western practice.

Q: Why are the feasts of Our Lord’s Baptism and the Transfiguration so important in the Eastern tradition?

A: Both of these feasts recall events in which God manifested His glory before the human race. At Jesus’ Baptism in the Jordan we have the first manifestation of the Trinity, with the voice of the Father proclaiming the Son, with the Holy Spirit coming in the form of a dove to confirm the Father’s words. We also have the inauguration of Jesus’ public ministry, with a clear link between His ministry and that of John. What is most important, however, is the fact that by being baptized as a sinner, Christ is embracing our sinfulness—without ever being actually guilty of sin—just as he had already embraced our humanity by being born of Mary. At the Transfiguration, once again we have the voice of the Father proclaiming Jesus to be His beloved Son. This time, however, Jesus reveals a glimpse of His resurrected glory—a glory in which we are already partakers, and will share in more fully when we reach heaven. Instead of John the Baptist, we now see Moses and Elijah, showing Jesus’ ministry to be linked with theirs as well. This event also represents an important turning point in the ministry of Christ, since from this point forward He is looking towards Jerusalem and His crucifixion.

Q: Why is Saint John the Baptist so important in the Eastern tradition?

A: Saint John, whom we call the Forerunner because he “[went] before the Lord to prepare His ways,” (Luke 1, 76) is given particularly high regard in the Eastern tradition because of his unique role of preparing the way for Jesus, and because Jesus Himself said of John that “among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist.” (Matt 11, 11) John’s ministry marked the beginning of a transition between the Old Testament and the New, and highlighted a practice that would become an essential part of the new Church—Baptism. The asceticism of John—living in the desert and using only what he could find there for food and clothing—was an inspiration to the Desert Fathers, who are also very much admired and honored in the East.

Q: Why do Ukrainian Catholics follow a different calendar?

A: When Pope Gregory XIII instituted the reformed (Gregorian) calendar in 1578, his principal motivation was to return the date of Easter to the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox, as had been mandated by the First Council of Nicaea in 325. For centuries, this had been calculated based on March 20 as the date of the Equinox, but by the sixteenth century it was becoming apparent that that date was falling more than a week later than the true Equinox. Studies by Jesuit scholars confirmed this: the calendar was no longer in alignment with the solar cycle. Their recommendation, which was adopted, was to cut ten days from the calendar and skip leap year from then on three times every four hundred years (hence, it was not a leap year in 1700, 1800 or 1900, but it was 1600 and 2000). Pope Gregory promulgated the new calendar, and it was gradually accepted by all Western nations as the official civil calendar, but rejected in the East, particularly by the Tsar of Russia. As a result, when the Communist government switched to the Gregorian calendar in the twentieth century, the Russian Orthodox Church insisted on maintaining the old (Julian) calendar for all religious observances. Today most Orthodox Churches throughout the world use the old calendar only for the calculation of Easter, but in countries of the former Soviet Union—Including Ukraine—it is maintained in full. This means that Christmas is celebrated on January 7, and other non-movable feasts are thirteen days later, as well. Catholics in Ukraine follow this calendar right along with their Orthodox brethren, and in other parts of the world we are allowed to do so if the people of a parish so choose. (Hence, in Apopka we are “old calendar,” but the Ukrainian Catholic parish in Saint Petersburg is not.)