After more than four decades of being forced by Communist governments to live their faith underground, Ukrainian Catholics have their freedom and are setting about rebuilding their church.

Playing a role in that process is a Greek Catholic priest with Sacramento roots and a homegrown master plan for evangelization.

Father Ted Wroblicky is seeking to reach out to almost 50 percent of the people in Ukraine who are not baptized, who need to be introduced to God. And it is his hope that Christian stewardship will help show the way.

Left to right: Anne Rubeck, diocesan development officer, Father Ted Wroblicky, development director of the St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy, Barbara Wroblicky, stewardship director of the eparchy, and Mimi Scherber, diocesan director of stewardship and development, found no boundaries for Christian stewardship. Cathy Joyce/Herald photo

“Life itself comes from God and is a tremendous gift,” he noted. “Everyone has a need to give back.”

Father Wroblicky is director of development and communications for the St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy. This assignment encompasses an area extending from Detroit, Mich., to the Pacific Ocean and neighboring U.S. territories. The other part of his job is half a world away.

Not much about Father Wroblicky’s experience since he was ordained a Ukrainian Greek Catholic priest nearly three years ago in the Ukraine has really been commonplace.

>From childhood on, his church had been important in his life and in the decisions he made.

Members of Father Wroblicky’s family were among the founders of St. Andrew the Apostle Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Sacramento. If there was a leadership position open, chances were good he would sign up. But Father Wroblicky’s call to religious life came at a time when thoughts of retirement might well have crossed his mind. He and his wife Barbara had raised their four sons in the northeast Sacramento neighborhood of Arden Park.

In the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, in which sacraments are celebrated according to the Byzantine rite used by Orthodox churches, married men are ordained to the priesthood.

A key turning point came in 1986 when Father Wroblicky met the late Msgr. Richard Dwyer, who at the time directed the Diocese of Sacramento’s permanent diaconate program. The two became friends and Msgr. Dwyer encouraged Father Wroblicky to enroll in some diaconate classes.

“The Holy Spirit works directly by using indirect means,” recalled Father Wroblicky, who at the time was actively involved in “thinking about ways to make St. Andrew’s community grow.”

He was ordained a deacon in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in 1990. Due to a shortage of Greek Catholic priests, his ministry was needed in much of Northern California. So becoming a priest seemed a natural evolution.

“I speak Ukrainian but (as a deacon) couldn’t give absolutions,” said Father Wroblicky, who in the early 1990s was running himself ragged traveling between Sacramento, Santa Clara and San Francisco. “I was always pulling my hair out, looking for a priest.”

Ordained to priesthood in 1999 in the Ukraine, Father Wroblicky met Cardinal Lubomir Husar, then Auxiliary Bishop of Lviv, Ukraine. The two had a conversation which in retrospect seems providential. Bishop Husar recalled having met a woman from the Sacramento Diocese at a Catholic stewardship meeting in Rome and coming away enthusiastic about stewardship as a way of life.

“(Bishop Husar) felt stewardship was something we could use in Ukraine…because its spiritual basis would make it an excellent tool to use in re-evangelization,” Father Wroblicky said.

He returned to Sacramento and soon found himself with an expanded mission. Bishop Michael Wiwchar, the apostolic administrator of the St. Nicholas Ukrainian Eparchy, appointed Father Wroblicky director of development and his wife Barbara Wroblicky as director of stewardship.

However, a thorough search of several Ukrainian Greek dioceses for stewardship instructional materials came up empty. So Father Wroblicky scheduled a meeting with Mimi Scherber, the Sacramento Diocese’s director of stewardship and development. The goal was to adapt the diocesan stewardship materials for Ukrainian Greek Catholics. Working with the Wroblickys, Scherber said, was a successful collaboration from the start.

“We talked about that conversion of the heart,” said Scherber, noting that the theology of stewardship is one easily shared by all. “If you’re a Christian and have a relationship with God, stewardship kind of rattles your bones.”

Scherber also saw a seamless bond linking stewardship and the Ukraine Church.

“The church in the Ukraine is back. They finally were given their freedom, so now they are going to give back,” she said.

With armfuls of stewardship materials provided by Scherber, Father Wroblicky set about adapting them to fit the Orthodox Church’s liturgical year and liturgy.

“What Sacramento had done was good,” he noted, “so we basically ‘Byzantineized’ and ‘Ukraineized’ it.”

He then made presentations on stewardship to the annual St. Nicholas Ukrainian Eparchy’s priests’ conference and eparchial conference last year and began teaching stewardship to church leaders in more than 27 parishes in the Western states.

Father Wroblicky is quick to point out that his wife Barbara, who worked for several years in the 1980s as director of development at Loretto High School, plays a vital role on their team approach to spreading the good word about stewardship.

“We are suggesting is that stewardship be embraced as a way of life by our parishioners,” Barbara Wroblicky said. “What we really want people to do is be grateful for everything God has given to them, especially their church.”

In March, Father Wroblicky returned to the Ukraine and gave a presentation on stewardship to the Ukrainian Synod of Bishops in Kiev. He received the unequivocal support of Cardinal Husar to continue implementing stewardship in pilot parishes in the United States and explore teaching opportunities in Ukraine.

In a letter given to Father Wroblicky, Cardinal Husar wrote: “People who remember church life are few and far between in the East. Some may view this situation as a Christian disaster. But it is also an opportunity…in which stewardship as a way of life can play a vital role.”

In this country, the Wroblickys’ long-range goal is to teach the principles of stewardship to all Ukrainian parishes in their eparchy and have scheduled a trip this month to do the same in Canada.

Bringing stewardship to the Ukrainian Catholic Church in the United States and the Ukraine is inspiring and a bit awesome to consider, but the Wroblickys will not forget that a partnership with the Diocese of Sacramento is helping make it all possible.

“From this little seed stewardship is just growing,” Barbara Wroblicky concluded.

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