Open letter to Cyril Vasiľ

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Dear Bishop Cyril,
I am writing to you as my former professor, who guided me through my licentiate thesis in Canon Law in Rome. At that time, you were also dean of the law faculty, later becoming rector of the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome. You were not a dry lawyer or a soulless professor, but a man with a sense of truth and justice who understood human weakness. You earned a place in the hearts of all your students, who surely remember you in the best possible light.
As a Slovak, I love my nation and care deeply about its present and future. However, I firmly believe that you care even more. Otherwise, why would you have given up your career and left your high-ranking position as secretary of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches? You have returned to Slovakia to plough the furrow like your patron, Saint Cyril, right here in this land.
God has placed you in this difficult time of spiritual upheaval. To a certain extent, it can be compared to the period during which the saint and martyr Bishop Pavol Gojdič was active in this region of eastern Slovakia. Those were hard times. Faced with psychological and physical pressure, he chose imprisonment over betraying his faithfulness to our Lord Jesus Christ and the souls entrusted to him by God. Many priests followed his example of faithfulness to our Saviour and were deported with their families to the Czech border. There, they worked in difficult conditions in cowsheds and factories. Thanks to this holy bishop, the Eastern Church in Slovakia can indeed be proud of its name: ‘The Church of Confessors and Martyrs’.
You now stand in this Church as a shepherd, facing a very difficult test at a historic crossroads. Moral decay is spreading at an unimaginable speed in Slovakia, essentially leading to the nation’s spiritual and physical catastrophe. Not only liberal politicians, but also church leaders, are digging the grave of the Slovak nation before our eyes. Many Roman Catholic priests and believers look to the Confessional Church with hope. Through its liturgy, it is also deeply connected to the tradition of Sts Cyril and Methodius, our spiritual fathers.
I do not want to provide painful examples and statistics here, but I would like to mention one thing: a vote was held on whether to enshrine in the Slovak Constitution that there are only two genders, male and female; that surrogate motherhood is prohibited; and that so-called sex education in schools is only possible with parental consent. Today, this education promotes hormone therapy and subsequent lifelong mutilation of children through sex reassignment surgery. The amendment to the constitution failed by one vote. Tragically, members of the so-called Christian party turned their backs on it. Privately, they referred to the ecclesiastical authority of the Slovak Bishops’ Conference, which had accepted Fiducia Supplicans and is promoting LGBTQ ideology. The vote on the constitutional amendment has been postponed until September. May God grant that Slovakia be spiritually mobilized through prayer and repentance.
The Ministry of Education is pushing to lower the compulsory preschool attendance age from five to three years old, aiming to indoctrinate children with gender ideology from an early age. This ideology is closely linked to a juvenile justice system based on the Scandinavian model, which is already influencing the Slovak judiciary. Example: A Slovak judge awarded two girls to their father, who lives in the US, despite him having become a drug addict and having abused the children. The girls suffered nervous stress as a result and began to stutter, wet themselves and experience nervous breakdowns. Their Slovak mother, who had been living with them in Slovakia for three years, was refused a US visa, meaning she could not travel with them.
These current events must break the hearts of every Christian and every sincere Slovak. As Christ’s apostle and shepherd, I am in pain over this catastrophic situation, and I know you feel it even more acutely than I do. Yes, you are literally on the cross when you realize the situation we are in. I can see you looking at me and asking sincerely, ‘Timothy, Patrick, what can I do in this situation? Can’t you see the destructive power against which I am powerless?’
Yes, Your Eminence, I feel that pressure very strongly, and I can see the tyrannical system behind it all too clearly. It is driven by a spirit of lies and death. Anyone who stands up against it is swept away without mercy. But we rely on God’s help. Often, we have to become like a grain of wheat thrown into the ground to die. The holy bishop Gojdič was one such grain. So were our Slavic missionaries. I would like to thank you sincerely for recently speaking out publicly against progressivism on TV Lux and going against the mainstream.
Dear Archbishop Cyril, I feel that the time has come when God wants you to take a decisive step that will bring great blessings to the Church and the nation. This step involves you and the other shepherds of the Eastern Church in Slovakia withdrawing your consent to the approval by the Slovak Bishops’ Conference of the doctrinal declaration Fiducia Supplicans. The approval of the document has opened the door to moral decay, liberalism and progressivism, and constitutes a rebellion against God and the Gospel. Be brave! If Latin bishops put pressure on you, you and the other Eastern bishops can separate yourselves from the Slovak Bishops’ Conference and create your own episcopal conference for the Eastern Church. In doing so, you will set an example and, at the same time, become a reproach to others. You can refer to the largest Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine. It did not accept Fiducia Supplicans! Similarly, neighbouring bishops in Poland and Hungary did not accept Fiducia Supplicans but publicly rejected it.
I am convinced that the vast majority of Greek Catholics in eastern Slovakia will support your decision to reject the FS. In doing so, you will establish the spiritual conditions necessary for God’s blessing to permeate the political sphere and rescue the nation from the perilous path of self-destruction during these challenging times.
May God, through the intercession of the Mother of God, Saints Cyril and Methodius, and the holy martyr Pavol Gojdič, grant you the wisdom and strength to take this historic step.
In Christ,
+ Timothy

August 15, 2025