Bishop Sipovich new file

29 up to the superiors". On the following day, 19 October, Sipovich made the following note on a piece of paper which is found among his retreat notes: "If I receive this grace (i.e. permission to continue his studies – A.N. ), – and I firmly believe I will, – I promise: never in my life to boast about my academic degree (in the strictest sense of the word) or even mention it to anyone without need. After failure – penance. However, God, You see all, You know and see my future, my temperament and character; if You consider that the licenciate and this additional year of study are not necessary for me, then lead me on your path which is beyond my understanding. As to what Father General told me today: transeat a me, sed non mea voluntas sed Tua fiat (may it pass me by, but let it be not my will but yours)". Thus it seems that initially Buchys was against Sipovich continuing his studies. However there is another note by Sipovich, dated 3 November, on the same piece of paper: "God listened to me, unworthy as I am, through the intercession of the Good Mother of God and her servant Father Stanislas Papczynski. Everything conspired against my wishes: failure in exams, unwillingness of the Father General, war – and despite it all in the name of God I shall continue my studies". In June 1942 he was third time lucky, but with the war raging all over the world there was no question of his going anywhere. With the plans of going to Harbin abandoned or at least suspended, in the autumn of 1942 Sipovich began his studies at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome. Four years later, on 19 December 1946, he obtained his doctorate after successfully defending a thesis on the penultimate Belarusian Uniate Metropolitan, Jason Junosza Smogorzewski (1780-88). But by then the world was a different place. Since 1941 Sipovich had been living not in the Russicum but in the Marian College at via Corsica. The war did not seem to have had much effect on him or on the Marian community. There is an interesting entry in the Chronicle on 30 August 1943: "Fr J. Vajtkievich and C. Sipovich go to the seaside at Fregene. On the beach they watch American planes flying to bomb Civitavecchia". On rare occasions news reached Rome from German-occupied Belarus and Poland. Thus Sipovich reports in his Chronicle on 7 February 1942: "H. E. Father Superior General received from the Belarusian Committee in the Generalgouvernement (i.e. Poland – A.N .) (Warsaw, Kniazhaia 4) a request and at the same time what looks like complaint against the Superior of the Polish province of the Marian Congregation, that , despite the fact that the Warsaw Metropolitan Curia gave Belarusians the church of St Martin (Piwna street), he refused to give there a Belarusian priest, and even did not want to speak with the Belarusian delegation on this subject. The document was written on 2 January, No.15/42-K/III. It was signed by the chairman M. Shchors". At that time there were three Belarusian Marian priests from Druia in Poland, namely Casimir Smulka, Joseph Dashuta and Vitalis Khamionak. With a bit of good will it would not have been impossible to assign one of them to pastoral work among Belarusians. But it was not to be. In the Chronicle under 8 February there is the following note: "To this request there has already been sent some good advice, namely that the Belarusian Committee should address the same request to the Oriental Congregation". It is surprising that Sipovich could call this advice "good". The Belarusian Catholics in Warsaw belonged to the Roman (Latin) rite, and their affairs were not within the competence of the Congregation for the Eastern Churches (or, as it was generally called, the Oriental Congregation). Moreover, even if they had been, the possiblities of Rome in war-torn Europe were very limited. Thus the actions of the Marian superiors both in Warsaw and in Rome look very much like a snub for the Belarusians, telling them to go away and leave Marian Fathers alone. Incidentally, the chairman of the Belarusian Committee in Warsaw, Dr Nicholas Shchors, was