CHMILAR o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-08-09 published
Bishop served Ukrainian Catholics
Priest confronted the Vatican over mandatory retirement and ordination
of married ministers
By Jordan HEATH-
RAWLINGS
Saturday,
August 9, 2003 - Page F10
Toronto -- Isidore
BORECKY, who served as Ukrainian Eparch for
Toronto and Eastern Canada for more than half a century, died
in his sleep on July 23 at Toronto Western Hospital after a long
illness. He was 92.
His death came mere hours before Reverend Stephen
CHMILAR was installed
as Ukrainian Catholic bishop of Toronto and Eastern Canada, the
post Father
BORECKY fought long and hard to keep.
Born in Ostrivets, Ukraine, on October 1, 1911, Father
BORECKY
dedicated more than 60 years of his life to the priesthood, and
spent his time fostering religious vocations, establishing lay
organizations, churches and senior citizens homes for Ukrainian
Catholics.
Father BORECKY,
Canada's last bishop ordained by Pope Pius Twelfth,
entered the priesthood in Munich in July of 1938. He then left
Germany for Canada in November of the same year.
From 1938 to 1941, he worked in several churches in Saskatchewan
and Manitoba. In 1941, he was appointed pastor at Saint John the
Baptist Church in Brantford, Ontario, where he would work for
seven years, serving his faithful as well as mission parishes
in nearby Grimsby, Niagara Falls, St. Catharines, Thorold and
Welland.
On March 3, 1948, Father
BORECKY was named by Pope Pius Twelfth to
the post of Apostolic Exarch of Eastern Canada. He was consecrated
in St. Michael's Cathedral on May 27, and began to organize the
new exarchate. During the next eight years, he would achieve
his most memorable goal, as the exarchate was raised to the status
of eparchy, or diocese, in 1956.
Some of Father
BORECKY's most notable work came in Toronto during
this period, when he oversaw the rise of many Catholic church
institutions -- he encouraged parishioners to erect St. Michael's
Roman Catholic Church -- and helped to integrate Eastern Rite
Catholic schools into the framework of what would eventually
become the Toronto Catholic District School Board.
On February 24, 1952, Father
BORECKY celebrated a divine liturgy
at St. Teresa's Church, and during the service he encouraged
the faithful to begin the construction of their own church building.
A church property was purchased for $1,500 and
on March 22, 1954,
Father BORECKY blessed it. Parishioners donated their time and
labour and
on September 6, 1954, the parish hall was opened.
The consecration of the church was celebrated on October 16,
1954, and Reverend
Walter
FIRMAN was appointed the first parish priest.
As leader of Canada's largest Ukrainian Catholic diocese, Father
BORECKY was very approachable, said Reverend Taras
DUSANOWSKYJ, who
is currently pastor at St. Peter and Paul Ukrainian Catholic
Church in Toronto.
"He was very much oriented towards his people," he said. "He
was very welcoming, open and certainly ecumenical.
"He had a relationship with everyone. He knew all his clergy
by name, he knew a lot of the parishioners. He was a very warm
person."
He was also a man who stood devoutly for his eparchy's right
to practise the Eastern Rites.
Serving as bishop at a time after the Vatican decreed in 1929
that no married men could be ordained into the priesthood, he
would arrange for his priests who had wives or wished to marry
to be transported to Yugoslavia or Ukraine, where they could
be ordained in the traditional Eastern rites, which does not
require celibacy.
Father DUSANOWSKYJ, who is one of 40 married priests out of about
75 in the eparchy, said the Vatican did not take well to his
plans, but couldn't stop a man who was so strong-minded.
"Certainly there were times when he got his wrist slapped, or
he would be called in so they could complain," he said. "But
for the most part he simply ignored it because he knew that this
was part of our tradition, and without married clergy our eparchy
would have been in a tremendous shortage."
Father BORECKY kept the title of bishop until 1998, at the age
of 86, 11 years past his required retirement age, when he relinquished
it after five years of sparring with the Vatican over the naming
of bishop Roman
DANYLAK as apostolic administrator for the Toronto
eparchy.
Father BORECKY confronted the Vatican over the rule, which states
that bishops must retire at the age of 75. He contended that
the rule did not apply to him, as he was leader of an Eastern
Rite church.
One last accolade came in December of last year, when Ukrainian
President Leonid
KUCHMA gave him, along with Archbishop Vsevolod
MAJDANSKI of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the United States,
special commendation orders for service to Ukraine.
Father BORECKY's funeral was held on July 26 at the Ukrainian
Catholic Church of the Holy Dormition, his funeral mass led by
Ukraine's
Cardinal
Lubomyr
HUSAR, the Major Archbishop of Lviv
and spiritual leader to more than five million Ukrainian Catholics
worldwide. He has been buried in the family plot at Mount Peace
Cemetery.
C... Names CH... Names CHM... Names Welcome Home
CHMILAR - All Categories in OGSPI
CHML o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-12-19 published
The voice of Ontario horse racing
For three decades, the announcer added detail and drama to his
calls at Woodbine, Fort Erie and Greenwood tracks
By Allison
LAWLOR,
Special to The Globe and Mail Friday, December
19, 2003 - Page R13
When the great Secretariat burst out of the starting gate at
Toronto's Woodbine Race Track on that dark and miserable day
in late October, 1973, in what would be his final race, Daryl
WELLS was behind the microphone calling the race for fans.
"In a blaze of glory, ladies and gentlemen, he's all yours,"
Mr. WELLS cried as the Triple Crown-winner won the Canadian International
by 12 lengths.
Daryl WELLS
Jr. was there that day in the announcer's booth to
hear what would be his father's most famous call and share his
excitement of seeing the last career race of the horse, considered
by many to be the greatest thoroughbred of all time.
"I thought it was the greatest thing that ever happened," said
Daryl WELLS
Jr., who carried on the tradition and now calls races
at Ontario's Fort Erie track.
Mr. WELLS, the voice of Ontario thoroughbred racing for more
30 years, from just after the new Woodbine Race Track opened
in the spring of 1956 to the summer of 1986, died last Friday
of heart disease in Niagara Falls, Ontario He was 81.
For three decades, Mr.
WELLS was at the Ontario Jockey Club microphone,
describing the thoroughbred races at Woodbine, Fort Erie and
Greenwood, entertaining fans with his calls that were both accurate
and exciting. When the gates opened, fans could often be heard
imitating his familiar, trademark call: "They're off."
Whether it was a small, weekday afternoon race or the prestigious
Queen's
Plate,
Mr.
WELLS made every call dramatic and detailed.
"Every horse got his call," said his long-time friend Gary
ALLES.
Behind the microphone, Mr.
WELLS was a pro who also had a mischievous
streak that could sometimes be seen in the announcer's booth.
Mr. ALLES remembers one day sitting next to his friend while
he was calling a race at Woodbine. A second after telling fans
where their horses were in the race, he switched off his microphone
and asked Mr.
ALLES which horse he had betted on that day. Back
to the microphone, he gave fans a quick update before turning
off the microphone again. This time with the microphone off,
he started giving Mr.
ALLES the call he really wanted to hear
that his horse looked poised to win. But before Mr.
ALLES
could get too excited the microphone was back on again and Mr.
WELLS was giving fans the true account of the race.
"He had a mischievousness that emanated from his eyes," Mr.
ALLES
said.
Daryl Frederick
WELLS was born on December 10, 1922, in Victoria.
As a young boy, he would tag along when his parents went to the
races. "That's what got him interested," said his wife, Marian
WELLS.
By the age of 15, he had entered the broadcasting world as a
disc jockey, after a local radio station allowed him to play
a few records. "It [his career] took off from there," Daryl
WELLS
Jr. said.
Several years later, he headed east and got a job in the sports
department of radio station
CHML in Hamilton, where he worked
in the 1940s and 1950s and later as a sports director for
CHCH-TV.
During the Second World War, he served for a time in Britain
with the Canadian Army.
Ed BRADLEY, a former general manager of Greenwood, Mohawk and
Garden City Raceways, can remember his first introduction to
Mr. WELLS in 1955. Working then as an announcer at Long Branch
track in Toronto's west end, Mr.
BRADLEY recalls one day seeing
a man standing around outside his announcer's booth watching
while he worked.
The next day he saw the same man again. Mr.
BRADLEY was curious
about this mysterious man but thought nothing of him again until
the following spring when the track opened in Fort Erie. He was
in the announcing booth when his manager came to him to tell
him he had a new guy for him to break in.
"The guy walked in and it was Daryl
WELLS,"
Mr.
BRADLEY said.
They got down to work and, right away, Mr.
BRADLEY recognized
Mr. WELLS's voice from his broadcasting work. After three days
of training, Mr.
WELLS was ready to call a race on his own.
"He turned out to be a real pro," Mr.
BRADLEY said, adding that
Mr. WELLS was very descriptive in his calls and got to know what
the jockeys were doing during a race.
During a time when horse racing was among the country's favourite
sports, and fans would regularly stream out of work to head to
the bar to watch a race, Mr.
WELLS was its voice, said Wally
WOOD, a former long-time racing columnist. "He was the poster
boy for the sport," Mr. Wood said. "He was willing to do anything
to promote racing....
"He was very good for racing," Mr.
WOOD added.
A true showman, Mr.
WELLS not only had the voice, but he looked
as though he had just stepped out of an Armani commercial. "Daryl
was show business and he dressed like it," Mr.
ALLES said.
After 30 years as a well-loved fixture in the announcing booth,
Mr. WELLS left Woodbine in July of 1986 amid controversy. His
employers suspended him after the Ontario Racing Commission fined
him for his part in a 1983 wager that returned a $237,598 payoff.
"Touting" (volunteering an opinion on the outcome of a race for
profit) was the official description and is strictly against
the rules. While it was never a case of Mr.
WELLS affecting the
outcome of a race, he was suspended and his career as a horse-race
announcer was over.
"He missed the excitement of the track," Ms.
WELLS said, adding
that it was the people he missed most of all. After he left Woodbine,
he seldom went to the track except on special occasions.
"He always wanted to be surrounded by people," said Ms.
WELLS,
who never knew when she would come home to find her husband throwing
an impromptu party.
Mr. WELLS, who had been living in Lewiston, New York since the
late 1980s, died on December 12 at the Greater Niagara General
Hospital in Niagara Falls. He leaves his wife; children Dana,
Daryl Jr. and Wendy; sister Velda
SCOBIE; and stepchildren Michael,
Kelly and Jeffrey.
C... Names CH... Names CHM... Names Welcome Home
CHML - All Categories in OGSPI