Catholic congregations continue to register in Ukraine; Russian Orthodox Church, Vatican officials to meet (12/31/89)

Catholic congregations continue to register in Ukraine

Russian Orthodox Church, Vatican officials to meet

ROME - The number of parishes in Ukraine which are currently functioning as Ukrainian Catholic, the number of congregations currently without churches which are awaiting registration, and the number of Russian Orthodox priests which have joined the Ukrainian Catholic Church continue to grow.

Ukrainian Catholic Church officials in Rome were told in a telephone conversation the evening of December 21 that over 300 churches are currently functioning as Ukrainian Catholic, 600 to 650 congregations have registered with Soviet officials for recognition and over 200 formerly Russian Orthodox priests have asked to become Ukrainian Catholic priests and have been accepted by a Ukrainian Catholic bishop.

Following the recounting of these statistics, the telephone line was cut and a second call to Ukraine could not be put through. Operators in Rome were told by Soviet operators that the telephone number was suddenly out of order, reported the Ukrainian Catholic Press Bureau.

The Council for Religious Affairs of Ukraine had announced on December 1 that Eastern rite Catholics in Ukraine had been granted the right to officially register their congregations. Registration is increasing each day, and many formerly Russian Orthodox churches are already functioning as Ukrainian Catholic in anticipation of registration.

In related news, Agence France Presse reported on December 27 that the Russian Orthodox Church is to negotiate with the Vatican next month over what the ROC described as "occupation" of its churches by Uniates, or Ukrainian Catholics.

Archbishop Kirill said that a Vatican delegation will be in Moscow on January 14-17 to discuss the matter. He also said that the ROC would be prepared to envisage the legalization of the Uniate Church, "despite the violent action" of the Uniates.

Lubachivsky responds

On December 19 Archbishop Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, the newly appointed head of the Department of External Church Relations for the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), made public a declaration of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church and made several statements about the Ukrainian Catholic Church which were reported by the Soviet news agency TASS. In the declaration and in Archbishop Kirill's statement, allegations are repeated that Ukrainian Catholics are using violence against Russian Orthodox faithful, are forcing Russian Orthodox faithful to sign registration requests, and are causing enmity between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches.

In Rome, Cardinal Myroslav Ivan Lubachivsky, head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, issued the following statement.

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I have said before publicly that the faithful of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Ukraine have not used violence in any form against Russian Orthodox clergy and faithful in Ukraine. I have received this information from correspondents from the international news media who have been visiting Ukraine in the past weeks and from our hierarchy, clergy and faithful in Ukraine. The fact that no violence is being used has also been reported several times on Soviet television and has been supported by the mayor of Lviv, Bohdan Kotyk. During a trial on this very issue, a Soviet judge in Lviv also found that no violence has occurred.

I can only say that I am disheartened that my Russian Orthodox brothers in Christ persist in these unfounded accusations. I had hoped that a spirit of Christian love would result from the steps toward normalization of our Church in Ukraine rather than the situation which is now resulting.

I would like to make the following points in response to the declaration of the Holy Synod and in response to the statements of His Excellency Archbishop Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad:

1. No violence has been perpetrated by Ukrainian Catholic clergy or faithful in Ukraine in conjunction with the registration of formerly Russian Orthodox parishes as Ukrainian Catholic.

2. The re-registration of formerly Russian Orthodox parishes as Ukrainian Catholic is not an ejection of one group of parishioners from their church by another group, but the declaration of a single group of parishioners of their true faith as Ukrainian Catholic.

3. Realizing one's right to religious freedom through registration with the state authorities does not constitute state interference in religious affairs. Rather, it is a means through which believers can establish their religious preference and preserve their rights as Soviet citizens under current law.

4. The Russian Orthodox Church has not decried the fact that the state has regulated religious activity until now, when the Soviet government is permitting Ukrainian Catholic congregations to register.

5. The Russian Orthodox Church has taken advantage of the current laws to register many formerly Ukrainian Catholic parishes as Russian Orthodox. Yet now, when the members of these parishes are choosing freely to return to the Ukrainian Catholic Church, the Russian Orthodox Church is opposing their right to register.

6. Archbishop Kirill is proposing that the issue of the Ukrainian Catholic Church be resolved only through inter-Church dialogue, without participation of the state. However, religious liberty is a matter of relations between Church and state.

7. I am prepared to discuss the improvement of the relations between the Ukrainian Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church in the context of inter-Church dialogue, as is appropriate. The Ukrainian Catholic Church is always open to dialogue and will act in the spirit of Christian love, forgiveness and reconciliation.