Vatican official to visit Kyiv, Lviv (10/06/96)

Vatican official to visit Kyiv, Lviv

by Marta Kolomayets
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Cardinal Achille Silvestrini, the prefect of the Congregation for Eastern-Rite Churches, is scheduled to hold high-level meetings with Ukrainian government officials when he arrives in Kyiv on Wednesday, October 9, according to Presidential Chief of Staff Dmytro Tabachnyk. That information has been confirmed by Papal Nuncio Archbishop Antonio Franco, the Vatican's representative in Ukraine.

Cardinal Silvestrini, who is traveling to Ukraine to take part in the closing celebrations marking the 400th anniversary of the Union of Brest in Lviv on October 12-13, will also be present at the Synod of Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Bishops in Lviv, which begins on October 14.

In a September 17 interview in Avenire, an Italian newspaper, Cardinal Silvestrini suggested that Pope John Paul II will visit Ukraine in the not too distant future. He said that the holy father has already scheduled a visit to his flock in Lebanon and hopes to come to Ukraine some time after that pilgrimage.

The extensive interview suggests that the cardinal's meetings in Kyiv, which at press time were still unconfirmed, may result in the Ukrainian government extending an official invitation to the pope.

Although Mr. Tabachnyk could not confirm that the Ukrainian government is planning to invite the holy father to Ukraine in the near future, he did say that "tensions between the Orthodox and Catholics in some of Ukraine's oblasts are becoming a thing of the past, and the situation is now stabilizing."

Mr. Tabachnyk did say that the cardinal would hold meetings "along the line of the Embassy of the Vatican." Although the Vatican has an apostolic nunciature in Kyiv, Ukraine does not yet have an ambassador to the Vatican.

In May 1995, after his return from an official visit to the Vatican, President Leonid Kuchma had told reporters in Ukraine that he could not invite the holy father to Ukraine at that time because it could cause further strife between the Orthodox and Catholic faithful of Ukraine.

Today, however, it seems that conditions can be created to allow for the visit of Pope John Paul II to Ukraine sometime in the future.

"But, there must be preparation for the visit of the holy father to Ukraine," said Archbishop Franco, who dismissed the idea that the pope will come to Ukraine this year, on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the Union of Brest. "Of course we are interested in this visit taking place."

Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Bishop Lubomyr Husar of Kyiv said at a recent press conference that there may be a papal visit to Ukraine sometime in 1997.