INTERVIEW: Patriarch Filaret on relations among Churches (CONCLUSION) (07/26/98)

INTERVIEW: Patriarch Filaret on relations among Churches

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

Patriarch Filaret (Denysenko) was appointed the third patriarch of Kyiv and all Rus'-Ukraine by the Synod of Bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate in October 1995 after the sudden death of Patriarch Volodymyr Romaniuk in July.

In this, the second part of an exclusive interview, Patriarch Filaret discusses relations with the other Orthodox Churches in Ukraine, as well as with the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church.

CONCLUSION

Q: I also want to ask you about the state of relations between the UOC-KP and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church and Patriarch Dymytrii.

A: Patriarch Dymytrii and I signed a memorandum of intentions to unite into a single Church, but so far the process has not proceeded further. These remain intentions. It was signed at the beginning of this year. The UAOC has not decided the issue. The patriarch has signaled his readiness for unification, but the episcopate has not yet discussed it, and that it is why it has not taken on more momentum.

Q: How long does Your Holiness believe that three Orthodox Churches will continue to exist in Ukraine?

A: We will unite with the UAOC fairly quickly. Today it has only several hundred parishes, many of which have already gone over to the UOC-KP, so union with the UAOC is not a major problem.

This big problem is union with the [Ukrainian Orthodox Church that belongs to the] Moscow Patriarchate; there is much pressure from Moscow not to allow for a such a union.

It threatens the episcopate, the priesthood, the monks with excommunication, with removal from churches - all so that the episcopate does not agree to union with the Kyiv Patriarchate.

Regardless of the pressure brought to bear by the hierarchy, the process of union is proceeding, but it is moving from the ground level. Increasingly, the faithful in Ukraine are showing a desire for a single Orthodox Church. They do not want resistance and hostilities.

Even the president has more than once stated that Ukraine needs a single Orthodox Church. This movement from the ground level, whether it is nurtured or not, could lead to union by a part of the clergy and episcopate, even against the will and regardless of the pressure of Moscow.

What is needed also is assistance from the government, especially at the local level, because I heard while visiting the oblasts that certain communities that want to register themselves as part of the Kyiv Patriarchate are not being allowed to do so.

For example, I just recently returned from Dnipropetrovsk. There we have 65 Orthodox communities of the Kyiv Patriarchate, more than 50 priests. But of the 65, only 20 are registered and 45 are not. This means that registration of parishes of the Kyiv Patriarchate is being impeded.

The Moscow Patriarchate is being supported artificially with inaccurate statistics by which it can claim that it has some 6,000 parishes, while demeaning the Kyiv Patriarchate as having only 1,300 parishes.

This is being done to say: Everybody, look at how powerful the Moscow Patriarchate is in Ukraine and how weak the Kyiv Patriarchate is. So orient yourselves to the Moscow Patriarchate and keep in mind that the Kyiv Patriarchate will die today or tomorrow.

This is a point of orientation for the raion and oblast administrations - that they should support the Moscow Patriarchate because it is the future of Ukraine, and that the Kyiv Patriarchate is so small that you need not pay attention to it.

Q: Even so, there exists a general belief, a general feeling, that even President Leonid Kuchma, or his administration, expresses more support for the Moscow Patriarchate.

A: You are correct in saying that such support exists. Perhaps not as much from the president as from his administration. There are individuals in the presidential administration who are oriented toward the Moscow Patriarchate and they set the tone, you could say, for all of Ukraine.

If there was, in fact, an evenhanded approach to the Kyiv Patriarchate - of which the president, who supports an evenhanded approach to all confessions, has spoken more than once - then today the Kyiv Patriarchate would have had almost as many, if not an equal amount of, parishes.

This is further supported by sociological surveys done before the elections [to the Verkhovna Rada], which show that the Kyiv Patriarchate is supported by 23.3 percent of the population of Ukraine, while the Moscow Patriarchate is supported by merely 16 percent. You see the difference. If we have 12 million Orthodox faithful, then Moscow has 8 million.

The survey showed that 42 percent do not belong to any Church; they may be believers, but do not express support for a particular Church.

Based on this, the Kyiv Patriarchate is the largest Church in Ukraine, but official documents do not give it its due.

Q: Now, I'd like to cover briefly your relations with the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church. Bishop Lubomyr Husar, in an interview I did with him more than a year ago, said that wide-ranging and intensive dialogue is needed with the Orthodox Churches of Ukraine with regard to cooperation and even unification. Has such a dialogue begun and, if not, what is blocking such a dialogue?

A: We have good relations with the Greek-Catholic Church and its hierarchy. We have common viewpoints on the nature of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church and Ukrainian Orthodox Churches with regard to [Ukrainian] statehood. This unites us.

However, one must not forget that the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church is a Catholic Church. It is subordinated to the pope of Rome. The Kyiv Patriarchate is an Orthodox Church. For union to take place between the Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church, decisions must be made by the Roman Catholic Church from one side and the Orthodox Churches from the other.

For Orthodox Ukrainians to unite with Greek-Catholic Ukrainians, either the Orthodox would need to join with the Greek-Catholics in what would be a new Uniate Church, which would not be accepted by Ukrainians here, or Greek-Catholics would need to unite with the Orthodox Church. This would be a separation of Greek-Catholics from Rome.

Based on this we could form a united Ukrainian Patriarchate. But this is such a complex problem. The desire to create a joint Ukrainian Patriarchate exists among the Orthodox and the Greek-Catholics, but the path to a single Patriarchate is fairly complex. However, simply such an idea, such a desire could lead to union.

Q: What is the prognosis for joint celebrations scheduled by the Ukrainian Orthodox and Greek-Catholic Churches on the celebration of the second millennium of the birth of Jesus Christ in the year 2000?

A: There will be joint celebrations because a joint organizing committee has already been established by the president to which representatives of all the confessions, including Greek-Catholics, belong.

There is a general program of state celebrations of this jubilee. Within this framework, in May we held an All-Ukrainian Christian Forum on the occasion of the 2,000th anniversary of the birth of Christ.

I believe that, given the amenable conditions that have been created by the president, we will celebrate in conjunction with all the Churches of Ukraine.

Q: Now, to conclude, I would like to return to the issues that we discussed earlier regarding relations between the UOC-KP and the UOC-U.S.A. after the latter's union with Constantinople. Rumors abound that you will not give your priests permission to concelebrate the divine liturgy with priests of the UOC-U.S.A. Is this true?

A: There will be no such order from our side because such concelebration between the priesthood of the UOC-KP and the UOC-U.S.A. has existed. When they visit Ukraine they celebrate [divine liturgy] in our churches together with us.

There will be no obstacles laid down from our side. We will do just the opposite and continue to support common prayer among Orthodox Ukrainians.

PART I