Papal visit to Ukraine on track for next year (10/01/00)

Papal visit to Ukraine on track for next year

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Bishop Lubomyr Husar, the acting administrative head of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, confirmed on September 19 that talks between the Vatican and the Ukrainian government are continuing for a visit by Pope John Paul II to Ukraine next year.

Bishop Husar said that while an exact date had yet to be set, the two sides were targeting June 2001 as the most suitable time for the visit.

The Ukrainian government in early 1999 had extended an invitation to the Vatican for a papal visit. While Pope John Paul II accepted the invitation at the time, the Vatican demurred from an immediate decision on a visit, citing various factors, including the approaching Ukrainian presidential elections and a full schedule of Millennium celebrations that would keep the pope in Rome throughout 2000.

The strong influence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Ukraine and threats by the Russian Orthodox Church to suspend ecumenical talks with Rome should he visit Ukraine long have been cited as other reasons the pontiff has yet to travel here. Ukrainian Catholics have awaited a visit by Pope John Paul II, the first pope of Slavic origin, since independence in 1991, when the UGCC, which was banned and nearly eliminated by the Soviet regime, began a lengthy process of rebirth and reinvigoration.

Bishop Husar said that both Ukrainian and Vatican officials have confirmed the visit by Pope John Paul II barring unforeseen developments.

The Lviv-based bishop made the announcement while introducing a new Ukrainian Greek-Catholic position on ecumenism, which is defined as the movement for the reunification of all the Christian Churches.

"We have to make an effort to have better relations than a state of declared peace, one in which we simply agree not to attack one another," explained Bishop Husar. "We need to open dialogues to strive for a return of the situation that existed at the time of [Grand Prince] Volodymyr the Great, when we all lived in one Church."

Bishop Husar said he would like to see relations between the UGCC and the Ukrainian Orthodox Churches eventually achieve the closeness and cooperation that exists between the Eastern and the Latin rites of the Catholic Church in Ukraine. Bishop Husar said most of the differences between the two rites are merely ones of tradition and that the two sides continue to search for ways to cooperate, the latest of which is an agreement on joint celebrations of the divine liturgy. Bishop Husar said he believes a letter on the matter soon to be signed by the Roman Catholic representatives in Ukraine and the UGCC should serve as a model for drawing Greek-Catholics closer to their Ukrainian Orthodox brothers.

"Unfortunately, we do not have such an agreement with the Orthodox confessions," explained Bishop Husar. "We concelebrate molebens and other services, but not divine liturgy."

The UGCC bishop said the religious divisions that mark Ukrainian history have caused much suffering for the nation and suggested that his Church is ready to cast most all preconceptions aside in reinvigorating ecumenical negotiations with Ukrainian Orthodoxy. He said the lone position from which the UGCC could not withdraw is that the pope is the head of the Church.

"The pope is a symbol, a symbol of the continuity of Christendom," said Bishop Husar. "That is not negotiable."

He explained that Ukraine is in a unique situation at a historic moment and could be the first success story for the world ecumenical movement. "I would like to see Ukraine in the avant-garde of such a process," said Bishop Husar.

He called the inter-confessional discussions on reunification between the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church a constructive advance for ecumenism and said the UGCC wholeheartedly supports such a reunion.

However, Bishop Husar had little good to say about relations between the UGCC and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate or the Russian Orthodox Church. He called the stand of the ROC toward the re-establishment of a separate Ukrainian Orthodox Church "a tragedy," and criticized the position of ROC Patriarch Aleksei II toward cooperation with the UGCC.

Patriarch Aleksei II, in an interview with the Italian newspaper Correra della Sera on August 3, said he could not meet with Pope John Paul II for an ecumenical conference until the UGCC stops "persecuting" members of the UOC-MP and the Catholic Church stops proselytizing in Russia.

Bishop Husar said that, while he usually does not rebut baseless accusations by the ROC, he felt compelled in this instance because of the seriousness of the charge of persecution. In a letter to the Italian newspaper he expounded on the historical development of the UGCC and the ROC. At a press conference in Kyiv Bishop Husar said neither the UGCC nor its individual parishes had ever or would ever persecute members of another faith.

The UGCC leader explained that the ecumenical process with the ROC would continue to remain stalled until the Russian Church backs away from the politicization of relations and begins to develop its own path - one that leads away from Ukraine.

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