COMMENTARY: The Moscow Patriarchate's attempt to stall the pope's visit to Ukraine (02/11/01)

COMMENTARY

The Moscow Patriarchate's attempt to stall the pope's visit to Ukraine

by Archimandrite Serge Keleher

The letter of Metropolitan Volodymyr (Sabodan) of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate requesting that Pope John Paul II's trip to Ukraine be postponed is an interesting document, and that for several reasons.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) is not a direct participant in any ecumenical activities outside Ukraine, nor, for that matter, does this body participate in ecumenical activities within Ukraine to any significant degree. In all ecumenical relations the Moscow Patriarchate speaks for its Ukrainian subsidiary.

Metropolitan Volodymyr's letter to Pope John Paul II may well be the first attempt of this unusual ecclesiastical judicatory to step into the international ecumenical arena. Or it may be an attempt by Moscow to hide behind Moscow's own creation in Ukraine.

The text of the letter twice appeals to discussions and agreements between the Moscow Patriarchate and the Vatican, and gives no hint of any discussions between the Vatican and the judicatory which Metropolitan Volodymyr heads.

One way or the other, then, this letter is certainly an innovation. If the 42 bishops headed by Metropolitan Volodymyr wish to be taken seriously, they would be well-advised to follow up this letter with consistent efforts to be represented in the ecumenical movement, and not permit the Moscow Patriarchate to act for them. We shall see.

We are also aware that there have been serious Greek-Catholic efforts, on many occasions, to reach out to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate and to build the sort of peaceful relations which the letter seems to consider desirable. These efforts invariably, have been rebuffed. Letters have gone unanswered, appointments have not been kept. The conclusion is inescapable: either the UOC-MP is unable to carry on an ecumenical relationship, or else this judicatory simply does not wish to do so. The practical result is the same.

One also notes with interest that the letter is written in Ukrainian. This is laudable, but it is not representative of the ordinary practice of the UOC-MP in general, nor of the Kyivan Caves Monastery in particular. Metropolitan Volodymyr himself speaks fluent, classical Ukrainian, but the same cannot be said of most of his entourage; Russian reigns supreme.

The UOC-MP supposedly permits the use of Ukrainian for liturgical purposes, but any of its clergy who wish to serve in Ukrainian must either employ Ukrainian Greek-Catholic translations or Ukrainian translations published by the very "schismatic groups" whose existence the letter so vehemently deplores. All this might lead one to consider the possibility that the exceptional use of the Ukrainian language in this particular letter is an attempt to present a not entirely accurate image of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate. Those who are familiar with the history of the Russian Orthodox in Ukraine are accustomed to this sort of thing.

The request that the holy father should "postpone" his visit to Ukraine is an unsuccessful attempt to disguise the real import of the letter: the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate is notifying the pope that they do not want him in Ukraine at all, ever. Suggesting that a man of the holy father's age and health should "postpone" such a trip is sheer cynicism, and unworthy of Christian writing. Whatever language they care to write it, they could at least say what they mean.

Relations between the Moscow Patriarchate's jurisdiction in western Ukraine and the Greek-Catholics are certainly unfriendly; no informed person could deny that. But what has the UOC-MP done to improve those relations? Bishop Augustine of Lviv and Drohobych loses no opportunity to claim that he and his adherents alone possess any divine grace in the territory of his diocese. Bishop Augustine continues to insist that St. George Greek-Catholic Cathedral morally belongs to him. Such constantly reiterated public utterances have exhausted everyone's patience. The Pochaiv Lavra is today a bastion of "Russianism" in an entirely Ukrainian ethnic region; is it any wonder that the Ukrainian population of that region is unimpressed by the claims of the UOC-MP? Can the 42 hierarchs who agreed upon this letter not find 42 Ukrainian-speaking monks to staff the Pochaiv Lavra?

As every informed person, including Metropolitan Volodymyr, is well aware, there were not even half a dozen Ukrainian Orthodox church edifices in western Ukraine prior to 1946; in that year the Soviet government criminalized the Greek-Catholic Church and confiscated all its buildings, diverting some to secular use and giving most of them to the Moscow Patriarchate. When the Greek-Catholics regained legal rights in December 1989, they naturally repossessed their church buildings.

Metropolitan Volodymyr and the 42 hierarchs are also aware that the great majority of Ukrainian Orthodox parishes in western Ukraine adhere to the Ukrainian Orthodox judicatories which are unconnected either with the Greek-Catholic Church or with the Moscow Patriarchate; the quarrel between these judicatories and the Moscow Patriarchate has nothing to do with the Catholic Church.

The letter threatens (not to mince words) that if the pope's visit goes ahead as planned, Metropolitan Volodymyr and the 42 hierarchs will not meet the holy father, and none of their clergy will take part in the program of the visit. Well, that is their privilege. The pope certainly cannot dictate to them in this regard. But neither can they dictate to the pope. They are entitled to determine their own social lives, public and private - and so is the holy father. Ignoring this principle, the letter attempts to forbid the pope to meet with anybody representing either of the two Ukrainian Orthodox judicatories which do not recognize the Moscow Patriarch - and particularly names Patriarch Filaret of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate, whom the Moscow Patriarchate has excommunicated.

To be sure, Patriarch Filaret may not be the most savory person. But one must not forget that it is Moscow that built him into a most important figure on the international ecumenical scene. It is Moscow that enthroned him as head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate, despite most strenuous protests from a great many Ukrainian Orthodox faithful. If Moscow's own creature has now turned upon his creators, well, that is not without historical precedent, and may even have a certain rough justice to it.

The threat that any meeting between the pope and the "schismatic leaders" would lead to an end in the relations between the Moscow Patriarchate and the Vatican provokes the cynical question "what relations?" Patriarch Aleksei II of Moscow has successfully prevented any visit by the pope to Russia, and has loudly refused to meet the pope even on neutral ground elsewhere in Europe.

The Holy See has just given Moscow a church edifice in Rome itself for the Moscow Patriarchate's exclusive use. Does anyone think that the Moscow Patriarchate is about to give a church edifice in Moscow for the use of the Greek-Catholics (of whom there are at least 10,000 faithful in Moscow)?

There is yet another interesting aspect to this letter. Reports have it that the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople may visit Ukraine in late April or early May of this year - and again the Moscow Patriarchate and its Ukrainian subsidiary have strenuously urged the patriarch of Constantinople to refrain from such a visit. One gains a strong impression that Moscow is afraid of something.

The letter claims that the great majority of Orthodox believers in Ukraine adhere to the Moscow Patriarchate. But is this claim accurate? Figures indicate, assuredly, that the Moscow Patriarchate presently controls the largest number of parishes. But census figures also indicate that the largest number of actual faithful express a religious preference for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate.

Still more to the point, these acrimonious religious quarrels among the Orthodox are a scandal, and many conscientious Orthodox Christians in Ukraine are genuinely anxious that these quarrels be resolved with dispatch. Moscow's desperate insistence that the solution is for everyone to submit to Moscow will not lead to such a resolution - particularly since it has become clear that the Russian government is using the Moscow Patriarchate as an instrument to seek the submission of Ukraine to Russia.

The only real solution lies in a peaceful agreement to create a genuine, authentic local Ukrainian Church. This, of course, Moscow does not want. But visits by such Christian authorities as the pope of Rome and the patriarch of Constantinople could very well advance such a goal. Hence the panic expressed in this letter.

The Vatican has indicated that the pope's planned visit will go forward as announced. We pray, and we urge others to pray, that God may bless that visit, for the good of the Church and for the good of Ukraine.

Archimandrite Serge Keleher is editor of Eastern Churches Journal and serves the Greek-Catholic congregation in Dublin, Ireland. He is the author of "Passion and Resurrection: The Greek-Catholic Church in Soviet Ukraine" and has translated the biography of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky into English. He is an associate of the Chair of Ukrainian Studies, University of Toronto, and the Keston Institute, Oxford.

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