EDITORIAL: Welcoming Pope John Paul II (06/03/01)

EDITORIAL

Welcoming Pope John Paul II

As the date for Pope John Paul II's visit to Ukraine is drawing near, it can be stated with absolute certainty that the first visit ever by a pope to Ukraine is sure to be historic. That is all the more so because this is the pontiff who is credited with the defeat of atheistic communism and he will be visiting a country where the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church was outlawed by Soviet Communist authorities, its leaders and faithful persecuted, tortured, and killed. During his visit Pope John Paul will beatify 27 martyrs of that Ukrainian Church - martyrs whose life stories are nothing short of incredible. For the record, 26 of them succumbed to persecution at the hands of Soviet authorities, and one was murdered by the Nazis.

The papal visit is sure to be the subject of much media interest, and the news coverage is certain to have a global impact. Approximately 450,000 pilgrims are expected to arrive in Kyiv from all over Ukraine, as well as Russia, Belarus, Poland and the Baltic states for the papal visit, another 2 million or so could be on hand in Lviv.

But, there are some who would rather the visit never take place.

The Russian Orthodox Church (which, as we know well from history, well, how does one put it ... served two masters) and its Kyiv-based subordinate, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate, have been quite vocal in expressing their displeasure with the pontiff's trip. They have attacked the trip as a threat to both the ecumenical movement and the Vatican's relations with the Moscow Church, and they have gone so far as to stage protests in Kyiv, at the Pecherska Lavra, to demand that the visit be canceled. As our Kyiv correspondent reports this week, Patriarch Aleksei says the visit by Pope John Paul II will only aggravate tensions between religious groups in Ukraine. But, what he really fears, according to observers, is that the papal visit will further weaken the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine, which has lost significant numbers of faithful - many of them in the decade since Ukraine's independence as its members have joined other Churches legalized since the USSR's demise.

Among others protesting (are we surprised?) are members of the Communist Party faction in the Verkhovna Rada who, according to ITAR-TASS, called on the pontiff to cancel his visit, saying it was "untimely and undesirable." The Communists claim the visit would infringe on the rights of Orthodox believers, who comprise a majority in Ukraine. How, we don't know. Furthermore, the faction's statement said the pope's planned meetings with dissenting Orthodox clergy constitute "a rude interference into the internal affairs of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine." Again, we don't know how, but we can guess that this is a reaction to the fact that the two other Orthodox Churches in Ukraine - both independent of Moscow - have already agreed to meet with Pope John Paul during his visit to Ukraine.

But there is another sticking point here. Perhaps at the heart of the matter is a basic difference in, shall we say, perspective. Moscow Patriarch Aleksei has said that the reason for differences between Rome and Orthodoxy is the existence of Eastern-rite Catholics. But Cardinal Husar says the opposite is true: Greek-Catholics should be the bridge between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches.

Even political leaders see benefits in the papal visit. For example, Ukraine's Minister of Foreign Affairs Anatolii Zlenko said the visit would not only help in the development of relations between Kyiv and the Vatican, but would contribute to the intellectual development of the Ukrainian nation and its integration into Europe. "I have a feeling that, after the visit of His Holiness, we will be more conscious, united, self-assured and better as a whole," he said, adding that opposition to the papal visit for the most part is "over-politicized and groundless."

Our position: Pope John Paul II, acknowledged around the world as a great churchman, humanitarian and leader, is welcome in Ukraine. And his visit - a truly historic moment - can benefit all of Ukraine and all the country's citizens.

As Cardinal Husar stated recently in an interview published in The Weekly: this pontiff's visit is significant on several levels: he is a Slavic pope visiting fellow Slavs, he is "a person who has lived through the same history and whose experience [as a victim of communism] is similar to our people's," and "he is a bearer of hope."

And, hope, as we all intuitively know, is something that is in short supply in today's Ukraine.

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