ANALYSIS: The pope begins his visit to Ukraine (07/01/01)

ANALYSIS

The pope begins his visit to Ukraine

by Askold Krushelnycky
RFE/RL Poland, Belarus and Ukraine Report

Pope John Paul II arrived in Kyiv on Saturday, June 23 for a five-day visit to Ukraine.

It is the first time any pope has visited Ukraine, whose population of 50 million is predominantly Orthodox. There are around 6 million Ukrainian Catholics, mostly Greek-Catholics, who observe Eastern-rite ritual but accept the pope's supremacy.

Most believers belong to the three Orthodox Churches that exist in the country. Two of those are Ukrainian and have welcomed the pope's visit, but the third is a branch of the Russian Orthodox Church and has fiercely opposed the visit.

Believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate held protests in Kyiv last week and some, including priests, had threatened to disrupt the pope's tour by blocking the roads he will travel along and by infiltrating the four open-air services he will conduct during his five-day stay.

However, there was calm at the start of the visit when Pope John Paul II arrived at Kyiv's main airport, where he was welcomed by President Leonid Kuchma.

The pope accepted the traditional Ukrainian welcoming gift of a bowl of salt and bread, and in a gesture that has long been a hallmark of his foreign tours, he kissed a bowl containing some of the country's soil.

The pope made a 25-minute speech in Ukrainian in which he said, "I have long waited to make this journey and am overjoyed that it has come to pass."

The Ukrainian Catholic Church was banned by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in 1944. Many of its priests and faithful were executed or died in the gulag. The pope said that an important aim of his visit is to commemorate the suffering of Catholics who kept their faith alive during the Communist era by holding secret services in safe houses or in forests and whose priests worked underground.

The pope greeted all the faiths in Ukraine in his opening message and said that he has come to Ukraine as part of his passionately held desire to try to reconcile the Catholic and Orthodox Churches.

Russian Orthodox leaders are angry that churches and property confiscated by the Communists and handed over to the Russian Orthodox Church - the only one allowed to function by Stalin - have been returned to the Ukrainian Catholic Church. They also accuse the pope of proselytizing.

During his speech at the airport, the pope denied that he had come to proselytize. He said, "I have not come with the intention of proselytizing, but to bear witness to Christ together with all Christians with every Church."

As on a difficult trip to Greece earlier this year, the pope had said Catholics and Orthodox should seek forgiveness for offenses against each other since the 1054 schism that split the eastern Orthodox and western Catholic Churches.

Because of fears that some Orthodox believers may try to disrupt the tour, Ukrainian authorities have put a massive security operation in place. The Ukrainian intelligence service also said it had received a warning from Interpol about the possibility of an assassination attempt against the pope.

In both Kyiv and Lviv, where the pope arrived on June 25, he held one Latin-rite mass and one Byzantine-rite liturgy.

Organizers of the papal trip said that up to 2 million people may attend the four services. However, the largest attendance is expected in Lviv. Western Ukraine is where most of the country's Catholics are concentrated and where the area's dominant Greek-Catholic faith has always been closely tied to Ukrainians' desire for independence during a long history of occupations by other powers.

At the final liturgy in Lviv, the pope will beatify 26 Greek-Catholics and one Roman Catholic who perished - mostly at the hands of the Communists - for their beliefs.

Askold Krushelnycky is an RFE/RL correspondent.

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