Patriarch of Constantinople presses pope not to recognize Ukrainian Catholic Patriarchate (02/15/04)

Patriarch of Constantinople presses pope not to recognize Ukrainian Catholic Patriarchate

PARSIPPANY, N.J. - Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, leader of Orthodox Churches worldwide, said in a recent letter that, if the Vatican were to recognize the Patriarchate of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, Catholic-Orthodox relations would return to a "climate of hostility," reported the Religious Information Service of Ukraine (RISU), based in Lviv.

That comment was contained in a letter written by the patriarch of Constantinople to Pope John Paul II on November 29, 2003. The letter was written in Greek and was posted in that language on Patriarch Bartholomew's website before it was delivered to the Vatican, RISU noted.

The contents of the letter became more widely known this month after the Italian Catholic magazine 30 Giorni translated it and on February 2 distributed its story about the letter to the press in Rome.

RISU cited the Zenit.org news service as reporting that Patriarch Bartholomew warned that establishment of a Ukrainian Catholic Patriarchate based in Kyiv would risk a break in ecumenical relations. The patriarch's letter discussed a document presented by Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, to Aleksei II, patriarch of Moscow and all Russia.

According to Zenit.org, Patriarch Aleksei of the Russian Orthodox Church sent the document to Orthodox patriarchs. The ecumenical patriarch responded by rejecting Cardinal Kasper's document, describing it as "erroneous, confused, unacceptable, provocative" and warning of the negative consequences of recognizing a Greek-Catholic Patriarchate in Ukraine.

"[It] will cause strong reactions on the part of all the Orthodox sister Churches and will put a stop to attempts to continue the theological dialogue between the Catholic Church and Orthodox Churches," the magazine 30 Giorni wrote, according to Zenit.org.

In his letter to the pope, Patriarch Bartholomew said that, because of the danger of a rift in Catholic-Orthodox relations, "it is necessary that you assure the Ukrainian people and all the Orthodox Churches with persuasive force that you have no intention of initiating the institution of the Greek-Catholic Patriarchate in Ukraine as Cardinal Kasper's text alludes."

Cardinal Kasper is to meet with Patriarch Aleksei of the Russian Orthodox Church during a trip to Moscow on February 16-20. According to the Catholic News Service, he is also to hold talks with Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, the chief ecumenical officer of the Russian Orthodox Church.

CNS reported that the Vatican considers the February talks significant and hopes they will help get Catholic-Orthodox dialogue back on track. "I have good hopes for this meeting," Cardinal Kasper told John Thavis of CNS.

The news service also quoted Father Vsevolod Chaplin, deputy to Metropolitan Kirill, as saying, "We hope this dialogue will result in an end to [Catholic] proselytism and their missionary activity among people who, by baptism and culturally, are Orthodox." He referred specifically to the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church and expressed hope that the Vatican "will stop the expansion" of this Eastern rite church.

The Rev. Robert Taft of the Pontifical Oriental Institute was interviewed in Rome by the National Catholic Reporter a week and a half before Cardinal Kasper's trip. In answer to a question posed by NCR correspondent John. L. Allen Jr. about the argument in support of establishing a Patriarchate for the Greek-Catholic Church, the Rev. Taft said: "The argument is that when an Eastern Church reaches a certain consistency, unity, size, consolidation and so forth, it's a normal step. Furthermore, among the Orthodox it's often been a normal step taken illegally. For example, the Bulgarians were under the Patriarchate of Constantinople, who according to Orthodox practice, imposed upon them a Greek hierarchy, until the Bulgarians had enough and declared their independence, erecting their own patriarchate. Constantinople refused to recognize it, until they finally realized that nothing's going to change, and so they recognized it."

He added, "Frankly, my advice to the Ukrainians has always been to do the same thing. Just declare the Patriarchate and get on with it. Do it, of course, only if you've got the bishops unanimously behind it." The Rev. Taft explained that he believes Ukrainian Catholic bishops are supportive of the Patriarchate.

He also explained why the Ukrainian Catholics seek to establish the Patriarchate in Kyiv, rather than Lviv. Kyivan Rus' he said, "is the heartland of all Orthodoxy among the East Slavs, Belarusians, Ukrainians and the Russians. To ask one of them to renounce Kyiv is like asking the Christians to give Jerusalem over to the Jews, to say we really don't have any interest there anymore." The Rev. Taft added, "Furthermore, there was a time when all of Ukraine west of the Dnipro River was in union with Rome, and the presiding hierarch was in Kyiv. It's not like there's never been a Ukrainian Catholic bishop of Kyiv, a metropolitan of Kyiv."

In the United States, Bishop Basil Losten of the Stamford Eparchy of the Ukrainian Catholic Church reacted to the ecumenical patriarch's letter to the pontiff by writing to both Patriarch Bartholomew and Cardinal Kasper.

In his February 10 letter to Patriarch Bartholomew, Bishop Losten cited media reports about the ecumenical patriarch's letter and stated: "I am most disturbed by this development and disappointed that Your All Holiness should evince such a cruel and negative attitude towards a sister Church - especially one that does not fall under your jurisdiction. Your letter, now widely disseminated among Ukrainian hierarchy, clergy and laity, is creating a new, unnecessary division in Catholic-Orthodox dialogue: one that must be immediately healed or we are to lose all that we have gained in the past few years."

Bishop Losten also informed the ecumenical patriarch that he had written to Cardinal Kasper, underscoring that "if any discussion arises concerning the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church during his forthcoming meeting with His Holiness Aleksei II, he was to suggest to Patriarch Aleksei that such matters were better discussed with Lubomyr Cardinal Husar, who is the father and head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. It is only proper that Cardinal Husar be involved in any discussion concerning his Church."

The Stamford eparch also pointed out that "The question of a Patriarchate for the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church is a matter between the Synod of Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Bishops and Pope John Paul II, and concerns no other Church."

In his letter to Cardinal Kasper, Bishop Losten wrote: "I prevail upon Your Eminence, as president of the Council for Promoting Christian Unity, to defend the rights and privileges of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, one that has been so loyal to the Holy See despite decades-long attempts of the tsarist Orthodox Church to vanquish it from the earth. ... Be the bridge builder that you can be, and not be remembered as one who participated in an attempt to crush a faithful, struggling Church."

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