Cardinal Husar responds to discussions about Ukrainian Catholic Patriarchate (03/07/04)

Cardinal Husar responds to discussions about Ukrainian Catholic Patriarchate

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, head of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church (UGCC), on March 2 criticized a Moscow meeting between the Russian Orthodox Churches and the Vatican that discussed the legitimacy of granting patriarchal status to the Ukrainian Church and the stand the Russian Orthodox had taken.

"Many Greek-Catholics have been troubled and, to some extent, indignant at the fact that a matter of the internal development of our Church was discussed not in Kyiv, Lviv or Rome, but in Moscow, and, most importantly, without our participation," explained Cardinal Husar in a letter to UGCC faithful.

The statement came in response to a growing inter-confessional fray over an effort by the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow in cooperation with the Ecumenical See in Constantinople headed by Patriarch Bartholomew to force Rome to halt the development of the UGCC in Ukraine.

The matter came to a head when Roman Catholic Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, traveled to Moscow and met with ROC leaders on February 19. His trip came after a letter-writing campaign initiated from Moscow and Constantinople resulted in 11 Orthodox Churches writing the Vatican to demand a halt to an effort to develop a Patriarchate for the UGCC.

In Moscow, the ROC representatives told Cardinal Kasper that the spread of the Catholic Church into Ukraine, Kazakstan and Russia in general, and the move of the UGCC into "canonical territories" of the Orthodox Church in eastern Ukraine in particular, as well as the looming specter of a UGCC Patriarchate could end the Orthodox-Catholic ecumenical dialogue.

The BBC Monitoring Service noted that during Cardinal Kasper's meeting with ROC Patriarchate Aleksei II, the Vatican representative agreed that a UGCC Patriarchate would not be created.

UGCC Cardinal Husar noted in his statement that the meeting in Moscow in February was the culmination of a series of efforts by the ROC to get the Vatican to stop what had begun to look to it like the inevitability of a UGCC Patriarchate, after Cardinal Kasper first "presented the case" to the ROC in 2003.

"It was a delicate gesture on the part of the pope, as [Cardinal Kasper] mentioned the possible recognition of the Patriarchate of the UGCC in advance," explained the UGCC leader in his statement. Cardinal Husar charged that the reaction from Moscow and Constantinople since that meeting had been unacceptable.

"It is enough to mention the statement that the Roman Catholic Church should 'gradually reduce the presence' of our Church," stated the leader of 6 million UGCC faithful worldwide.

The UGCC has sought recognition as a Patriarchate at various moments in its history since it broke with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in 1596 and united with the Vatican in the Union of Brest. The latest effort began during the Second Vatican Council when the leader of the UGCC at the time, Cardinal Josyf Slipyj, announced the desire of the Ukrainian Church to receive recognition as a Patriarchate. After an independent Ukrainian state became a reality in 1991 and the UGCC - long banned in the USSR - was re-established, the movement toward a Patriarchate took on steam, spurred along by statements made by Pope John Paul II throughout the last decade in support of such a development.

In 2002 the UGCC Synod of Bishops officially submitted to the Vatican its request for Patriarchal status, which included how it had fulfilled the requirements needed for recognition by the pope. The Vatican has yet to respond officially, although it is believed that Pope John Paul II is ready to approve such a request, if only the Orthodox Churches would show some acceptance for such a move.

In an interview with Ukrainian journalists in Lviv the day before the statement by Cardinal Husar was issued, the UGCC leader was diplomatic about the visit to Moscow by Cardinal Kasper and his alleged comments that no Patriarchate for the UGCC would be recognized.

Cardinal Husar said that, not only did the UGCC fail to view the meeting "as if the world was ending," but it believed it to be "an opportune moment, which would give us and those viewing from the sidelines a chance to better understand our situation."

The Rev. Oleksa Petriv, press spokesman for the UGCC in Kyiv, told The Weekly on March 3 that the UGCC Synod of Bishops had decided on February 25 to develop its own letter-writing campaign in reply to the effort by the Orthodox Churches. The Rev. Petriv explained that the attempt by Moscow and Constantinople to derail the drive by the UGCC for recognition as a Patriarchate would have the opposite result.

"The newest developments will without a doubt intensify the move towards a Patriarchate," Rev. Petriv said.

The UGCC spokesperson rejected any notion that the Church might designate itself a Patriarchate without awaiting canonical recognition from the Vatican. The Rev. Petriv underscored that, because a fully developed Church structure was now in place and the UGCC Synod of Bishops unanimously supported patriarchal status recognition by the pope, recognition of a Patriarchate is merely a matter of time.

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