Quotable notes

"While many Ukrainians look at the current move of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church headquarters from Lviv to Kyiv with either sympathy or indifference, some religious activists of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate doubtless perceive the move as an emblematic setback for Orthodoxy in its struggle to ward off the expansion of Catholicism. 'The Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate will consider this [move] as a great symbolic failure,' Ukrainian political analyst Viktor Nebozhenko commented. 'And some political forces will of course use Lubomyr Husar's move to Kyiv as a pretext for exacerbating interdenominational relations in Ukraine.'

"Regrettably, Mr. Nebozhenko may be right. The protest nearby the unfinished Resurrection of Christ Greek-Catholic Cathedral in Kyiv on August 21 was attended by representatives of extreme leftist and pro-Russian forces, including the Progressive Socialist Party of Natalya Vitrenko and the radical Brotherhood association led by Dmytro Korchynskyi. These forces, which failed to win parliamentary representation in 2002, will in all probability use the religious factor - the dissatisfaction of a significant part of Orthodox Ukrainians with the Greek-Catholic move - as an extra argument in their campaign for the 2006 parliamentary elections."

- Jan Maksymiuk writing in the September 1 edition of RFE/RL Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova Report.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, September 11, 2005, No. 37, Vol. LXXIII

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