Turning the pages back... February 15, 2004 (02/12/06)

Turning the pages back...

February 15, 2004

Our issue dated February 15, 2004, reported that Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, leader of Orthodox Churches worldwide, said in a November 2004 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." In his letter to the pope, Patriarch Bartholomew said: "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."

Bishop Basil Losten of the Stamford Eparchy of the Ukrainian Catholic Church wrote on February 10 to Patriarch Bartholomew: "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 ... is creating a new, unnecessary division in Catholic-Orthodox dialogue..."

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 a letter to Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the council for Promoting Christian Unity, Bishop Losten wrote: "I prevail upon Your Eminence... 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."

Source: "Patriarch of Constantinople presses pope not to recognize Ukrainian Catholic Patriarchate," The Ukrainian Weekly, February 15, 2004, Vol. LXII, No. 7.

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