Head of the Russian Catholics, Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz has said he is convinced that a meeting between Pope John Paul II and Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II could help resolve existing problems between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Vatican.
"A meeting between the Pope and the Patriarch would open a new page in relations between the two churches," Kondrusiewicz told a Thursday press conference in Moscow.
The archbishop found it difficult to answer how problems in relations between the Orthodox and Greek Catholics in Ukraine could be settled, which could remove one of the main obstacles to a meeting between the Pope and the Patriarch. However, "the sooner[ the two] meet, the sooner these problems will be done away with," Kondrusiewicz said, adding that "this meeting is needed exactly to break this knot."
The Moscow Patriarchy also views proselytism, or the conversion of the Orthodox into Catholics, which, according to the priests and hierarchs of the Russian church, Vatican representatives are practicing here, as another obstacle to such a meeting, the archbishop said.
However, the head of the Russian Catholics said he believes these statements to be inconsistent. "Just cite a single example when our priests would be standing before the gates of an Orthodox church and saying, 'Don't go there, come to us, it is better here," Kondrusiewicz said.
On the other hand, the archbishop said he disagrees that Russia is the canonical territory of the Russian Orthodox Church. "I cannot understand this term," he said, adding that "Christ did not divide the world into areas of influence but said, 'Go ye therefore and teach all nations."
Catholic dioceses have existed in Russia since the 12th century, and
there are Catholic churches in every regional center, Kondrusiewicz said.
"One cannot say we have come here to invade territory we have never been
in before. We are here for Catholics and all those who would like to become
Catholics," he noted. (posted 22 June 2001)
POPE'S VISIT TO UKRAINE FRAUGHT WITH TENSION FOR ORTHODOX-CATHOLIC RELATIONS
Communications
Service, OVTsS, 22 June 2001
On 21 June at a press conference in the "Mir novostei" agency Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, apostolic administrator for Catholics of the Latin rite of the European part of Russia, issued a statement in connection with the planned visit to Ukraine by Pope John Paul II. Then the "Interfax" information agency turned to the Communications Service of the Department of External Church Relations of the Moscow patriarchate requesting comment on points of the text of that statement. Below is published in full the comment of the director of the Communications Service OVTsS, Viktor Malukhin, given to "Interfax."
With all respect to the dignity of the apostolic administrator for Catholics of the Latin rite of the European part of Russia, Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, it is impossible not to take note of certain inaccuracies and contradictions in his remarks in the statement he has made public in connection with the planned visit to Ukraine of Pope John Paul II. Thus, Archbishop Kondrusiewicz, according to his statement, "does not understand the term 'canonical territory of the Russian church.'" Wheras this concept goes back to well known canonical principles of the ancient, undivided church, and it affirms the sovereignty of the church authority within the boundaries of corresponding territories located within its jurisdiction. However such a position is fully explainable because it is undoubtedly convenient to ignore the principle of canonical territory when the issue is the active policy of Catholic proselytism and spiritual expansion.
In connection with this, the priority goals of the Roman Catholic church in Russia are quite logical, as Archbishop Kondrusiewicz has formulated them: "To serve Russian Catholics and those who would wish be become Catholic." That seems to mean, to become Catholic under the direct aid and care of the Roman Catholic church.
In my view, it is this point that constitutes the watershed between mission as the task of christianization of a person and proselytism as the practical stealing of souls, stealing from the Orthodox church, which Vatican documents call nothing more nor less than a sister church. In connection with this it is extremely significant that Archbishop Kondrusiewicz speaks of "those who would wish to become Catholics." Not good Christians, not disciples and followers of the Savior, not merciful people and worthy citizens of their country, not heirs of a national religious and cultural tradition, but precisely Catholics by confessional affiliation. The social activity of the Catholic church, its care for the sick and needy throughout the world, cannot but evoke respect; however in Russia its tasks for some reason are being formulated differently.
There can be no opposition to Catholic parishes being revived in those places where they existed before the revolution and where to the present there are people who are traditionally associated with Catholicism by spiritual and cultural ties. However the growth of the number of Catholic parishes in Russia to a great extent is taking place as well at the expense of parishes that are located where historically they never existed, including in ancient Russian cities which once were the cradles of Orthodoxy.
In connection with this, Archbishop Kondrusiewicz's statement that the very fact of a personal meeting of the Roman pontiff with His Holiness the patriarch would permit an opening of a new page in relations of the two churches and heal the still bleeding wounds represents at this moment unjustified optimism. The Russian Orthodox church supports a working dialogue with the Vatican, but an assessment of the prospects for a personal meeting of the patriarch and the pope must be based on a recognition that such a meeting would make sense only if it were prepared in proper form and would become a way for resolving the existing and quite specific problems and not be turned into a formal event or worldwide televised show.
It is worth adding that Archbishop Kondrusiewicz's comparing of the primate of the Russian Orthodox church and the pope of Rome to Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan at the Reykjavik summit is not only incorrect but completely inappropriate. In any case the idea echoed in these words of placing the church's mission in a political context cannot but evoke alarm. Meanwhile the Uniate and Catholic parishes on the territory of the former USSR still are using external forces as a counterweight to the canonical structures of the Russian Orthodox church and an instrument of pressure on them. This if fraught with such tragic consequences that are evident in the sad experience of western Ukraine where Uniates in alliance with local nationalists practically destroyed three Orthodox dioceses. It is because of this that His Holiness Patriarch Alexis II of Moscow and all-Rus, speaking of the planned visit by the pope to Ukraine, expressed his anxiety over the circumstance that this visit will bring to Ukraine not religious peace but new divisions and conflicts.
Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz tried to justify the pope's visit to Ukraine, undertaken despite the wish of the canonical Orthodox church of this country, by saying that Patriarch Alexis supposedly visited Austria, Slovakia, and Lithuania himself where mostly Catholics live, without asking the Vatican's consent. However it has long been known that analogy is not proof. First, the schedule of these patriarchal visits, during which meetings were held with local Catholic bishops, was discussed with them in advance. Second, the Russian Orthodox church not only opposes in principle and consistently anybody's proselytism on its own canonical territory but also in its own relations with other churches scrupulously maintains the principle of rejection of the practice of proselytism. And thus the foreign visits of Patriarch Alexis always were acts of genuine peacemaking and in no way have threatened interconfessional concord in the countries he has visited. Whereas the pope's arrival in Ukraine really is fraught with dangers of increasing the religious conflicts and schisms existing there. Besides this, during visits in such Orthodox countries as Romania, Georgia, and Greece, the pope nevertheless considered it necessary for himself to get a formal invitation from the respective Orthodox churches and only Ukraine has become an exception which, possibly, is evidence of a specific attitude of the Vatican towards Ukrainian people.
Finally, the idea that echoes in Archbishop Kondrusiewicz's statement of an invitation to Russia for the pope of Rome from local Catholic societies without any kind of invitation and consent from the Russian Orthodox church I would prefer to consider a slip of the tongue or an unfortunate expression of thought. Because otherwise it would be necessary to consider it interference in our internal affairs and overt pressure not only on church but also on secular authorities in Russia, whose position with regard to the possibility of a papal visit to Moscow is well known. (tr. by PDS, posted 22 June 2001)
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Tension mounted Friday on the eve of Pope John Paul II's controversial visit to Ukraine despite signs of a ceasefire in Christianity's East-West clash as militants pledged not to protest against the pontiff.
Church leaders from the majority Orthodox community in this ex-Soviet republic said they would not disrupt the 81-year-old pope's visit, which begins Saturday.
Around 10,000 Orthodox Christians marched through the streets of Kiev Thursday denouncing the frail pontiff as "the harbinger of the Anti-Christ" and accusing the Roman Catholic church of seeking to convert Ukrainians.
But Kiev's representative of the Russian Orthodox church, which bitterly opposes the papal visit, declared a unilateral ceasefire Friday in religion's equivalent of the Cold War.
"We are appealing to all our believers not to take part in any provocations during the pope's visit," said Bishop Mitrofan of the Moscow Patriarchate.
"If anybody chooses to defy this order, it will be a matter for their conscience," he told a news conference here, adding that it was nevertheless becoming "more and more difficult to restrain people."
Ukraine's scandal-wracked President Leonid Kuchma, who overruled the objection of the Ukrainian church in inviting the pope, has asked the country's 10 million Orthodox worshippers to stay calm in the countdown to the pope's arrival.
"I am convinced that this visit will contribute to (the establishment of) peace between the faiths in Ukraine," Kuchma told journalists on Thursday.
Ukraine will be the fifth former Soviet republic the pope has visited, but the poisoned state of relations between the Orthodox and Catholic churches here makes the long-awaited event more problematic and potentially dangerous than earlier trips to Georgia and the three Baltic republics.
Since the collapse 10 years ago of the Soviet Union, which outlawed religion, the majority Orthodox faithful have accused Catholics of seeking to convert Ukrainians, take control of parishes and seize church assets.
And the run-up to the pontiff's trip has seen a wave of demonstrations and bitter turf wars, particularly in the west of the former Soviet republic with its historical and geographical links to neighbouring and Catholic Poland, the pope's native country.
However, at Kuchma's invitation, the pontiff will celebrate several masses for nearly two million people in Kiev and predominantly Catholic Lviv.
Russian Patriarch Alexis II has warned that the pope's visit could further strain relations between his church and the Vatican at a time when the Catholics say they want closer inter-faith ties.
And the patriarch returned to the offensive Friday, saying the pope's historic visit was tantamount to support for the "barbaric nationalism" of Ukraine's Uniate Catholics.
The Uniate (or Greek) Catholic are so called because, though loyal to the pope, they worship according to the Eastern Rite that continued to be used in the Greek Orthodox church after the Great Schism of 1054.
In denouncing religious "nationalism," Alexis II was alluding to the takeover of parishes in western Ukraine whereas Catholics reclaimed church assets confiscated during the Soviet era.
Russia's Communist dictator Josef Stalin suppressed the Eastern Rite in 1946 and confiscated Uniate Catholic property, including churches, handing the spoils to the Moscow patriarchate. (Copyright 2001 Agence France Presse, posted 22 June 2001)
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Today, 19 June, the Supreme Court of the Kabardino-Balkaria republic set aside the decision of the Prokhladnoe district court liquidating the local congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses. The case was sent for a new hearing. In the opinion of the Prokhladnoe inter-district procuracy that initiated the case, the congregation violated the law by providing aid to fellow believers beyond the borders of Prokhladnoe district.
On 27 November 2000 the Prokhladnoe inter-district procuracy appealed to the court with a request for liquidation of the local congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses. The basis for the appeal was alleged illegal actions of believers who participated in providing aid to their fellow believers outside of Prokhladnoe district. In the words of an assistant prosecutor, Dmitry Arabov, the issue of liquidation of the congregation was decided at the level of the procuracy of the Kabardino-Balkaria republic.
On 10 May 2001 the Prokhladnoe district court issued a decision liquidating the local congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses. Today the judicial college for civil cases of the Supreme Court of KBR supported the appeal of believers from Prokhladnoe and set aside this decision.
The order of the Supreme Court of the republic corresponded to the decision of the Nalchiksk city court of 24 April 2001 requiring the Administration of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian federation for KBR to carry out the reregistration of three associations of Jehovah's Witnesses, including the religious association of the city of Prokhladnoe.
At the time of the hearing a representative of the procuracy declared that the request for liquidation of the congregation was prompted by state interests. "Such a claim sounds very strange," attorney Artur Leontiev commented. "It is entirely unclear how providing aid to fellow believers outside Prokhladnoe district could harm state interests."
The association of Jehovah's Witnesses in Prokhladnoe comprises more than 500 persons, among whom are rehabilitated victims of political repressions. And although there is hope that the requests of the procuracy will not be granted, believers who have experienced a decades of repressive action and seriously concerned about a return to the past. This idea sounds very alarming in the fiftieth anniversary year of stalinist repressive action--"Operation North"--during which more than 8,000 Jehovah's Witnesses were exiled from western republics of the former USSR to eastern regions of the country. (tr. by PDS, posted 20 June 2001)
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After historic visits to Greece and Syria already this year, the 81-year-old Pope John Paul II is again set to court controversy Saturday when he embarks on a five-day visit to Ukraine amid high tension between Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians.
Since the collapse 10 years ago of the Soviet Union, which disapproved of religion in general, the majority Orthodox faithful have accused the Catholics of seeking to convert Ukrainians, take control of parishes and seize church assets.
And the run-up to the pontiff's trip has seen a wave of demonstrations and bitter turf wars in the west of the former Soviet republic particularly, with its historical and geographical links to neighbouring and Catholic Poland, the pope's native country.
However, at the invitation of Ukraine's scandal-wracked President Leonid Kuchma, and against the wishes of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is subordinate to the Russian Orthodox Church, the pontiff will celebrate several masses for nearly two million people in Kiev and predominantly Catholic Lviv.
Russian Patriarch Alexis II has warned that the pope's visit could further strain relations between his church and the Vatican at a time when the Catholics say they want closer inter-faith ties.
A recent survey found less than half of Ukrainian respondents were in favour of the pope's first-ever visit to the country, his 94th overseas trip since his election in 1978, and concern that extremists may disrupt proceedings has led police to beef up security in case the ailing pontiff comes under attack.
More than half of Ukraine's population is of the Orthodox belief while Catholics make up about one tenth of the population, mostly in the western part close to Poland. But the trip is peculiarly sensitive as Kiev is traditionally regarded as the cradle of Russian Orthodoxy.
"The pope is going to Ukraine as a pilgrim, as the father of the Catholic community. He will not settle political questions while he is there," the Vatican's Foreign Minister Monsignor Jean-Louis Tauran said recently.
John Paul is ready "to meet those Orthodox believers who want to come to his meetings," Tauran added.
But the Orthodox side does not take such pragmatic view of the June 23-27 trip, which Alexis II has linked directly to the religious dispute in Ukraine.
"I find it difficult to be understanding when I see in this day and age Catholics oppressing three Orthodox dioceses in Ukraine, when people are driven out of their churches, when priests are attacked and the saints are the target of blasphemies," says the patriarch.
That the religious conflict in Ukraine is not just a battle for hearts and minds, but also for property and prestige is particularly evident in the western Galicia region, in such centres of russophobia as Lviv, Ternopil and Ivano-Frankvisk.
Here, the Catholics have recovered - sometimes by force and always with the complicity of the local authorities - many of the church assets confiscated in 1946 by the Communists and then transferred to the Moscow patriarchate.
Outlawed by the Kremlin until 1989, the Catholics now have almost 3,500 parishes and control most of the dioceses in Galicia, where the Soviet past is neither forgotten nor forgiven by those who look to Rome and not to Moscow for spiritual leadership.
"The Russian Orthodox Church collaborated with atheism to try to get rid of fellow Christians," says Father Boris Gudziak, vice chancellor of Lviv's Academy of Theology.
Yet John Paul II is widely expected to make a significant gesture toward Orthodox believers that could rival his historic plea for forgiveness for Catholic "sins" against Orthodox faithful made during a visit to Athens last month.
Whether John Paul II will meet with the three Orthodox Church leaders -- the Patriarch of Kiev and all Rus-Ukraine, Volodymyr, the Metropolitan Filaret who is close to the patriarch of Constantinople, and Archbishop Methodus, head of the autocephalous Orthodox community -- during his visit remains unclear.
Alexis II has warned the Orthodox leaders that any meeting with the pope would be considered an unfriendly act.
Rome and Moscow have accused each other for centuries of being responsible for the 1054 schism between eastern and western churches over doctrinal differences. Only in 1965 did Pope Paul VI and the Patriarch of Constantinople Athenagoras lift the mutual excommunications imposed by their predecessors.
John Paul II will be welcomed at Kiev airport by the Ukrainian president and celebrate holy masses at a Kiev airport and a Lviv racecourse.
Ukrainian authorities expect about two million pilgrims during the papal visit which comes after trips to Greece, Syria and Malta in May and before a visit to Armenia, tentatively scheduled for September 25. (Copyright AFP. All rights reserved. posted 18 June 2001)
VILLAGE'S HOLY WAR AS POPE HEADS FOR UKRAINE
Agence France Presse, 18 June 2001
The small village of Lysnovichi, in western Ukraine, is unexceptional but for a "holy war" that has broken out between Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christians in the runup to Pope John Paul II's controversial visit to the ex-Soviet republic, which begins Saturday.
The village has been split in two by a religious dispute, only heightened by the pope's imminent arrival, over the Orthodox majority's claims that the Catholics have been trying to win converts and seize assets in the west of the country, which borders the pontiff's native Poland.
Passions are running so high in this segregated community that even praying is now seen as a provocation, with the two sides often coming to blows over abstruse points of theology, although the origin of the controversy is just as materialist as it is spiritual.
So what is at stake? A tiny wooden church of little or no architectural value that stands in the middle of this hamlet of a thousand souls, not far from the regional capital Lviv, where John Paul is due to hold an interfaith mass at a racecourse during his June 23-27 visit.
Not that the spoils of Lysnovichi's holy war have anything to do with architecture, according Anna, a Ukrainian "baboushka," or grandmother, and a devout Catholic, who explains that a struggle for possession lies behind the religious turmoil.
"The Orthodox priest forbids us to enter the church. So we have to pray in the fields, over there, in the open air," she adds.
A few dozen metres (yards) away lie the foundations of a new church for the village's Uniate (or Greek) Catholics, as they have been known since they formed a union 400 years ago with the Kiev church, still loyal to the pope but observing the eastern rite of Greek Orthodoxy.
However, work on the new church has ground to a halt, due to a lack of funds and the sight of the building site only adds insult to the Catholics' self-perceived injury.
"In winter, the temperature drops to below minus 20 degrees Celsius ( zero degrees Farenheit) and so we have to go to the next village to celebrate mass," said Anna, standing on rough stony ground overlooking the much-coveted building.
"Nevertheless it is our church. The Bolsheviks stole it from us with the help of the Orthodox themselves," continues the indignant old woman.
"Look. They've even changed the cross on the roof. And what's more, the priest is a Russian. He's got no business here in our village," adds another villager, one of several from both sides who have appeared from nowhere and begun exchanging insults, accusations and half-truths.
Ukraine's own brand of Catholicism has its roots in the animated and sometimes violent history of Galicia, on the borders of central and eastern Europe, among hundreds of villages like Lysnovichi.
In 1945, the area long ruled by Poland fell under the Communist yoke, where it remained for almost 50 years, during which Russian dictator Josef Stalin abolished the Uniate church and dispatched many of its believers to Siberia. Few of them ever returned.
In some places, however, the Catholics have recovered - sometimes by force and always with the complicity of the local authorities - many of the church assets confiscated by the Communists and transferred to the Moscow patriarchate.
Outlawed by the Kremlin until 1989, the Catholics now have almost 3,500 parishes and control most of the dioceses in Galicia, but in Lysnovichi there is no question of forgiving or forgetting the past because the memory of Communist persecution still rankles.
"The Catholics here regard me as a servant of the KGB and a dirty Russian," says the village priest, Grigory Gnidets, whose church was surrounded by rioting Catholics two years ago.
"The announcement that the pope was coming has only inflamed passions. Nothing good will come of his visit. It is a provocation," Father Grigory adds.
The head of Russian Orthodoxy, Patriarch Alexis II, has also warned that the pope's visit could further strain relations between his church and the Vatican at a time when the Catholics say they want closer inter-faith ties.
Rome and Moscow have accused each other for centuries of being responsible for the 1054 schism between eastern and western churches over doctrinal differences. Only in 1965 did Pope Paul VI and the Patriarch of Constantinople Athenagoras lift the mutual excommunications imposed by their predecessors. (Copyright AFP. All rights reserved. posted 18 June 2001)
LEGACY OF RELIGIOUS STRUGGLE TO CONFRONT POPE IN UKRAINE
by Susan B. Glasser,
Washington Post Foreign Service, 20 June 2001
The lofty stone church is padlocked shut, a heavy chain around its doors. A lone rooster clucks amid the weeds of the empty churchyard. Just a few yards away, more than 100 worshipers crowd outside a cramped cottage, straining to hear as Father Yaroslav conducts his Sunday service inside.
The tears start to flow as the story of this churchless congregation unfolds. "It's not fair," weeps Anna Pototsko, 79, as a silent chorus of neatly kerchiefed heads nods in agreement. "We are crying every day."
In this village divided, the tearful Orthodox believers have lost their church to their Greek Catholic neighbors as a result of the upheavals of history. A decade ago, the collapse of the Soviet Union opened up new freedoms here, enabling the rebirth of old faiths that had been suppressed by Soviet power. That has led to new struggles between competing religions in the borderlands of western Ukraine. And now this tiny village is caught between the Orthodox faith, which was tolerated under communism, and the Greek Catholic religion that was suppressed by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.
Beginning Saturday, Pope John Paul II steps into the whirling debate with a visit to Ukraine that is expected to draw the country's largest crowds since it won independence 10 years ago. Even as the pope celebrates the resurrection of the Greek Catholic Church, his impending visit has also served to reinflame Orthodox anger over the reversal of their fortunes in such towns as Stenyatin.
Here, the contest over the church goes back at least to 1946, when Stalin banned the Greek Catholics and handed their churches over to the Russian Orthodox Church, which was run from Moscow and officially tolerated by the atheist Soviet state. After Ukraine became independent, the Ukrainian Greek Catholics proudly restored their religion -- and eventually took back Stenyatin's lone church.
And so, for eight years, Yaroslav's Orthodox flock has been locked out, accused of being collaborators with the hated Soviet regime. "They call us Communists, they call us Moscowphiles," said Grigory Golovchuk, a village elder with a booming voice. "But we are Ukrainians, too."
"It's not about faith," said the priest. "It's about politics."
But faith and politics are inseparable here in western Ukraine, where the religious feud started not with Stalin but centuries before, in 1596, when renegade local Orthodox leaders swore allegiance to the Vatican and created the Greek Catholic Church.
Today, Alexy II, patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, asserts that modern-day Greek Catholics are waging "religious war" against his loyalists here. And he has made increasingly strident demands that the pope put off his trip here until the dispute is settled.
In an area where reborn Greek Catholicism has become intertwined with anti-Russian political nationalism, the clashes here are not just over who controls the churches, but over the extent of Russian influence on Ukraine, a country poised between Europe's capitalist West and its post-Soviet East.
So when the pope makes his pilgrimage next week to the western Ukrainian regional capital of Lviv, just 70 miles south of this village, he will be visiting a place where the insults of history are still raw, where echoes of the 400-year-old ecclesiastical rift between the two churches resound and mingle with the open wounds of more recent violence.
In the graceful city of Lviv, a vast majority of the population has returned to its Greek Catholic Church. The Russian Orthodox Church that once ruled the city's soaring cathedrals has been reduced to two modest parishes. And the pope from nearby Poland is being greeted as a victorious general in the war on communism he helped to lead in the 1980s.
The city has about 800,000 residents, but more than 1.4 million people are expected to show up for the pontiff's Mass on June 27 -- "one of the biggest gatherings ever in the history of Ukraine and probably Eastern Europe," according to the Rev. Ken Nowakowski, spokesman for the organizing committee.
In this proudly nationalist area occupied for hundreds of years by a succession of Polish, Austrian, German and Russian overlords, many Lviv residents say the real purpose of the pope's visit is to celebrate political as well as religious independence.
"This visit is very important recognition of Ukraine as a state," said Mikhail Kulik, a retiree who carries a cross blessed years ago by the Greek Catholic leader-in-exile. "Many people in the world still perceive Ukraine as just part of Russia. But Russia should not be our older brother anymore. We should be equals."
But elsewhere in Ukraine, where the majority of the population still adheres to the Orthodox Church, which split with the Vatican in the Great Schism of 1054, the pope is likely to meet a more ambivalent reception.
Overall, the Greek Catholics of western Ukraine are a small minority of about 6 million in a country of almost 50 million people. There are even fewer Roman Catholics, about 1 million total. Orthodox believers are estimated at around 30 million, but they are fractured between the majority, who still are subject to the Moscow patriarchate, and those who worship with two splinter groups that have emerged since Ukrainian independence.
In the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, where John Paul will arrive Saturday and crowds of about 400,000 are expected, Orthodox activists loyal to the Moscow patriarch have staged almost weekly protests, waving placards saying things such as "Pope -- Persona Non Grata" and "Pope, Hands Off Orthodoxy!"
In an interview, Bishop Mitrofan, the chief administrator for the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine, said dismissively: "Why is the pope coming on a mission to preach Christ to us? For 1,000 years already we have been illuminated with the light of Christ's teaching. It's Catholic propaganda, proselytizing, that brings him here."
But so far the public protests have been limited to a relatively small circle of Orthodox leaders and Russian politicians.
Metropolitan Filaret Denisenko, leader of the breakaway Ukrainian Orthodox Church, asserted pointedly that "only 5 percent of the Ukrainian population are against the pope's visit." Filaret said he planned to meet John Paul and that his loyal-to-Moscow Russian Orthodox rivals were simply acting as Kremlin pawns.
"The pope's visit will increase the gravitation of Ukraine toward Europe and the West. Russia doesn't want this, which is why they don't want the pope to come here," Filaret said.
Entangled in this game of high politics is the complex history of the Greek Catholic Church itself.
Born on the eve of the 17th century in a schism encouraged by western Ukraine's Polish rulers, the church today identifies itself with the struggle against Soviet rule. Forced underground by Stalin in 1946, its leaders shot or deported to Siberia, the church survived through secret meetings and whispered confessions. Its members had no choice but to pretend to become Orthodox.
"It's impossible to imagine what we went through," said Marta Tsehelzka, 76, whose late husband was a member of the underground priesthood. After refusing to convert to Orthodoxy, he served five years in the gulag; she was arrested separately and deported to a logging town in Siberia with their young children.
Like many other Greek Catholics here, she said she believes the Russian Orthodox simply stole when given the opportunity by the Communists.
In 1989, the reaction against the Russian Orthodox in western Ukraine began when Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev declared religious freedom again. Within months, hundreds of priests -- together with their churches and their congregations -- switched back from Orthodoxy to Greek Catholicism. Many other parishes joined the new independent Orthodox Church run by Filaret.
The Russian Orthodox Church's decline was swift.
In 1990, the Moscow patriarchate controlled more than 1,200 parishes in the Lviv area. Two years later, only 15 remained.
The angry leftovers of battles are still to be found in the village of Stenyatin, where the Orthodox faithful insist they are just as much victims of power politics as the Greek Catholics were under communism.
"In western Ukraine, being Orthodox means nothing," said Yaroslav, the priest. "I served two weeks in a Soviet jail for glorifying Christ. Now in free Ukraine they still want to jail me." Back in 1993, when the Greek Catholics came to get their church back, he resisted, was fined 2,000 rubles and spent years in court fighting a criminal case that was ultimately dropped.
If peace prevails now, it is an uneasy one. Just recently, two Greek Catholic churches in neighboring villages were set on fire; the Catholics say the Orthodox did it, the Orthodox claim provocation. And in Stenyatin, a new confrontation looms over the Orthodox plans to build a wooden roof over the courtyard where they now hold their Sunday services. (copyright 2001 The Washington Post Company, posted 21 June 2001)
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A draft of a doctrine of state policy in the sphere of relations with religious associations in the Russian federation that was prepared by the Institute of State-Confessional Relations and Law and the Chief Directorate of the Ministry of Justice for the city of Moscow has been published. . . .
The doctrine reflects anaggragation of official views on the status, goals, principles, and basic tasks in relations of federal bodies of state power and bodies of state power of constituent regions of the Russian federation with religious associations operating within the Russian federation. The doctrine proceeds from the necessity of insuring the unity of the cultural space and state integrity of Russia in new historic circumstances of its development, preservation, and consolidation of ties with fellow countrymen in foreign countries and takes account of state interests and the interests of religious associations and their adherents of the entire Russian society.
In the intention of its producers, the doctrine should serve as a methodological basis for bodies of state power in improving the normative legal preservation, practical implementation, and future development of relations with religious associations, as well as the exercise by citizens of their right to freedom of religious profession. (tr. by PDS, posted 18 June 2001)
English translation of "Doctrine of State Policy in the Sphere of Relations with Religious Associations"
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Between Catholic communities of the Latin and eastern (Byzantine) rites relations are tense as in the past. In Lvov it is said that the refusal of the pope to have joint meetings with clergy of both traditions can be viewed as a clear expression of the Vatican's displeasure. To be sure, the meeting with the youth in Lvov will be a joint one.
"Gazeta Wyborcza" turned to the heads of these communities in Ukraine for an explanation.
[Latin rite] Cardinal Marian Jaworski: It is a stereotype that Catholic churches in Ukraine are mutually hostile and do not cooperate. I have fine relations with the hierarchy of the Greek Catholic church. Of course it always can be said that there should be more cooperation. But we are fighting with prejudices.
Question: Then why is the pope meeting with Greek Catholics and Roman Catholics separately?
--There are two rites. The Holy Father wants in this way to please each of them.
The head of the Greek Catholics, Cardinal Lubomir Huzar, is less diplomatic: Planning for the papal visit along with the Roman Catholic church has been a trial for us and we have problems with this cooperation. It is not clear to us what the church of the Latin rite in Ukraine wants to be. Does it want to be the church for all (catholic) or only for Poles? At times it seems to us more like the second. This complicates national relations and opens up old wounds. (The cardinal recalled the existence of problems of Polish-Ukrainian relation. They were so hostile that some Ukrainians, including the hierarchy of the Greek Catholic church, residing in the territory that before World War II was a part of Poland supported the Hitlerites as liberators.--B.F.) This is painful but I have to recognize that we, Greek Catholics, are not loved by either Orthodox believers or Roman Catholics. The Latin rite feels at home throughout the whole world, but we are at home only in Ukraine. We want for the Holy Father to support us spiritually. If this does not happen now, then it will never happen. In Rome they tell us constantly: don't make noise; it offends the Orthodox. This is difficult for us since it is as if we are a perpetual guilty conscience in the church's history. And it is very unpleasant for us that the pope will serve the first mass according to the Latin rite.
The pope cannot not come to Ukraine. It is the necessity to resolve this conflict between the two rites of the Catholic church that is the purpose of his visit to Ukraine. It is not the Orthodox but the Catholics of Ukraine that John Paul II has to reconcile. In the face of this centuries-old hostility all conversations and discussions concerning union with Catholicism make no sense. The pope must at least mitigate this conflict. All other goals are secondary. (tr. by PDS, posted 17 June 2001)
Russian Religion News Current News Items
On Sunday Orthodox believers observe the holiday of All Saints Resplendent in the Russian Land, RIA "Novosti" reports. The day of Russian saints is celebrated on the second Sunday after Trinity. On this holiday all Orthodox believers pray to saints who were born in the Russian land, from the holy princes equal to the apostles Boris and Gleb to the tsarist family and martyrs who were glorified by the Russian Orthodox church at the bishops' council of 2000. By their deeds and life they glorified the faith of Christ, Orthodoxy, in Russia. (tr. by PDS, posted 17 June 2001)
ARCHPRIEST VSEVOLOD CHAPLIN CALLS FOR OVERCOMING SCHISM IN RELIGIOUS
JOURNALISM
strana.ru,
16 June 2001
"Secular journalism is strongly divided regarding religion," declared the secretary of the Department of External Church Relations of the Moscow patriarchate for relations of church and society, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, in a session of the Guild of Religious Journalism of Russia that took place within the framework of Mediaforum-2001, the "Blagovest-info" agency reports.
Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin called the guild to build bridges to the Orthodox "Radonezh" review, religious reporters of NIS strana.ru, and the newspapers Pravda, Sovetskaia Rossiia, and Trud, in which many articles on religion also appear. "Otherwise each of the ideological groups will create its own structure similar to the guild," Chaplin predicted.
Guild director Alexander Shchipkov agreed about the existence of a danger of "schism into ideological groups." He reported that the leadership of the creative association of religious journalists had invited to Mediaforum in St. Petersburg the executive secretary of the Union of Orthodox Citizens, Valentin Lebedev, the religion reporter of NIS strana.ru, Dmitry Safonov, and the abbot of the Moscow Presentation monastery, Archimandrite Tikhon; however they were unable to attend for various reasons.
The secretary of OVTsSMP for relations of church and society expressed support for developing a code of professional ethics of religious journalism, because he is convinced that there exists a vacuum in this area. (tr. by PDS, posted 17 June 2001)
PATRIARCH THINKS SCHISM IN UKRAINE CAN BE OVERCOME ONLY BY A UNITED
LEGAL ORTHODOX CHURCH
ITAR-TASS, Radonezh,
11 June 2001
The schism in Ukrainian Orthodoxy will be overcome in a united legal Orthodox church, Patriarch Alexis of Moscow and all-Rus declared on 11 June in a conversation with reporters, stressing that this is the only way of achieving canonical unity. In connection with this His Holiness categorically rejected the opinion that the Roman pope's visit to Ukraine would help resolve this problem. The patriarch called the so-called "Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox church" and the so-called "Kievan patriarchate," headed by the anathmatized former Metropolitan Filaret Denisenko of Kiev, schismatic groupings. The primate of the Russian church considers it "impossible not to recognize the decision of the church council which unfrocked and anathematized him."
Speaking of the personal qualities of Denisenko, Patriarch Alexis said that "he always was oriented toward the powers that be and, having received support from the first president of Ukraine, Kravchuk, he was confirmed in schism." Unfortunately, the primate of the Russian church stressed, "it is Orthodox believers who suffer foremost from schism and they do not always investigate who of the priests and bishops are canonical and who are not." Patriarch Alexis emphasized that "we have maintained prayer and spiritual relations only" with the Ukrainian Orthodox church of the Moscow patriarchate, which is headed by Metropolitan Vladimir of Kiev and all-Ukraine. (tr. by PDS, posted 17 June 2001)
UKRAINIAN FOREIGN MINISTER CONCERNED OVER REPORTS OF ATTEMPTS TO DISRUPT
POPE'S VISIT
Mir religii, 12
June 2001
Speaking in Lvov at the closing session of the planning committee, Anatoly Zlenko stated that such plans are being hatched by "provocateurs and extremists who might act not from their own religious convictions but for the achievement of political or some other goals," ITAR-TASS reports. Zlenko called all political and religious forces to restraint and caution during the pope's visit since "we do not have the right to place at risk our people who come for the divine service or to welcome John Paul II on the streets of Kiev and Lvov."
Regarding calls of Ukrainian radicals to respond with a note with regard to the declaration of the Russian Orthodox church about the undesirability of the pontiff's visit, the minister stated that Kiev does not intend to act in such a fashion. "We know the reasons that constitute the demonstrations of protest against John Paul's visit conducted on the initiative of UPTsMP; however it is necessary to take into account that the pope's visit has nationwide significance in the context of the integration of Ukraine into Europe," A. Zlenko emphasized. (tr. by PDS, posted 17 June 2001)
MOSCOW PATRIARCHATE REFUTES ATTEMPTS TO PORTRAY ORTHODOX PROTEXTS AS
PROVOCATION
ITAR-TASS/ Radonezh,
14 June 2001
The Moscow patriarchate has refuted attempts to portray protests by
the Orthodox public against the visit of the Roman pope to Ukraine as provocation,
calling them "insubstantial." This was announced on 14 June by Archimandrite
Mark Golovkov, vice chairman of the Department of External Church Relations
of the Moscow patriarchate (OVTsSMP), commenting on recent statements by
the Ukrainian foreign minister. "The visit is being conducted despite the
recommendations of the Orthodox church in Ukraine and, naturally, Orthodox
people will express their position in connection with this," he said. Archimandrite
Mark noted with regret that "state bureaucrats either do not recognize
or do not wish to understand that the church has its own laws and its own
rules and they are mixing politics with church life." The representative
of the Moscow patriarch recalled that the pope is not only the head of
state of the Vatican but also the head of the Roman Catholic church. "If
the pontiff's stay in Ukraine were limited just to meetings and conversations,
then it would be possible to speak of the purely political substance of
the visit. But the pope is coming as a religious leader, which the schedule
proves," Fr Mark stressed. At the same time the vice chairman of OVTsSMP
denied reports in the mass media to the effect that the chief editor of
the "Pravoslavnaia beseda" magazine, Valentin Lebedev, who also is the
director of the "Union of Orthodox Citizens" organization, had been awarded
the medal of Saint Sergius of Radonezh for his organizing of the majority
of protest events both in Russia and Ukraine. "Lebedev was given the award
at the director of a publication that is oriented exclusively to religious
education and this fact has nothing to do with his position taken in connection
with the pope's visit," Archimandrite Mark stressed. (tr. by PDS, posted
17 June 2001)
Russian Religion News Current News Items
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