RUSSIA RELIGION NEWS

Tensions between Ukrainian Greek Catholics and Moscow grow

UGKTs HEAD AWAITS DIALOGUE FROM UPTs AND NOT RPTs STATEMENTS IN ITS NAME

Religiia v Ukraine, 12 November 2015

 

The primate of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGKTs), Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, gave an interview to the Russian newspaper Tribuna in which he highlighted problems of mutual relations between UGKTs and UPTsMP and the RPTs, Religiia v Ukraine reports, with reference to the UGKTs website.

 

The head of the UGKTs gave an interview to Russian journalists on 26 October during his visit to Rome. It was published in the newspaper on 9 November.

 

Responding to the "burning issue" connected with the recent statement by the Department of External Church Relations of the RPTs, in which the head of the UGKTs was harshly criticized on a number of matters, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav noted: "For me it was very strange to read a statement made in Moscow and not in Kiev. We do not have any official relations with the Russian Orthodox Church and thus we have no direct pastoral conflicts. It would be very interesting for me to hear a statement of some kind of response on the part of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. If someone feels offended or if we adhere to such a tactic where they will talk about us without us—that is, for example, if Moscow and the Vatican will discuss the Greek Catholic and Orthodox churches of Ukraine, then we will not solve any problems. It would be very humiliating for me if the Vatican were to speak for me, because we are a church in our own right and we have the right to speak in our own name. And I am sure that only its own official representatives can speak about problems of the UGKTs correctly and competently. So I am waiting for our dialogue to be established with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church."

 

The head of the UGKTs once again emphasized: "If one is speaking about priorities, then for us now it is more important that there be dialogue with the UPTs in Kiev and not with the Russian Orthodox Church and its Department of External Church Relations (OVTsS), with all respect for the RPTs and OVTsS. Our priority is dialogue on the spot. Therefore, after the election of the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow patriarchate (UPTsMP), His Beatitude Onufrey, I declared a desire to pay him a courtesy visit, but he refused."

 

At the same time, Sviatoslav noted that he "always speaks with respect for the primate of that church and its believers, but we do not have official dialogue."

 

We recall that the head of the UGKTs had frequent personal meetings with the previous head of the UPTs, Metropolitan Vladimir.

 

"I think that until we learn to speak face to face, heart to heart, some third party will always interfere. There will be misunderstandings," he said, commenting on the current situation.

 

The head of the UGKTs also recalled his position with respect to military actions in the Donbass: "Over the course of the past year, when military actions had already begun in Ukraine, I made calls for reconciliation three times. I was even subjected to harsh criticism for this on the part of some Ukrainian radicals, who said that I had surrendered my position. . . . But I am sure that a just peace, both in Ukraine and between our countries, will be our joint victory. But for this we should not only be praying for an end to the war but also we should be building this peace together." (tr. by PDS, posted 12 November 2015)

 

RPTs CALLS UGKTs "SAD REMNANT OF THE PAST" AND HEAPS CRITICISM ON ITS PRIMATE

Religiia v Ukraine, 29 October 2015

 

On 23 October the Department for External Church Relations (OVTsS) of the Moscow patriarchate published a statement in which, in tones uncharacteristic for official church documents, it subjected to criticism the head of the UGKTs and its multimillion flock, Religiia v Ukraine reports, with reference to the OVTsMP website.

 

The OVTsS of the Moscow patriarchate expressed "a decisive protest against statements of Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, which were made in an interview with the Austrian Catholic news agency Cathpress.

 

Without giving citations from this interview, the OVTsSMP assessed it as "filled with aggression against the Russian Orthodox Church, attacks on the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, politicized assessments of the tragedy occurring today in Ukraine, and insults against the patriarch of Moscow and all-Rus."

 

While the very tone of the statement by the OVTsSMP is far from peaceful: OVTsS accuses the head of the UGKTs of "false words," "a double standard," and "outrageous attacks" on RPTs Patriarch Kirill, in statements that "echo the arguments of the schismatics," and so forth.

 

As far as one can understand, the OVTsS is talking about an interview of the UGKTs head in which, responding to journalists' questions, he rejected criticisms by the chancellor of the UPTsMP, Metropolitan Antony, in support of the war, etc., which Vladyka Antony had previously expressed to journalists of the same Austrian news agency, Cathpress.

 

Selectively quoting the head of the UGKTs, the OVTsSMP accused Sviatoslav of attempts "to set at odds two fraternal peoples—Ukrainian and Russian," and "to introduce regrettable discord" into the Orthodox-Catholic dialogue.

 

"The Unia, in the person of its supreme hierarch in Ukraine, is again declaring itself to be a sad remnant of the past, when Catholics and Orthodox viewed one another not as allies but as rivals," the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow patriarchate characterized the UGKTs and its primate.

 

It is noteworthy that in engaging in a fierce polemic with the head of the UGKTs, the OVTsSMP advanced arguments that cast doubt on the UPTsMP itself, and at the highest level. Thus, in its statement the OVTsS emphasizes: "The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is a self-administering church, independent of the Moscow patriarchate in administrative and financial respects. Bishops of this church are elected by its Holy Synod, without clearing them with Moscow. The spiritual bond of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church with the Moscow patriarchate is merely that in its parishes the name of the patriarch is commemorated and that the patriarch, according to its charter, confirms a newly elected metropolitan of Kiev and all-Ukraine."

 

Meanwhile, the interference of Patriarch Kirill's inner circle in the internal affairs of the UPTsMP has been spoken about by hierarchs of this self-administering church itself: a member of the UPTs Holy Synod, Metropolitan Pavel, and the chairman of the OVTsS of the UPTs and secretary of the primate of the UPTs, Archbishop Alexander, who commented on attempts of the vice-chairman of the OVTsSMP, Archpriest Nikolai Balashov, to influence decisions of the local council of the UPTs on 8 July 2011. At this council, the question of the influence of the RPTs patriarch on decision-making within the UPTs was discussed. At the time the RPTs synod "expressed  hope" for a change in the UPTs charter in order to strengthen the unity with the Moscow patriarchate, which led to an intensification of the conflict situation within the UPTs synod and the spread of the conflict to the entire UPTs episcopate.

 

It should also be noted that all bishops of the UPTs are listed on the official website of the Moscow patriarchate as bishops of the RPTs.

 

Concluding its statement, the OVTsSMP, headed by Metropolitan of Volokolamsk Ilarion, expressed hope that the head of the UGKTs will refrain in the future from "rhetoric aimed at inflaming inter-ethnic and inter-confessional hatred" and that between the UPTs and UGKTs "full-fledged dialogue will continue, which is necessary, in the first place, for the restoration of peace in the long-suffering Ukrainian land." (tr. by PDS, posted 12 November 2015)


Background article:
Bitterness between Ukrainian Catholics and Russian Orthodox
October 23, 2015

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