U.G.K.Ts.
PATRIARCH SVIATOSLAV MEETS
ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH BARTHOLOMEW IN ROME
On 16
September in the Vatican, a
meeting was held between the head of the UGKTs [Ukrainian Greek
Catholic
Church] Sviatoslav and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. The
meeting occurred
in the House of Saint Martha, where the Holy Father Francis
resides, the
secretariat of the head of the UGKTs in Rome reports.
The
ecumenical
patriarch arrived in the Vatican on an official visit. The next
day he met with
Patriarch Sviatoslav, in order to discuss the situation in
Ukraine and the
ecumenical relations between the UGKTs and the PTsU [Orthodox
Church of
Ukraine].
The
meeting began
with an exchange of gifts: the head of the UGKTs presented the
patriarch a
facsimile edition of the Galician Gospel of 1144, the oldest of
the precisely
dated Slavic manuscripts of the New Testament. Patriarch
Bartholomew, in his
turn, presented His Beatitude Sviatoslav a publication about the
residence of
the Constantinople patriarchate and a historical stamp issued in
honor of the visit
by the Holy Father Benedict XVI to Constantinople in 2006.
During
conversation
with His Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew, Patriarch Sviatoslav
expressed the
hope and wish that "with the granting of autocephaly, ecumenical
dialogue
with the Orthodox Church of Ukraine will rise to a qualitatively
new level. It
is with this historic moment of the proclamation of autocephaly
for the PTsU
that for the UGKTs the main interlocutor in ecumenical dialogue
becomes not the
Russian Orthodox Church but the local Orthodox Church in
Ukraine."
His
Beatitude
Sviatoslav, summing up the meeting of the eastern Catholic
hierarchs of Europe,
which occurred on 12 to 14 September in Rome, noted: "The
Eastern Catholic
Churches are making their own theological contribution to the
tradition of the
Catholic church itself, helping it to express more fully its
ecumenical
dimension. The catholicism of the church cannot be limited just
to its Latin
tradition."
Regarding
the
ecumenical dialogue with the Orthodox church, the eastern
Catholic churches
propose new elements in the understanding of the primacy of the
bishop of Rome
and synodality." At the same time, "the eastern Catholic
churches," His Beatitude Sviatoslav stressed during conversation
with
Patriarch Bartholomew, "propose for the Roman Catholic Church
new forms of
performing the ministry of St. Peter."
The
head of the
UGKTs also proposed to Patriarch Bartholomew the creation of a
joint commission
between the Orthodox church and the Eastern Catholic churches in
order "to
provide new forms of ecumenical dialogue."
The
patriarch of
Constantinople explained to His Beatitude Sviatoslav his steps
in the granting
of autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, and praised
the openness of
the UGKTs to ecumenical communication. He recalled that "this is
now our
second meeting, and I am glad that the children of the Kievan
church remember
that their Mother Church is the church of ancient
Constantinople.
We add
that the
meeting was held on the initiative of the primate of the UGKTs
in the context
of an official visit of His Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew to
the Vatican,
organized by the papal council on affairs of the unity of
Christians. (tr. by
PDS, posted 17 September 2019)
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