Greek Catholic Representative Calls Russian Orthodox to Tolerance
30.07.2005, [07:59] // UGCC //

Lviv – During a recent visit to Kazan, Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexis II stated that he considers a visit of the Pope to Moscow impossible until the Vatican rejects proselytism on the territory of Russia. The patriarch also named "the rebirth of the Union [i. e. the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, UGCC] in western regions of Ukraine,” allegedly accompanied by violence and seizure of churches, as an obstacle. Fr. Volodymyr Havrylenko, protopresbyter of Yavoriv in western Ukraine's Lviv region, has commented on the patriarch's statement, proceeding from historical facts. RISU's Ukrainian-language site posted the news on 28 July 2005.

“After the forced liquidation of the UGCC in 1946 at a pseudo-sobor [assembly of church hierarchs] orchestrated by the Soviet government, several hundred church buildings belonging to our church were instantly given to the Russian Orthodox Church [ROC] for use," said Fr. Havrylenko. "When in the late 1980s and early 1990s citizens of our country were again able to openly profess their faith and register their communities, they massively came back to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. Their churches came back with them. We have not found a single instance when in western Ukraine UGCC faithful seized a church that had been constructed by ROC faithful.”

He added he has no doubt that the ROC, which received the churches, maintained and used them for religious purposes, but for the ROC.

“Many of the faithful, who never stopped considering themselves Greek Catholics, attended these churches and maintained them. However, when the possibility arose to openly declare their denominational allegiance, they did this without hesitating," Fr. Havrylenko said.

According to the priest, the ROC used to accept faithful from Ukraine into its spiritual schools, but educated them for itself, not for the Greek Catholic Church. This is proven by the fact, he said, that even now much of the ROC clergy and episcopate hail from western Ukraine, where the concentration of Ukrainian Greek Catholics is highest.

“When in the early 1990s many of the graduates of Orthodox religious schools decided to become Greek Catholic, this happened not on the basis of the training they received there. These were individual decisions by whoever made them, which, however ran contrary to the instructions of their educators, who did not support the transfer of these priests to the church of their ancestors.

"This time, too, we see the ROC state its readiness for dialogue, but 'under condition.' Meanwhile, according to the position held by His Beatitude Lubomyr (Husar), head of the UGCC, and repeated in a recent interview with the 'Day' newspaper: 'The situation in Ukraine should be such that every Christian can freely choose his or her church and allegiance. If you want to be subject to Moscow, may God be with you; to Constantinople or Rome, may God be with you. We shall have true religious freedom only when these words that churches use today go out of use: 'You are a schismatic, you, a heretic.' We should, after all, remember that we all have come out of the same old Kyivan Church. It is under this condition that it will be possible to discuss church problems, but not before. Nobody should prohibit anything to anyone, or blame them, but always respect the choice of the next one. That will be a coming together.

“I dream of achieving true religious tolerance in our Ukraine, not indifference, but precisely tolerance… Christ founded one church. Therefore each one selects his or her own way, but necessarily respects the choice of the other one,” Fr. Havrylenko concluded.

Previous RISU story:
• http://www.risu.org.ua/eng/news/article;6224/