www.byzcath.org Forums News & Events Church News Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Headquarters Move to Kiev

I am not anti-Russian, nor am I anti-Orthodox. Indeed, I am quite curious to learn more about the religous activities of the Kharkiv Kick-Boxing Club. Who is their patron saint, for example? Which icons do they particularly venerate - and how?

+ Incognitus the Inquisitive Inquisitor

Dear Incognitus, the II:

I have a gut-feeling that the Kharkiv Kick Boxing Club is now preparing, for rush printing, their new "logo" as Ukraine's version of the KKK: "Kiev Kharkiv Kick" Boxing Club!

Amado

Ivan Gorznyi? Yes, I have heard there is a movement to canonize him (as well as Rasputin).

Σώσον, Κύριε, καί διαφύλαξον η�άς από τών Βασιλιάνικων τάξεων!

Dear Friends,

As for being anti-Russian, I think this group demonstrating in Kiev has done a lot to commend Russia and Russian Orthodoxy.

Respect for freedom and democracy, religious and civil liberties and rights, cultural behaviour, international friendship and other similar religious and civic values that they just 'ooze' with.

This is part of the Great Russian imperial mentality where church and state do work in harmony together.

But there were MANY ethnic Russians in Ukraine that supported and support the administration of Pres. Victor Yuschenko.

They have no part in the fanaticism of those rabble-rousers and it would be a mistake for anyone to say so.

And I'm sure there are not a few Ukrainians among the rabble-rousers too.

When it comes to old imperial attitudes, ethnicity or religion really should not come into play.

That it does in this instance is an historical and contemporary fact.

If that rabble doesn't like respect for religious freedom, they should beat a hasty retreat to Russia while the Orange Revolution still hasn't taken hold there!

(I hope they consecrate the new Cathedral in honour of "Our Lady of Fatima" - to make them really happy . . .)

And for that person who wrote to ask if I were a Russophile - I'm not.

I just like cats which makes me a "Pussophile."

Alex

Alas, "KKK" is inaccurate. It would be "KKX", which somehow lacks the same effect.

Incognitus

Greek Catholic Move to Kyiv �Their Own Business,� Says President Yushchenko
22.08.2005, [21:55] // Church-state relations //

Commenting on 21 August 2005 on the official move that day of the administrative center of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church from Lviv to Kyiv, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said that it�s the Greek Catholics� �own business.�

Visiting an exhibition of honey in Pyrohovo, Yushchenko told the Novy (New) Channel reporters he was convinced that the move of Greek Catholics from Lviv to Kyiv was their own business. �This is the Greek Catholics' own business," said Yushchenko.

He stressed that nobody had a right to force people which faith to choose and decide where that church should be.

The president thinks the Greek Catholic Church has �a right to choose the place for its chair and act in accordance with their ideas."

"If we follow the Bible, if we think we are Christians, let us love our neighbors with their feelings and their faith," said Yushchenko. �This is the only way to maintain peace among churches."

Source: http://www.president.gov.ua/en/news/data/1_2327.html

Apparently lost in these flurry of events generated by the UGCC's return to her historic seat was a rebuff by the UOC-MP directed at Pres. Yuschenko's continuing display of "Church-hopping!"

Excerpt from a news story by CWN:

Will or should Pres. Yuschenko add attendance in a UGCC liturgical service to his repertoire so as to "equalize" matters?

Politics and religion have been strange bedfellows. Will it work in Ukraine?

Amado

Dear Amado,

President Yuschenko is acting like a democratic leader.

He is himself of the UOC-KP and this is annoying the UOC-MP.

He has been at UGCC Liturgies before and has been welcomed.

The only ones who are making this into a problem is the Moscow Patriarchate.

Alex

Dear Amado,

As for religion working in Ukraine - it would be too much to hope to separate it from politics.

It would be good if it could be separated from kick-boxing.

Did you know I'm related to Patriarch Husar by marriage? His niece is my wife's cousin!

So I take this egg-throwing threat rather personally!

Husar is a Studite monk who ALWAYS has his prayer rope in his hands, praying the Jesus Prayer.

A kinder, gentler man you could not hope to know . . . except, perhaps, President George Bush, Senior!

Alex

Dear Alex,

Is Mrs. Yuschenko still a practicing Greek Catholic herself, or did she convert to the UOC-KP?

Logos Teen

Dear Teen Logos,

I don't know, but I don't see any reason for her to convert.

Pres. Yuschenko is wildly popular in Greek-Catholic Western Ukraine, fyi, they just LOVE him!

It was Pres. Yuschenko who, on hearing of the Pope's death in April, said "All of Ukraine mourns him!"

In actual fact, Ukrainian Catholics and Orthodox did like Pope John Paul II very much.

Alex

President Yushchenko obviously has a right to attend Church wherever he pleases. Metropolitan Vladimir may be justified in telling someone NOT to attend one of the Moscow Patriarchate churches in Ukraine, but the good Metropolitan has no right at all to tell someone unconditionally that he MUST attend the Moscow Patriarchate churches.

Incognitus the Inquisitive Inquisitor

Dear Incognitus,

He thinks he does!

And his position has become crystal clear of late - there is no such thing as a "UOC - ANYTHING."

There is only the "UOC" - period. And that is the UOC that he heads.

However, I understand the EP is singing a slightly different tune about this ever since Pres. Victor met him.

And it is important to note the presence of the Georgian Orthodox Church at Sunday's events in Kyiv.

By the way, I distributed a bunch of Bl. Karl prayer cards at church the other week.

It noted that he was "King of Galicia, Volyn and Bukovina."

The people seemed to accept that . . . and also his family's close ties with Met. Andrew Sheptytsky.

My family and its friends always had a very deep esteem for the Habsburgs.

Alex

Speaking of Kings of Galicia, did you know that the Polish Communists had uncovered the grave of King Danylo near Kholm sometime after the war ? They kept the whole thing hush hush for fear of having the boarder redrawn by the Soviets again. I read this in the book titled the Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, and Belarus (or something like that).

I.F.

Alex,your wife is first cousin to a niece of Cardinal Husar?I had dinner with a nephew of the Cardinal, his last name was Vasylkevych,I believe.Actually,it was a funeral dinner of an elderly parishoner of mine in Western Michigan.It was on Bright Wednesday,Julian Calender this year.I wonder if any of the Ukrainian Catholics present wondered what the Russian Orthodox priest was doing,eating meat on Wednesday?