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

Church move to Kiev fuels rivalry

Protesters tried to prevent believers from attending the service
Ukraine's Eastern-rite Catholics have moved the headquarters of their church to the capital, Kiev, amid protests by some 300 mainly Orthodox believers.
The head of the Greek Catholic Church, Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, held a Mass for some 1,000 believers to mark the move from the western city of Lviv.

Eastern-rite Catholics follow Orthodox ritual but bear allegiance to the Pope.

The move could strain ties between the Vatican and Russia's Orthodox Church, which has huge influence in Ukraine.

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Alexy II, had earlier described it as an "unfriendly" act.

Protests

Bells rang as Cardinal Husar conducted the service outside a church being built for followers of Ukraine's Greek Catholic (or Uniate) Church.


Cardinal Lubomyr Husar appealed for reconciliation

"We don't threaten anybody, we don't want to threaten any Orthodox Church," the cardinal said.

"The headquarters of any religious community should be in the capital," he added.

The mass took place amid tight security, as several hundred Orthodox protesters gathered near the site, denouncing the move.

"Orthodox or death!" they chanted, accusing the Vatican of proselytising.

"You can kill us but you cannot take our faith from us!" demonstrators shouted.

The service was attended by officials from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Kiev Patriarchate), which is not recognised by the Russian Orthodox Church.

'Pan-Ukrainian church'

The Uniate Church claims five to six million adherents - mainly in western Ukraine - plus a further 1.5m among ethnic Ukrainians living in Russia.

The Church was originally established in 1596, when most of today's Ukraine was part of Catholic Poland.

The "Union" was controversial from the start. Orthodox Christians saw it as an annexation of part of their own church by Rome.

With the expansion of the Orthodox Russian empire into Ukraine, in the 17th and 18th Centuries, the Uniate Church was banned.

It survived mainly in those parts of the old Polish state which were incorporated into the Catholic Austrian Empire in 1772.

These areas, eventually annexed by the Soviet Union during World War II, now form part of western Ukraine.

In deciding to move its headquarters to Kiev, the Uniate Church is indicating that it sees itself as a pan-Ukrainian church - rather than a regional peculiarity, the BBC's European affairs analyst Jan Repa says.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4171190.stm

Well, besides it not being a Mass...

What? No one is killing you, ya big jerks! Get a grip on reality! Sounds just like what the "Uniates" said during the forced conversion to Orthodoxy sixty or so years ago, except that they were actually dying and you're sitting on the side of the street denouncing religious freedom!

Logos Teen

Actually, of course, the move of Patriarch Lubomyr to Kyiv is indeed a serious threat - because the Patriarch is already the most widely respected Church leader in Ukraine, and his official residence in Kyiv will make it even clearer that the Greek-Catholic Church is precisely of pan-Ukrainian significance.

But that is simply how things are. The people holding a demonstration yesterday know perfectly well that their behavior will attract nobody. One wonders why they didn't simply go to their own church, where no one would have disturbed them. In fact, one wonders if they go to church at all.

Incognitus

The protest of religious freedom from the same people who are protesting a statue of John Paul 2 in the Ukraine?
Hypcocrite is to kind a term to desctibe their actions.
Of course we will all try and forget that Moscow was in bed with the Communist government when they drove the entier Ukrainian Church underground by killing her bishops and priests and persecuting her adherents into forced conversion into Orthodoxy.
They have their history books upside down or something it is the Orthodox and the Communist who did these things not Rome. The Orthodox had everything to gain by saying nothing while catholics were slaughtered and her churches turned into the church state known as Orthodoxy.

Dear friends,

I don't think the Administrator will like us calling the Russian Orthodox names!

He didn't like it when I did it . . .

So, to be fair, and to show the Administrator just how far I've actually come in this respect, I must say that not all the Russian Orthodox are hypocrites!

There, I've said it . . .

I need a coffee . . .

Alex

Dear Alex:

That's nice of you!

Your gesture warms our collective hearts here at the Forum!

I'll drink (coffee or vinegar) to that!

Amado

Dear Amado,

Thank you for your kindness, Big Guy!

And I know the Administrator will wish to retract a comment he once made in which he accused me of being anti-Russian!

I'm NOT anti-Russian. (Although in my circles that is not a slight - to be Russophile is!)

I'm anti-Russian Bearism!

And at Kyiv, they show they can be too "over-Bearing!"

Some of the UGCC's best friends are Russians you know!

And at not time did I ever say, "I told you so!"

Alex

Dear Teen Logo,

And your point is?

Well said, Sir!

The protesters are obviously younger people who were not present during the 1946 synod of L'viv.

If they were, they would have known to bring military and police personnel, perhaps even some tanks, to put down that "Uniate" event.

As it stood, they were badly outnumbered by the Uniates . . .

And it was also clear they are NOT insecure about their Orthodox faith!

If the UGCC really wanted to get them upset, they could have put up large posters with icons of St Josaphat being done to death by their ancestors!

Perhaps in November? I'll write to the UGCC website!

Alex

The 300-500 protesters (not over 1,000 as reported on the Itar-TASS site) were a collection of pensioners and 'angry young men' bused in from across Ukraine. Some of these people were dressed in fatigues, some wore shirts which read "Kharkiv Kick-boxing Club". They had planned to "greet" the Patriarch with rotten eggs... but he arrived at the site before they did. OTOH, they did spray graffiti on the hoardings around the building site. I hope everything has been cleared by the time I get there.

The UGCC, OTOH, organised no coaches for this low-key event, and still pulled in 3,000 people.

Guests included a representative from the Nuncio and delegates from the UOC-KP, UAOC and the Georgian Orthodox Church (Yushcenko-Shaakshvili incluence?).

I wonder if the ROC / UOC-MP have realised that, based on the location of an HQ, the UGCC is now the most Eastern Church in Ukraine.
[For those not familiar with Kyiv, the UOC-MP, UOC-KP and UAOC are based on the right (west) bank of the Dnipro, while the UGCC is on the left (east) bank.]

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

Dear Andriju X,

Those non-canonical and anti-Russian Uniates, Autocephalists and Filaretites!

And now the Georgians are involved? Weren't they once Monophysite heretics? It is in their blood, it would seem. Is outrage!

How dare those Ukrainians come to Kiev!

Long live Russian Orthodoxy DAANICWOANR! (Definitely and Absolutely Not in Communion with Or Anywhere Near Rome).

Alex

Dear Andrij:

Just omit the "left" and the "right" banks of of the Dnieper River as a clever distinction!

Because if you look at Ukraine's map from the South, i.e., upward, UGCC's HQ on the East bank is on the "right" and vice versa for the others, who are all on the "left," or West bank.

In this manner, the UGCC is, indeed, the "Eastern-most" Ukrainian Church!

Amado

Dear Amado,

The Ukies used to talk about the river "Zbruch" as the dividing line between Western Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Ukrainians.

When a group of Orthodox Ukrainians met with Met. Andrew Sheptytsky (X), one of them came away from that meeting inspired and said, "It seemed that for a little while the "Zbruch" didn't exist between us."

Aren't you happy you are learning so much about another Church and culture?

Alex

Dear Alex and Andrij:

Very enlightening learning process, with exciting events lined up after the "transfer" of UGCC's hq to Kyiv, on the Eastern, or the "right," bank of the Dnieper!

This is hoping that the UGCC will, someday, be the "pan-Ukrainian Church!"

Amado

Dear Amado,

Actually, the eastern part of Ukraine (over the Dniepr River) is the "Left Bank" and the western part is the "Right Bank" - you would be facing towards the Black Sea, not northwards.

The UGCC as the pan-Ukrainian Church?

Are YOU anti-Russian as well?

Are you going to force me to report you to the Administrator?

Such unbridled high praise for Uniates and non-canonical "Orthodox!"

(Keep up the good work!)

Alex

Dear Alex:

If you will note, I have been careful enough NOT to spout any anti-ROC comments! Thus far!

(Unlike someone I know, once before!) :p

My comments are just decidedly pro-Ukraine and I should not be faulted for being "enlightened!"

Amado