Ukrainian Cardinal Says Vatican Studying Steps To Make Him
Patriarch
Nov-21-2002 Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY
(CNS) -- The Vatican is studying the practical steps that
would have to be taken, including ecumenically, in order to
proclaim the head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church a patriarch,
said Ukrainian Cardinal Lubomyr Husar of Lviv.
The cardinal, spiritual leader and major archbishop of the
Ukrainian church since 2001, has continued the 40-year campaign
of his predecessors to win recognition of the patriarchal
status of their Eastern-rite church.
"I think something is moving," the cardinal said
Nov. 20 while at the Vatican for a meeting of the Congregation
for Eastern Churches.
"Studies are being made because it is a very delicate
question," one that could provoke strong negative reactions
from Orthodox churches if not explained and discussed with
them, he said.
Cardinal Husar said he believes Pope John Paul II would like
to give the Ukrainian Catholic Church the patriarchal status
that most of the other Eastern Catholic churches have enjoyed
for decades.
In the past, he said, "it was simply a matter of a papal
decree.
"
But since the Second Vatican Council and its embracing of
"ecumenical commitments and sensitivity," he said,
the Vatican wants to ensure any decision is "supported
and accepted by the Eastern churches -- both Catholic and
Orthodox."
In June 2001, Cardinal Husar told reporters in Rome he was
"trying to convince the Holy See that both for ecumenical
reasons and in keeping with the Second Vatican Council,"
the patriarchate of his church should be recognized.
It would show the Orthodox that the Vatican fully respects
the traditions of Eastern Christianity and would not try to
impose structural changes on their church as a condition for
full unity, the cardinal had said.
In addition, he had said, the Second Vatican Council's document
on the Eastern Catholic churches specifically recognized the
patriarchate as "a traditional form of government in
the Eastern Church" and said that "where needed,
new patriarchates should be erected."
But in the 38 years since the document was issued no new
Catholic patriarchates have been created.
The Melkite, Maronite, Coptic, Syrian, Chaldean and Armenian
Catholic patriarchates, which are of ancient origin, were
recognized formally in the centuries following the 15th-century
Council of Florence.
The powers of a major archbishop and a patriarch are the
same: Both are the heads of their churches and can convoke
a synod of their bishops. However, when a synod of bishops
elects a patriarch, he requests ecclesial communion with the
pope. When a synod elects a major archbishop, the election
must be confirmed by the pope.
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