UCU Vice-rector Says Greek Catholic Patriarchate "Normal
Development"
"The desire of Greek Catholics to bring the status of
their church up to the patriarchal level is a testimony to
the normal development of an Eastern Church," according
to Prof. Myroslav Marynovych, vice-rector of external affairs
and director of the Institute of Religion and Society at the
Ukrainian Catholic University. Marynovych talked about this
and other issues in an interview with RISU given on 22 March
2003.
Marynovych gave the interview to respond to some claims made
by Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexis II, who commented on
the UGCC in an interview for a weekly newspaper "The
Kyiv Telegraph" on 14 March 2003.
In his interview of 14 March, Patriarch Alexis asserted the
canonicity of the Lviv Sobor in 1946, by which the Ukrainian
Greek Catholic Church united with the Russian Orthodox Church.
Patriarch Alexis also disapproved of the planned move of the
Greek Catholic administrative center to Ukraine's capital,
Kyiv, which, he claimed, might bring additional tension to
the interreligious situation in Ukraine.
According to Marynovych, the unwillingness of Patriarch Alexis
II to admit that the Lviv Sobor in 1946 was forced upon Greek
Catholic hierarchs "always creates the impression of
a lost chance for mutual understanding" between the UGCC
and the Moscow Patriarchate, "Patriarch Alexis II, in
fact, repeated the standpoint of the Moscow Patriarchate,
which was expressed long ago, adding only some slight changes
that are worth noticing," said Marynovych.
According to Marynovych, "It was probably the first
time ever that the [Russian Orthodox] patriarch admitted what
officials of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church have repeatedly
stated, namely, the absence of clashes between the Orthodox
and Uniates [Eastern-rite Catholics]. Not so long ago, the
situation in western Ukraine was customarily described in
Moscow as a religious war. The acknowledgement of the real
state of things is an important step forward. It seems, however,
that there has only been one such step. The patriarch's adamant
desire to justify the results of the Lviv pseudosobor in 1946
despite 'the undoubtedly tragic circumstances' under which
it was convened cannot but draw attention. In other words,
today's patriarchal Moscow cannot possibly accept even the
slightest recognition of the pseudosobor's forcible nature,
which has already been admitted by non-Russian (for instance,
Constantinople) hierarchs."
In addition, Marynovych expressed his sorrow over Patriarch
Alexis II's negative attitude towards the patriarchal status
of the UGCC and the planned move of the Greek Catholic administrative
center to Kyiv. "This testifies to the inflexible ecclesiastical
concepts of the Moscow Patriarchate. First of all, the desire
of Greek Catholics to bring the status of their church up
to the patriarchal level is a testimony to the normal development
of an Eastern Church, which the UGCC is. Secondly, the need
to move the [church's] administrative center to Kyiv comes
not only from its ecclesiology, but also from the desire of
church hierarchs to be present in the capital of the country,
which is the center of social and political life. The UGCC
should not be deprived of something that no other church in
Ukraine is deprived of, more so, by a hierarch from another
country."
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