Catholic bishop says Ukraine's Churches should strive toward "spiritual unification" (09/07/97)

Catholic bishop says Ukraine's Churches should strive toward "spiritual unification"

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Bishop Lubomyr Husar, auxiliary bishop to the archbishop major of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, said on September 3 that he believes unifying the various Christian confessions in Ukraine is an almost impossible task and that the Churches of Ukraine should look for "spiritual unification."

"The idea of an all-Ukrainian (pomisna) Church is possible only with each Church retaining its traditional ties," said Bishop Husar. "If we mean one confession, that will be almost impossible. If we mean one Orthodox tradition, I think that is doable."

He added that when the idea of a single confession is the focus of discussions, inevitably each Church ends up stating "then come to us," as the bishop put it. He said that going about building a non-confessional structure still would be a formidable task.

Bishop Husar, who was appointed in October 1996 to carry out the duties of the ailing head of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, Archbishop Major Myroslav Lubachivsky, spoke at a press conference in Kyiv, where he commented on the work of a roundtable on the spiritual unification of Ukrainian Churches held in conjunction with the second World Forum of Ukrainians.

The roundtable, which included representatives of all the Ukrainian confessions, revealed that a need to work together finally exists, said Bishop Husar. "We have different interests, but we are beginning to have some common language."

He said the first day of the roundtable was characterized by heated debate, but that by the second day constructive dialogue took place, and in that aspect, the seminar was a success. However, Bishop Husar expressed his disenchantment with the continued accent on uniting the confessions.

He hopes the celebrations of the 2000th anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ, which the confessions of Ukraine have agreed to celebrate together, will be the vehicle by which a spiritual union will begin to take place.

Patriarch Filaret of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate seems to echo that idea. "[The year 2000 celebrations] should not be a formalized, pompous phenomenon, but a true celebration of spiritual unity," said Patriarch Filaret at the roundtable, according to the Religious Information Agency bulletin of the UGCC.

Bishop Husar said he meets with Patriarch Filaret regularly, as well as with Patriarch Dymytrii of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. Unfortunately, he explained, these are informal communications and formal organizational lines of communication have yet to be developed. He hopes that planning for common celebrations in the year 2000 will help build formal links between the Churches.

Touching on other themes, Bishop Husar said the chance of Pope John Paul II visiting Ukraine in the near future are slim, mainly because "certain Orthodox leaders," alluding to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate, have put pressure on the government of Ukraine not to extend an invitation. Any visit by the pope would have to be a state visit and that requires an invitation from Ukraine's government.

Bishop Husar also mentioned that the next Synod of Bishops of the UGCC would take place in mid-September and would continue the work initiated by last year's synod as well as the sobor of clergy and laity that preceded it.

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