Kyiv ready for historic visit of Pope John Paul II (06/24/01)

Kyiv ready for historic visit of Pope John Paul II

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - As the first of several million pilgrims began trickling into Ukraine on June 21 for the first visit to this country by Pope John Paul II, thousands of Orthodox faithful who are opposed to it again demonstrated peacefully in Kyiv to protest his intrusion into the affairs of what they consider an "Orthodox country."

The holy father was expected to land in Kyiv at about noontime on June 23 for a five-day visit - the 94th foreign trip of his pontificate. He will also travel to Lviv, the center of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church (UGCC), an Eastern rite Church of nearly 5 million faithful, which has been in communion with Rome for more than 500 years.

Some 500,000 are expected at the two liturgies Pope John Paul II will lead in Kyiv, while up to 2 million could be on hand at similar services in Lviv.

Law enforcement agencies have said they will implement strict security measures during the visit of the leader of the Catholic Church due to concerns about violence and terrorism in connection with the protests that have been staged and individual threats that have been issued.

"To avoid mass disorder we intend to stop any problems before they start," said Vice Minister of Internal Affairs Oleksander Kharlamov on June 19. "So, we are gathering information from Interpol and cooperating with the Security Service and border guards to block these people from coming into our country," he added.

Just to be safe, however, Ukrainian law enforcement officials will have 30,000 officers present on the streets of Kyiv during the pope's three-day stay in this city. Other security precautions, including an order that all windows along the route Pope John Paul II will take on his tour of the city center remain closed and that residents refrain from greeting the pope from their balconies and tossing flowers onto the street, have led Catholic Church officials to complain that the protective measures will inhibit the access of the masses to the charismatic pontiff.

Papal visit organizers were particularly peeved that the first busload of pilgrims into Kyiv, those from Belarus, were stopped and harassed in Kyiv by state militia after they first entered the city limits.

"In the entire world, law enforcement and security agencies implement their functions to help people meet with the holy father, but in Ukraine they understand it in a different way," said Roman Catholic Bishop Stanyslav Shyrokoraiduk, one of the organizers of the papal visit here.

During a press conference on June 19, Minister of Foreign Affairs Anatolii Zlenko, who heads the official organizing committee preparing for the papal visit, said he had heard the complaints and that they were being addressed.

"We understand the problems with the law enforcement agencies and have addressed them," said Mr. Zlenko.

He also said he had received assurances from the leadership of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), which is associated with the Russian Orthodox Church and has vigorously protested the papal visit, that there would not be any organized protests during the pope's stay in Kyiv.

Ukraine's foreign affairs minister emphasized once again that because the papal trip is the result of an official invitation from the Ukrainian head of state to the Vatican head of state, religious leaders had no reason to feel threatened.

Mr. Zlenko said that for Ukraine it would be one of the major events of the last decade and a "strong signal in support of the politics that Ukraine began 10 years ago."

He added that the papal visit is in the national self-interest of Ukraine and would considerably firm up Ukraine's commitment to European integration in the eyes of the world.

Pope John Paul II and other Church leaders, while not denying the aims as expressed by Mr. Zlenko, have put the emphasis elsewhere.

Speaking on June 20 at his weekly general audience, the holy father said the visit is the fulfillment of "a wish that I have carried in my heart for a long time."

"My objective is to confirm the faith of our brothers and sisters of the Catholic community and also to promote the ecumenical commitment and obedience to the work of Christ," said Pope John Paul II, according to a UGCC press release.

Cardinal and Archbishop Mayor Lubomyr Husar, head of the UGCC, told journalists on June 15 that he believes the pope in his sermons would accent the need for a moral basis in life and for Christian unity.

He explained that the highlight of the papal visit would be the beatification of 27 UGCC martyrs for the faith, which would take place during the pope's final liturgical service on June 27 in Lviv. During that liturgy the holy father will elevate 27 priests, nuns and laypersons of the UGCC, as well as one Roman Catholic priest, who died under Nazi or Communist oppression often tortuously, to a rank just below sainthood.

Cardinal Husar, when asked how the protest by the UOC-MP had affected the papal visit, called the actions "a large favor" and "free advertising."

"They are letting our message be heard," explained Cardinal Husar. "Although they would probably like for this to end negatively, they have done us a colossal favor with their protests."

The head of the UGCC said that without the public outcries there would have been less publicity given to the papal visit both in Ukraine and across the globe.

In the most recent such demonstrations, about 3,000 UOC-MP supporters protested on the streets of Kyiv on June 21 carrying placards proclaiming, "The pope is persona non-grata," "The pope is the forerunner of the anti-Christ" and "Orthodoxy or death."

The mix of UOC-MP priests, nuns, monks and faithful began their march by holding a prayer service before the Uspenskyi Sobor (Assumption Cathedral) on the grounds of the Pecherska Lavra (Monastery of the Caves), which is considered a prime Ukrainian Orthodox shrine, before moving through the center of the city. They also made a stop at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv to protest what they believe was U.S. involvement in bringing the pope to Ukraine, done to further destabilize the situation in the country, they believe.

"The pope is an intruder and nobody waits for him here," said Tamara Mishkova, one of the protesters.

This was the fourth and largest protest by UOC-MP faithful in the last month. Previous protests had averaged about 1,000 individuals.

The leaders of the UOC-MP and the Russian Orthodox Church have met the pope's message of Christian unity with outright disdain. ROC Patriarch Aleksei II has said that the visit will worsen relations between his Moscow Church and the Vatican and the ecumenical movement both Churches have pursued for several decades.

On June 20 a representative of the UOC-MP said, "We do not need Catholicizers, we can take care of the spiritual needs of the Ukrainian people ourselves."

Plans call for the pope to meet with the leaders of all the faiths represented in Ukraine at a meeting of the All-Ukrainian Council of Religions. The UOC-MP said that neither its leader, Metropolitan Volodymyr Sabodan, nor ROC Patriarch Aleksei II would attend.

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