UCU's vice-rector speaks on Patriarchate (04/06/03)

UCU's vice-rector speaks on Patriarchate

Religious Information Service of Ukraine

LVIV - "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," said Prof. Myroslav Marynovych, vice-rector of external affairs and director of the Institute of Religion and Society at Lviv's Ukrainian Catholic University.

Prof. Marynovych spoke about this and other issues in an interview on March 22, given to respond to certain claims made by Russian Orthodox Patriarch Aleksei II, who commented on the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church (UGCC) in an interview for the weekly newspaper Kyiv Telegraph.

In his interview of March 14, Patriarch Aleksei asserted the canonicity of the Moscow-orchestrated Lviv Sobor of 1946, by which the UGCC united with the Russian Orthodox Church. Patriarch Aleksei also disapproved of the UGCC's plan to move its administrative center to Ukraine's capital, which, he claimed, might bring additional tension to the interreligious situation in Ukraine.

According to Prof. Marynovych, the unwillingness of Patriarch Aleksei 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 Aleksei II, in fact, repeated the standpoint of the Moscow Patriarchate, which was expressed long ago, adding only some slight changes that are worth noticing," Prof. Marynovych added.

According to Prof. 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 pseudo-sobor 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 pseudo-sobor's forcible nature, which has already been admitted by non-Russian (for instance, Constantinople) hierarchs."

In addition, Prof. Marynovych expressed his sorrow over Patriarch Aleksei's II's negative attitude towards the patriarchal status of the UGCC and the planned move of the Church's administrative center to Kyiv.

"This testifies to the inflexible ecclesiastical concepts of the Moscow Patriarchate," he explained.

"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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