June 22, 2001. Copyright 2001. Graphic News. All rights reserved.

Thousands protest against the PopeÕs Ukraine visit

LONDON, June 22, Graphic News: The PopeÕs five-day visit to Ukraine looks set to be his most controversial so far, with the risk of ripping open wounds between the countryÕs Orthodox and Catholic faiths. 

The Vatican and the Eastern Orthodox churches have been in schism since Rome excommunicated the East in 1054. Earlier this year, when Pope John Paul II visited Greece, he made a historic apology to the Orthodox world for Catholic sins of the past, saying: ÒFor the occasions past and present, when sons and daughters of the Catholic Church have sinned by action or omission against their Orthodox brothers and sisters, may the Lord grant us the forgiveness we beg of him.Ó

The Orthodox response, however, has been muted. Patriarch Aleksei II, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, said a papal visit to Moscow would be impossible while Òthe Greek-Catholic war continues against Orthodox believers in Ukraine and until the Vatican stops its expansionism in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine.Ó

But the leader of UkraineÕs second largest Orthodox Church -- the breakaway Ukrainian Orthodox Church Kiev Patriarchate -- offered the Vatican a rare olive branch as thousands of rival Orthodox worshippers took to the streets in protest. Patriarch Filaret said his church welcomed the 81-year-old pontiff and shared his aim of uniting ChristianityÕs eastern and western branches.

ÒThe Pope is a wise and authoritative person and his objective is to help the reconciliation of the churches,Ó he said. ÒThis fact allows us to hope that the PopeÕs visit will, in fact, help improve relations.Ó

The majority of UkraineÕs 49.3 million population are nominally Orthodox, and most of them adhere to the line of the Moscow Patriarchate. But there is also a significant minority, mainly in the west of the country, of five million Catholics, who represent the main reason for the papal visit. 

One of the bitterest disputes between the Orthodox Church and the Catholics, concerns church property. While Soviet rule tolerated the Russian Orthodox Church, which blossomed after the fall of Communism, other faiths struggled. UkraineÕs Greek-Catholic Church was banned in 1948 and all of its property was handed over to the Orthodox Church.

But, in 1989, after the Catholics were granted legal recognition again in the era of reforms inspired by the then Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, a battle ensued over the property.

ÒPeople have gone through a very difficult period and they have come out of this persecution bruised, wounded,Ó said Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, the head of the Greek-Catholic Church.

ÒI somehow hope that the words of the Holy Father will be words that will heal and will help these people on the road of rebirth,Ó he added.

The Pope will spend three days in the capital Kiev before flying to the picturesque city of Lviv, a major Catholic centre. More than two million people are expected to attend to masses in both cities.

The highlight for many Ukrainian Catholics will be the PopeÕs beatification of 27 Soviet-era martyrs. It is the first beatification in Ukraine -- the penultimate step towards being proclaimed a saint-- for the Greek-Catholics since 1867.

Those to be beatified include Yakym Senkivsky, a priest who, claimed by the church, was boiled to death in a cauldron after being arrested by Communist authorities in 1941 in western Ukraine, and Emilian Kovch, a priest who died in a death camp at Majdanek in Poland in 1944 after the Nazi secret police arrested him for aiding Jews. Others died in Soviet workcamps in Siberia, or as the result of maltreatment in prison.
/ENDS
Sources: Associated Press, Reuters