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Published by
Zenit.org,
June 3, 2004
Pope Asks Ukrainian
Greek-Catholic Church to Be Patient
Patriarchate Plan Being Studied in
Light of Orthodox Sensibilities
VATICAN CITY,
JUNE 3, 2004 (Zenit.org) - John Paul II shares
the hopes of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church
to be established as a patriarchate, but he asks
for patience while the proposal is studied.
The Pope is also taking into account the
"evaluations" of the Orthodox Churches.
He expressed this today when receiving in
audience Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, archbishop
major of Lviv of the Ukrainians, with the
members of the Permanent Synod of the Ukrainian
Greek-Catholic Church.
"I share your aspiration, well-founded in the
canonical and conciliar discipline, to have full
juridical and ecclesiastical configuration," the
Holy Father told his guests.
"I share this aspiration in prayer and also in
suffering, waiting for the day established by
God in which I will be able to confirm the
mature fruit of your ecclesial development as
successor of the apostle Peter," he said.
"Meanwhile, as you well know, your request is
being seriously studied, also in the light of
the evaluations of other Christian Churches,"
the Pope added.
The Holy Father urged that this hope not be an
obstacle "to your apostolic courage or a reason
to turn off or dampen the joy of the Holy Spirit
which drives and spurs on Cardinal Husar,
together with his brother bishops and priests,
religious and the lay faithful to greater
abandonment to proclaiming the Gospel and in the
consolidation of your ecclesial tradition."
John Paul II expressed his "deepest admiration
for the vitality of this Church and for the
faithfulness which has characterized it
throughout the centuries."
"Rich with heroic witnesses, even in the recent
past, your Church is involved in pastoral
programs that enjoy generous collaboration and
approval by the clergy and lay people for the
effective work of evangelization, promoted by a
climate of freedom that today is felt also in
your country," he concluded.
In a letter dated last Nov. 29, Orthodox
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of
Constantinople asked John Paul II not to
institute a Greek-Catholic patriarchate in Kiev,
saying that there was a risk of breaking
ecumenical relations.
Such a measure "would cause strong reactions on
the part of all the Orthodox sister Churches and
harm the attempts to continue the theological
dialogue between the Catholic Church and the
Orthodox Churches," the letter said.
In the July 2002 plenary assembly held in Kiev,
the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Synod requested the
Pope to sanction this process by conferring on
it a patriarchal title.
According to the conciliar decree "Orientalium
Ecclesiarum" on the Catholic Eastern Churches,
the Pope has the faculty to recognize on his own
initiative the patriarchal rank of a Church
without having to submit this recognition to the
consensus of other ecclesial bodies.
The Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church is the
largest of the Eastern Catholic Churches "sui
juris" (of its own right) with more than 5.5
million faithful. It maintains the Byzantine
rite and is in full communion with the Bishop of
Rome.
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