His Holiness Patriarch Alexy: ‘We hope for considered and reasonable approach on the part of the Roman Catholic Church’

According to news agencies, the Greek Catholic Church chair will be transferred from Lvov to Kiev in the near future. At the same time the title of the Greek Catholic head Lubomir Cardinal Husar will change from ‘Major Archbishop of Lvov’ to ‘Major Archbishop of Kiev and Galicia’.

The Moscow Patriarchate Press service asked His Holiness Patriarch Alexy of Moscow and All Russia to comment on the situation.

– Your Holiness, it is known that the transfer of the Greek Catholic chair to Kiev and the change of the title of the head of the Greek Catholics from ‘Major Archbishop of Lvov’ to ‘Major Archbishop of Kiev and Galicia’ is planned for August 21. What would be your comments on this action of the leadership of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church?

This action is undoubtedly an unfriendly one. It will bring about even more tension to our relations with the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and with the Roman See.

I would note that this move cannot be justified either from historical point of view or by church rules and canons. Kievan chair from the very first years of its existence was an ecclesiastical capital of the Russian Orthodox Church, first as the centre of metropolia, and later as the major chair among the Ukrainian dioceses.

On my recent visit to Kazan I answered a question about the prospects of our meeting with the Pope of Rome Benedict XVI at a press conference. Among prerequisites for such meeting I named the cessation of the policy of proselytism, the champion of which in Ukraine is the Greek Catholic Church.

The destinies of the Orthodox and Uniate Churches in Western Ukraine have become interwoven. After the Greek Catholic parishes had been closed in 1946, the followers of the Unia got spiritual care in the Russian Orthodox churches. In that we saw the testimony of the Russian Church’s lenient attitude to those who came to her for spiritual help, even if these people did not belong to her in a proper sense.

Some people remained Greek Catholic deep in heart, but they studied in our theological seminaries and academies. I remember many students from Western Ukraine studying in the Leningrad Theological schools in my time. After the political situation had changed and the Greek Catholics could open the churches of their own, we thought that our relations would develop along the same lines of god and peaceful coexistence. The Russian Church has deserved at least a gratitude for her care for the Uniates during decades after the War.

Instead, the Greek Catholic Church returned to the practice of the 16th-17th centuries, when the Unia was implanted by force with support of the anti-Orthodox authorities. Certainly, this course of events has complicated our relations both with the Greek Catholics and with the Roman Catholic Church.

We have repeatedly stated our position in this matter, and it has not changed. We hope for a considered and reasonable approach to the problem on the part of the Roman Catholic Church.

See also:

• His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia