It’s obvious that Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio’s election as pope was special to Catholics in his home Argentina, but the new pope is also watched hopefully from Ukraine.
Bergoglio, elected on March 13 and now called Pope
Francis, comes from a country with one of the biggest Ukrainian diasporas, numbering
about 300,000 people. At least half of those Ukrainians are Greek Catholics, attending
churches of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy in Buenos Aires, subordinated to the
Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
Just days after the election, the head of the Greek
Catholics Svyatoslav Shevchuk, who had lived in Argentina for two years in 1990
and knew Cardinal Bergoglio in person, shared some details about the new pope.
According to Shevchuk, the future pope was mentored by Ukrainian Greek Catholic
priest Stepan Chmil while studying in Salesian school.
“He was assisting him during the service. He knows our
(Ukrainian Greek Catholic) rituals,” Shevchuk said.
It drew some excitement in the circles of Ukrainian
Greek Catholics, the Christianity practiced by perhaps 14 percent of Ukrainians. They do have good reasons to celebrate the pope’s familiarity with
Ukraine. For about 50 years, the Greek Catholic Church has been trying to get the
status of patriarchy, the highest recognition that a church can get. It’s up to
the Pope to award this title, but so far, none has made the decision.
The reason lies in areas not just religious, but
political.
In Ukraine, the most popular church is the Ukrainian
Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchy and its feelings about Greek
Catholics, which has the next highest following, are far from friendly.
The rivalry goes back 400 years,
when in 1596 some Orthodox cardinals in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (now
the lands of Ukraine and Belarus) broke communion with the Orthodox world and
Constantinople. They chose to place themselves under the authority of pope in
Rome. The Greek Catholic Church, also called the Uniate church, was
created as a result of this act. Now it is a church that is in communion with the
Vatican, but it isn’t a direct subordinate.
Igor Yatsir, spokesman for the Greek Catholics, said
that he hopes that Pope Francis wouldn’t sacrifice the interests of the church for
the benefit of his dialogue with Moscow.
Metropolitan Hilarion, head of external relations
department of Moscow Patriarchy, said in an interview with Rossiya TV that the
topic of the Brest Union is the most painful in the dialogue of Catholics and
Orthodox Church members.
“If the Pope supports the Uniate church, it won’t lead
to anything good,” Hilarion said.
At the same time, support is what the Greek Catholics hope
to see from Pope Francis.
Since the 1960s, when the patriarchy question was
first raised in Rome, it had never left the agenda. According to Yatsir, it was
present in correspondence between Pope John Paul II and Greek Catholic head
Lyubomyr Husar. Now that the Pope was re-elected and Husar retired and replaced
by Shevchuk, dialogue is about to be revived. Shevchuk has already invited
Francis to visit Ukraine. His spokesman didn’t say how soon Shevchuk would have
pope’s audience.
Commenting on speculation on Francis’ closeness to
Ukraine, historian and deputy head of Ukrainian Catholic University Oleh Turiy
said the meaning of these connections shouldn’t be exaggerated.
“It’s a Soviet way of thinking, to believe that
connections can push decisions. If Francis grants the Ukrainian Greek Catholic
Church patriarchy status, it’s not because of his Ukrainian connections. But
his being familiar with Ukraine will certainly help, because it’s easier to
have a discussion with someone who knows the context. Unfortunately, there are
still many people in Europe, and in church circles in particular, who are
unsure about where Ukraine is,” Turiy says.
He explains that the status of patriarchy is granted
by the Ecumenical Council that gathers representatives of all Christian
churches. The pope’s right to grant patriarchy status is just as strong as one
of the council.
There are hardly any practical needs for this status upgrade,
because, according to Turiy, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church has already
all rights that usually only a patriarchy can have, like the right to elect its
own head without involving Rome. But both Turiy and spokesman Yatsir say that
patriarchy is needed as a logical gesture of confirming the church’s authority
and dignity.
If Pope Francis grants this long-awaited status,
Moscow is expected to react negatively. According to Turiy, the Pope’s support for
the Greek Catholics could lead to repression of Catholics in Russia.
Spokesman for Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow
Patriarchy Heorhiy Kovalenko says the patriarchy status is the internal issue
of Catholic Church and is not a concern of the Orthodox Church. At the same
time, he mentions that two churches have long-playing misunderstanding and
Moscow church’s real concern is the proselytism actions, which, Kovalenko says,
the Greek Catholics has been into.
Former Greek Catholic head Husar has recently said
that, in his opinion, the Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine “is grown up enough
to be a patriarchy.”
“Now the chances to get this status are much higher
than in previous decades,” Husar said.
Kyiv
Post staff writer Olga Rudenko can be reached at [email protected].
