By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The election of a new archbishop for a church with 6.5 million Catholics could hold the key to determining if or when Pope Benedict XVI may meet Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow.

Vatican officials are watching the Ukrainian Catholic Church’s leadership with keen interest, but without the degree of anxiety for its ecumenical implications that would have been present even five years ago.

Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation of Cardinal Lubomyr Husar of Kiev-Halych, head of the Ukrainian church, Feb. 10, about two weeks before his 78th birthday. The cardinal, who as major archbishop of the Eastern Catholic church could have served for life, is almost blind and asked to retire.

The 45 Ukrainian Catholic bishops from Ukraine and other countries of Europe, North and South America and Australia must meet within two months to elect a successor; Pope Benedict must assent to the election before the new major archbishop can be installed.

The Ukrainian Catholic Church is the largest of the Eastern churches in full communion with Rome, and it is pivotal in ecumenical relations.

When Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union, the Ukrainian Catholic Church was forcibly united with the Russian Orthodox Church and became illegal. During 45 years under communist rule, the push for Ukrainian independence and the demand for religious freedom for Ukrainian Catholics often went in hand in hand. The growth of Ukrainian democracy after independence in 1991 occurred at the same time as the church was being rebuilt.

However, the return of religious freedom meant that many Christians who were worshipping as Orthodox decided to return to their Ukrainian Catholic roots. Church properties that had been confiscated by the government or given by the government to the Orthodox were re-claimed by Ukrainian Catholics in situations that occasionally included violence between Catholics and Orthodox.

Basically since 1991 the Russian Orthodox, previously a prime force in search for Catholic-Orthodox unity, have said they could not agree to a meeting between the Russian Orthodox patriarch and the pope until Catholic-Orthodox tensions in Ukraine are resolved.

A Vatican official knowledgeable about the ecumenical situation in Ukraine told Catholic News Service Feb. 10 that Catholic-Orthodox relations are “rather calm right now, but every once in a while the tensions return.”

The real concern is about tensions between different Orthodox churches in Ukraine and how that is being influenced by the year-old government of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, a member of the Orthodox Church in communion with the Russian Orthodox’s Moscow patriarchate and a politician who has promised to strengthen political and economic ties with Russia.

His support for the Orthodox in communion with Moscow appears to have fueled long-standing tensions between Orthodox loyal to Moscow and those who support an independent Orthodox Church in Ukraine.

“Problems within the Orthodox Church have visibly worsened with the political change” of Yanukovych’s election and may prove more dangerous than Catholic-Orthodox tensions, the Vatican official said. “It hurts more when brothers fight than when cousins do,” he said.

In the past couple of years, he said, ecumenically “there have been no important steps forward, but no big steps backward either.”

Observers credit Cardinal Husar’s leadership with being a key reason Catholic-Orthodox tensions have not worsened, and they also praise his efforts to champion the rights and dignity of the Eastern Catholic churches in an overwhelmingly Latin-rite church.

Father Borys Gudziak, rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, said Yanukovych’s policies have plunged Ukraine into a “political crisis” and many people were shocked that Cardinal Husar, “the most respected moral authority in the country,” would resign at such a time.

“From an ecclesial point of view, it seems the government is moving toward a state-church model like in Russia,” Father Gudziak said. Yanukovych has met repeatedly with the leaders of the Orthodox in union with Moscow, and the independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church has “expressed concern over the government-assisted transfer of three parishes from its jurisdiction” to the jurisdiction of the church united with Moscow, he said.

From his point of view, he said, the Ukrainian Catholic Church needs to elect a successor to Cardinal Husar who can articulate compelling reasons for faith, keep Ukrainian Catholics united and promote Christian unity, “a topic to which Cardinal Husar has devoted some of his most eloquent statements and his best energy.”

“Thanks to Cardinal Husar’s work, there is good harmony in the synod and among religious orders, and the number of priests has returned to its pre-World War II total — 2,500 priests just in Ukraine,” he said.

Father Gudziak said that no matter who the synod chooses to lead the church, the leader will face the challenge of getting all Ukrainian Catholics to take personal responsibility for the church and its mission rather than giving in to “a syndrome of ‘waiting for Moses,’ of shirking responsibility and thinking, ‘Let the big guy do it.’”

END

Соборова молитва

Господи Ісусе Христе, Боже наш, із смиренним серцем благаємо Тебе, зволь вилити всі свої ласки і щедроти на богопосвячених осіб серед нашого народу. Зціли і віднови наше чернецтво, яке від самих початків було взірцем християнського життя. Нехай воно завжди буде Світлом для світу, бо така Твоя воля. Нехай богопосвячені особи, які зобов’язалися радикально сповняти Божі заповіді, стануть прикладом для інших християн. Молимо Тебе, Христе, щоб їхнє святе життя творило нашу Церкву міцною та сильною. Навчи їх радісно приймати Твою Святу Волю; додай їм відваги не боятися Твоїх вимог; дай їм усвідомити святість богопосвяченого життя, до якого Ти їх кличеш та допоможи їм подолати всі труднощі. Рівно ж благаємо Тебе, Господи, наповни наші монастирі ревними і святими покликаннями, молитвами Пресвятої Владичиці Богородиці, та молитвами всіх святих, блаженних і Новомучеників землі Української. Амінь.

Prayer in preparation for the Sobor

Lord Jesus Christ, Our God!  With humble hearts we entreat You:  Pour Your graces and blessings upon the monks, nuns and religious of our Ukrainian Nation and Church.  Heal and renew the monastic and religious life which, from its very beginning, has been a model of Christian life.  May the men and women in monastic life and religious communities always be a light for the world.  May they, living God’s Commandments in radical obedience, always be a shining example for other Christians to emulate.  We pray You, Lord Jesus, that, through the example of their lives, our Church would become strengthened in holiness.  Teach them to joyfully embrace Your holy will; give them the courage to gladly accept the sacrifices of the monastic and religious life; enlighten their minds so they would, above all else, value the religious life to which You have called them; aid them in overcoming all difficulties and temptations.  We also entreat You, Lord: Provide zealous and holy vocations from among our youth to fill our monasteries and religious homes.  This we ask through the prayers of the Most Holy Mother of God, of all the Saints, and of the Venerable and Blessed men and women and Contemporary Martyrs of the Ukrainian land. Amen.

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