In much of the world, Friday’s historic meeting between Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia in Havana, Cuba, will be hailed as a breakthrough. Attitudes are more mixed, however, in Ukraine, long the front line of tensions between Catholics and the Russian Orthodox.
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| Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Ukrainian
Greek Catholic Church, met with Pope Francis in 2014. (AP) |
There, the 5-million-strong Greek Catholic Church has suffered terribly for its loyalty to Rome, constituting the world’s largest underground religious body during the Soviet era, and it’s also a leader in civil resistance to the current Russian invasion of eastern Ukraine.
In this essay commissioned by Crux, the Rev. Andriy Chirovsky, a Greek Catholic archpriest at Saint Paul University in Ottawa, Canada, who also serves as editor-in-chief of LOGOS, a journal of Eastern Christian studies, discusses the summit. Among his key arguments:
- Catholic/Orthodox unity is not some modern notion, since the leader of the Orthodox territory that included Russia came into union with Rome 600 years ago.
- Since all Orthodox churches are staging a grand council in June for the first time in 1,000 years, Moscow has a clear political incentive for using a platform with the pope to boost its internal standing.
- Many Russian Orthodox still have negative attitudes toward Catholics.
- The Russian Orthodox have a tight relationship with the Kremlin, and Putin’s global ambitions may help explain why the meeting is happening.
- While Pope Francis may know what he’s doing, Ukrainians have less confidence in the Vatican’s resolve.
The full text of Chirovsky’s essay follows:
As pope and Russian patriarch meet, Ukraine fears a ‘shaky’ Vatican – CRUX