New Papal Posturing: How Many Ukrainian Cardinals Are There?

Today's Vatican media statement has released the details of the Pope's audience with the 44 new Cardinals.  The statement referred to the creation of "two Ukrainian Cardinals, one of the Latin and another of the Eastern Rite."   Before anyone begins to clap, let's have a look at what is happening here and on the eve of a Papal visit to Ukraine.

The "other" Cardinal of the Eastern Rite the Vatican release is referring to is, of course, Lubomyr Husar, the Primate of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church.

During the Consistory ceremonies in Rome, Husar was conspicuous in his Eastern robes which he did not change for the Roman church event.  He also raised eyebrows when he took his new Cardinal's ring and put it in his pocket.

As he explained to the press later, he wanted to affirm the strong Eastern Church identity of Ukrainian Catholics.  A self-confessed "trouble-maker," Husar also said that he won't be calling himself a "Patriarch."  He will seek Roman confirmation of his title, just as his predecessor, Josyf Cardinal Slipyj did until his death.

If this is the role that Husar is carving for himself so early in his new position, then he may prove to be a sharp thorn in the Vatican's side yet.

Finally, the Ukrainian Catholics have someone who will pay more than lip service to their legitimate greivances with respect to Rome's treatment of them in the interests of Ostpolitical Ecumenism.  Mnohaya Lita, Vladiko!  Good for you!

Speaking to the new Cardinals in Polish, the Pope singled out Marian Cardinal Jaworski of L'viv whose Latin Church, he said, survived the years of oppression and trial.

Speaking in Ukrainian, the Pope made the rather odd statement that Ukraine now had two Cardinals representing two Rites as a type of "pledge of future unity."

Given also the fact that both "Ukrainian" Cardinals will be working together to prepare for the Papal visit to Ukraine and that both will be welcoming him, side by side, there appears to be a new twist to Vatican chicanery with respect to the Ukrainian Church.

It is clear that the Vatican now sees the Ukrainian Catholic Church as only one of two "national" Catholic Churches in Ukraine. 

Somehow the Polish Primate for Roman Catholics in Ukraine, a number of whom are, admittedly, Ukrainian, has undergone a cultural transformation, as well as an hierarchical one.

I wonder if a Ukrainian Eastern Primate was in Poland, whether he would be referred to as "Polish?"  Just wondering . . .

What is the Vatican up to now?

A strong Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church in Ukraine has never been in the best political interests of the Vatican in the past, so there it shouldn't really come as a surprise that it isn't now.

Against the backdrop of Russian Orthodox-Roman Catholic relations, it would appear that the Vatican wishes to "de-ethnicize" the Catholic Church in Ukraine and, at the same time, weaken the position of the Greek Catholics within Ukraine itself.

The Vatican's new policy couldn't have come at a better time, what with a new Greek Catholic Primate who may become another Patriarch Josyf Slipyj in demanding new, but legitimate, rights for his Church!

The Vatican pulled this off with the only mechanism left at its disposal, that is, by creating Cardinals.

In receiving this "honour," the Vatican, at one and the same time, comes to exercise more political control over the Greek Catholics.

In one sweeping, well considered and powerful move, the Vatican has created a new set of ecclesiastical circumstances in Ukraine.

The "Ukrainian Catholic Church" is now a Church with two Rites, and comprised of Poles and Ukrainians, although it is not clear who is in the "driver's seat." 

That is no matter, for the position of the Greek Catholic Cardinal is effectively weakened since he is no longer the only Primate, but one of two representing Catholicism in Ukraine.

This new Ukrainian Catholic Church is run through a shared arrangement between two "Ukrainian" Cardinals.  It would seem that Cardinal Jaworski has a kind of dual citizenship since the Pope greeted him as both a Ukrainian and a Pole. 

The Vatican has cleverly confused the notions of citizenship and cultural identity to create this new situation which it now controls from Rome.

Two Rites in and two administrators of one Catholic Church in Ukraine - ouch!

This new situation will impact the Ukrainian Catholic Diaspora, to be sure.  It is used to seeing its Church and its cultural/national identity existing as one.  What is to be done now since the cultural and religious lines have been redrawn?

It is interesting that a Pope who is known for his own strong Polish nationalism would agree to do hit at the national/cultural foundations of Poland's neighbour nation.  Neighbours can be strange sometimes . . .

There is no doubt, of course, as others have observed, that this posturing is also playing up to Polish dreams of trying to hold on to what has been offensively termed, "Malopolska" or those parts of western Ukraine that Poland once held within its territorial fold.

Poland's history is an imperial one, like that of Russia.  It would be impossible not to assume that some of that imperial spirit and pride is alive in the Pope himself.

Why else would the Pope go to L'viv (L'vov?) to beatify a martyred bishop, Theodore Romzha of Mukachiv, who the Carpatho-Rusyns say belongs to them and not to the Ukrainian Catholic Church (Byzantine Rite, in this case)?

What is to be said about the beatification of the great Metropolitan Andrew Sheptytsky?  Have the cries of "traitor" against Sheptytsky, (who came from a mixed Polish-Ukrainian noble family), from chauvinistic circles in Poland become sensitive to the patriotic ears of the Polish Pontiff?

As for those Ukrainians who went to the Roman Catholic Church when the Soviets destroyed the Greek Catholic Church, could not the Vatican encourage them to return to their Rite in the spirit of the Second Vatican Council? 

Granted that services in the Byzantine Rite are longer, but, apart from some pain in the feet, would that have posed a terrible hardship on those concerned? Is this how the Vatican respects the martyred Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church?

Cardinal Husar has his work cut out for him.  In his efforts to defend his Flock, he might find that he may have to put more than his Cardinal's ring into his pocket.

See also: Ukrainian Catholics Have a New Leader

Dr. Alexander Roman  alex@unicorne.org