The Upcoming Papal Visit to Ukraine: Quo Vadis John Paul II?

Recently, a Vatican spokesman let the "cat out of the bag" yesterday and said that Pope John Paul II will definitely visit Ukraine in June 2001.

Since the Vatican has repeatedly said that no papal visit would take place to any country without the expressed invitation of its government and with the consent of its religious leaders, does this mean that both prerequisites have been achieved to everyone's satisfaction?

The Pope has already visited Orthodox Roumania and the papal visit there was quite successful.  Roumania and her Orthodox Church used the visit to underline that country's special cultural history and its closeness to that of Rome itself. 

Roumania does consider herself to be the actual descendants of the Romans.  The term "Roum" which she incorporates into her national title means precisely that, the Orthodox Romans and "Roumania" is the ancient name for the Roman Empire itself. 

The papal visit to Ukraine, however, is being seen as one of the more "difficult" and challenging visits by this pope throughout his lengthy pontificate.  There is very good reason to assume it will be.

Pope John Paul is the first Slavic pope ever.  He has done much to regenerate the Roman Catholic church in the latter part of the twentieth century.  He is, one could say without exaggeration, the church leader who put a final end to the Soviet empire. 

He is also a man of contradictions.  He is seen as both a traditionalist and someone who wants to make the church more contemporary.  A Pope of Rome entrusted with the care of his world-wide flock, he remains a strong Polish patriot who is very proud of his country's history and achievements. 

He has canonized and beatified more saints than any other pope in history.  Poland has quite a Choir of her own national saints, thanks to her native son at Rome.  His love for his country and his devotion to the Mother of God are definitely two of his most inspiring traits. 

Ukrainians and other Slavic peoples may take issue with him on religious and other matters.  But, as Slavs, Orthodox or Catholic, we understand him in a way the rest of the world does not, indeed cannot.

When the pope visits Ukraine, he will do so not only as a religious leader, but, first and foremost, as the head of the Vatican State which is run very much like a monarchy.  The three-tiered papal tiara is itself symbolic of the legal, legislative and executive levels of authority exercised by the pope, something which is also exercised by all other monarchs in the 25% of the countries of the world that have a monarchical form of government.

The papal visit will certainly attract the attention of the world to Ukraine and its current situation and problems.  Papal visits are always good for politics and tourism!

More importantly, however, will be the impact the pope will make on three religious fronts, an impact that will be felt for years after the pope leaves Ukraine.

The first front is that involving the Russian Orthodox church in Ukraine.

There is a long history between the Vatican and Orthodox Moscow in this regard.  Ecumenical relations between the two are currently undergoing tremendous tension.  One of the tension generators is the issue of who controls the Ukrainian Church.

The Russian Patriarch has been constantly complaining to the Vatican over the takeover of churches in western Ukraine by Greek Catholics, churches that have belonged to his jurisdiction since 1946.

A common complaint is about "acts of violence" against the Russians in western Ukraine by Greek Catholics.  The Vatican appears to accept the Russian complaints at face value (without asking the Greek Catholic hierarchy as to their veracity) and have sent their own people into Ukraine to investigate the allegations.  This has not sat very well with the Ukrainian Catholic hierarchy, among other things.

Of course, not all the churches in western Ukraine have gone from Russian hands into Ukrainian Catholic hands.  The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is making a surging appearance in areas that were formerly Greek Catholic strongholds.

The real thorn in the Russians' side, of course, is the Kyivan Patriarchate.   It is decried as "uncanonical" and Patriarch Filaret is maligned every which way, from now until May. 

The Moscow Patriarchate has good material reason to fear the eventual unification of the Ukrainian Orthodox in a single Kyivan Patriarchate.  That would mean that half of its church holdings would disappear.  But given what some commentators have noted is the brusque secular businesses the Patriarchate appears to be involved in, that shouldn't pose too much of a financial burden . . .

After reverencing the Ukrainian soil and receiving the customary bread and salt at the beginning of his visit, the pope will be accountable to both Ukrainian Catholics as well as Ukrainian Orthodox for his attitude toward the colonial Orthodox church tied to Moscow.  Should he refuse to speak to the Kyivan Patriarchate, that would definitely have unfortunate reverberations all around. 

The Kyivan Patriarch himself has never shown himself to be "anti-Catholic."  If anything, Patriarch Filaret is the consummate diplomat when it comes to ecumenical issues. 

He sees himself, and with much justification, in a good and strong relationship to the Ukrainian Catholics.  After all, their origins are also in Kyivan Christianity and many have returned back to their Mother Church since the Brest'-Litovsk in 1596 and they continue to return today . . .

It would be to the benefit of the Kyivan Patriarchate to establish good diplomatic relations with the Vatican, if the Vatican were willing, for obvious reasons.

St Olha the Great herself was erudite enough to seek ties to several national and ecclesial centres throughout her reign to avoid being unduly tied and beholden to any one. 

Unlike Moscow, Kyiv never experienced a certain paranoia of the West.  Ukrainian Orthodox Christians were often derided by the Russians as "heretics" for their western leanings in theology and ritual throughout the last four hundred years.

Then there is the even more touchy subject of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.  Grumblings from that quarter have been heard more and more with respect to the way it is being ignored by Rome. 

The canonization process of Metropolitan Andrew Sheptytsky has been stalled, doubtless for political reasons involving both Russian and Poland. 

Some overly zealous Ukrainian Catholic bishops, good servants of Rome no doubt, have suggested a "referendum" for Ukrainian Catholics to determine whether they should not just "dump" the Byzantine Rite in favour of the Latin Rite.  Now wouldn't that make some people happy?

At this point, Rome may feel there is actually a real possibility for a good portion of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Ukraine to say, "We've had enough."  

It would prove rather embarrassing for the Vatican to alienate this church, so martyred under the Soviets, as a result of "Ostpolitik."  Even more so, since the pope has always said he exempts his own native Poland from Vatican ecumenical exploits (read: "political chicanery") in Eastern Europe. 

The pope will have to offer some encouragement to the Ukrainian Catholics in Galicia that goes beyond mere words.  A Cardinal with the Congregation that deals with the causes of saints has said that the pope "likes to take a saint in his pocket" whenever he goes travelling. 

Hopefully, the pope will not use his Ukrainian trip to beatify an unknown nun, for example, as a way to make up for Andrew Sheptytsky! 

Given the fact that Roman Catholic ecumenical commissions have officially stated that the "Unions" of the past can no longer be considered models of church reunification (thankfully), what is the role of a Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church today?  Could the pope explain that one as well?

It was the famous evangelist Billy Graham who said that "when the pope speaks, the world listens."  

In June 2001, when the pope speaks in Kyiv and Lviv, the Ukrainian people, in Ukraine and throughout the Diaspora, will also be listening to Pope John Paul II - very closely!

Dr. Alexander Roman  alex@unicorne.org