Vatican City, Jul 6, 2018 / 10:41 am (CNA/EWTN News).- According to a release from the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, during a meeting with the Major Archbishop of Kyiv-Halyč on Tuesday, Pope Francis commended the Church for its witness to Christian unity.
The Pope thanked the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church for its martyrdom “as a confession of the Christian Faith and a testimony that the Successor of Peter the Apostle has a special mission of service to Cristian unity,” according to a statement from the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church.
The Vatican announced that Pope Francis met with Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk July 3 at the Vatican’s Santa Marta guesthouse, but did not give details of their encounter.
The meeting was requested by Archbishop Shevchuk to commemorate “the 1030th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus’-Ukraine.”
The event being celebrated was the 988 baptism of Vladimir (Volodymyr) the Great, Grand Prince of Kiev, which resulted in the Christianization of Kievan Rus’, a state whose heritage Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus all claim.
Archbishop Shevchuk told Francis that the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church’s path was a “testimony of the unity that Christ’s Church enjoyed in the First Millennium, at the time of the Baptism of Saint Volodymyr, and a particular witness of martyrs and confessors for Church unity, – in the 20th century.”
“Our Church’s path of martyrdom consists in a recognition of the particular mission of the Successors of the Apostle Peter as visible servants of the unity of Christ’s Church,” he said.
The Major Archbishop discussed the relationship of his Church to the other Churches rooted in the Christianization of Kievan Rus’, including the Russian Orthodox Church and several Orthodox Churches in Ukraine.
In addition to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), there are two other Orthodox Churches which have claimed autocephaly, but are not recognized by other Orthodox Churches: the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Kyiv Patriarchate) and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church.
These two latter Churches have asked the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew for recognition as autocephalous Churches, in a request forwarded by Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko and supported by the nation’s parliament.
Archbishop Shevchuk called the division among Orthodox Churches in Ukraine a painful reality, and recounted “shameful incidents where the Holy Mysteries (Sacraments), in particular the Mystery of Holy Baptism, had been used to humiliate or deny the Christian identity of faithful belonging to certain denominations.”
He said that the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church looks “positively upon the efforts to overcome the divisions in Ukrainian Orthodoxy, according to the ancient principal salus animarum lex suprema est (the salvation of souls is the highest law). At the same time, we regard these processes as internal Orthodox matters and, – on no account, – do we ever interfere in them or take part in them. We believe that the civil authority must ensure that conditions exist that allow for the freedom of all churches, in our country. We also believe that is unacceptable for the state, – to treat any Church as an official state church.”
The overtures of the UOC-KP and UAOC to the Ecumenical Patriarch have been denounced by the Russian Orthodox. Vatican Insider has reported that Metropolitan Hilarion, spokesman for the Moscow Patriarchate, told the Greek Orthodox website Romfea that “blood will be shed” if the Ukrainian Churches are granted autocephaly.
Metropolitan Hilarion claimed there are “three forces” behind the push for autocephaly in Ukraine: Ukrainian political leadership, the UOC-KP itself, and the “uniates” of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, each of which acts “for its own benefit.”
During his meeting with Pope Francis, Archbishop Shevchuk touched upon this “uniatism”, saying the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church rejects “uniatism” as a method for achieving Church unity, since it has received the Balamand declaration.
That 1993 declaration of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue Between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church said that seeking the conversion of persons from one Church to the other, which it said has been called “uniatism”, cannot be accepted as a model to follow or as a model for the unity sought by the Churches.
Archbishop Shevchuk stated to Pope Francis that “it is obvious that the ultimate act of uniatism, in the 20th century, was the 1946 Lviv pseudo-council.”
The 1946 Synod of Lviv was the means by which the Soviet Union acted to suppress the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church and forcibly to absorb it into the Russian Orthodox Church.
“Accusations of uniatism directed at the UGCC, due of its active ecumenical position and its invitation to seek paths of unity with the Orthodox, are nothing less than a manipulation of the facts. The Eastern Catholic Churches, in and of themselves, are not ‘some sort of method,’ but are living members of Christ’s Church, which not only have the right to exist but are also called to engage in mission and in the work of evangelization.”
The release from the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church said Pope Francis assured the Church of his support and agreed that accusations of uniatism against it are groundless.
“He also thanked the UGCC for its active participation in rebuilding Ukrainian society based on the principles of Catholic Social teaching … He thanked the Church for its promotion of authentic Christian patriotism which, under no circumstances, should be used or manipulated for particular ecclesiastical or ideological goals,” according to the statement.
“The Holy Father also expressed his closeness to the Ukrainian nation which, as the victim of unjust aggression, is living through a painful period of its history.”
The statement added that Francis drew attention to the importance of Polish-Ukrainian reconciliation, and said he would also remember Ukraine during his July 7 ecumenical prayer for peace in the Middle East which will be held in Bari.
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Well, here we go again. The pope is the victim again… (yawn how many times will this work?)
Why give interview with someone who keeps misquoting you? or does he?
I expect there will be those who defend him today with that “big bad anti-Francis conspiracy” line… who tomorrow will be saying … ‘you know what… there is no hell, Francis is right’
Prayer For The Silence of A Pope.
Dear loving and merciful Father,
We pray for your Son’s earthly guardian
of the deposit of faith.
Grant to your humble servant N. __________
that he may reserve and decline both speech and writing so as to safeguard your tradition that you so lovingly have bestowed on us for thousands years.
May you grant our Vicar the peace and courage needed for earthly solitude and contemplation.
Eternal and loving giver of all that is good, we beseech thee, to guide Him in his duties in living the gospel without words.
We ask this thru Christ Our Lord.
Amen
The fact that the Pontiff continues to put himself in this position proves, yet again, that not all members of the Society of Jesus are intellectuals.
But does he believe hell is empty since he loves a statue in Europe that has a half smiling Christ carrying Judas on his shoulder. Christ on the other hand said to His Father in prayer, ” Those whom you gave me I guarded and not one of them perished but the son of perdition that the scriptures might be fulfilled.” Christ said this PRIOR to Judas completing the betrayal sin yet Christ used the past tense…”perished”. Justin Martyr said past tense prophecy is unchangeable as in Isaiah 53:5…” But he WAS wounded for our inequities, bruised for our sins..”….said in the past tense hundreds of years prior to Christ suffering. Thus on the Judas issue, Christ always had gravitas whereas Francis has a falsely hopeful levity. Hell is not real if no one is there. Hundreds of thousands of criminals have died trying to kill law enforcement throughout history. It is bizarre to think they all had sanctifying grace and thus reached purgatory…as they died trying to murder law enforcement. Many have been killed in the act of adultery. Again…purgatory is a reward not a default setting for all idiots. I Peter says…” if the just man will scarcely be saved, where will the impious and the sinner appear?”. I think Francis thinks hell is empty most of the time and in a week that forces him into gravitas, he becomes orthodox. It varies. He’s mercurial. Christ was constant….He had the constantia which the Stoics admired.
“He had the constancy…”
Constantia is a woman’s first name. Auto spell check has a way of frustrating even the most conscientious typists.
That sounds like what they used to call a “non-denial denail”
they didn’t say that he didn’t say it, they just said we didn’t say that he said it. OK, so…. What does the pope believe… Who knows? with Francis anything is possible. Don’t hold your breath for the pope to say that there is a hell and sinners are punished there though, because it is soooooooooo beneath him to respond to petty little things like this.