At the session of the Holy Synod of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church presided over by His Beatitude Metropolitan Volodymyr
of Kyiv and All Ukraine the Holy Synod heard the information of His Beatitude concerning the Address
of the Head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church of Byzantine rite His Beatitude
Cardinal Lubomir Husar
to the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox
Church (Letter № Р-08/214 of April 26, 2008). It was resolved to send the following answer
of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to Head of the Ukrainian
Catholic Church of Byzantine rite His Beatitude Cardinal Lubomir Husar: His Beatitude Cardinal Lubomir Husar
Head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church of
Byzantine rite
Your Beatitude!
In response
to your letter of April 26 of the present year where you suggest your own model
of reunification of the Ukrainian Churches who are direct or indirect
successors of the Baptism of Volodymyr, and express your own vision of the
further cooperation between our Churches, we inform You that the Ukrainian
Orthodox Church shares Your anxiety of the dissents in Ukraine between the full
blood brothers, who had confessed one
and the same faith in the past, but we cannot agree in all details with Your
view of restoration of the lost unity.
We believe that the questions you raised in Your letter fall into two groups,
i.e. a) the question of restoring of the unity between the Catholic and the
Orthodox Churches on the whole, b) the question of restoring of the unity
between the Orthodox and the Catholics of the Eastern rite in Ukraine. It follows from Your letter that the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church and other Orthodox confessions, and the Orthodox and
Catholic world on the whole are suggested the classical Uniate model of
restoring unity.
First of all we'd like to emphasize that such an approach does not correspond
the general context of the Orthodox-Catholic dialogue, the task of the latter
lies in finding mutual theological understanding of the dogmatic divergence between our Churches, such as the issue of
primacy in the Church, Filioque etc. Only
after elimination of these dogmatic differences restoration of unity of our
Churches is possible.
Among the issues discussed in the course of dialogue was the problem of ‘union'
as a means of achievement of the unity of the Catholics and the Orthodox. This
problem was considered by the Combined Commission on the Orthodox -Catholic
Dialogue in Freising (Germany,
1990) and in Balamandi (Lebanon,
1993). In
particular, the Balamandi document states that "the form of missionary
apostleship" called "Uniate", is no longer acceptable both as a method or a
model of unity our Churches are striving for."
Let's remind that this document was ratified both by the Orthodox as
well as by the Roman Catholic Church whose structural part is the Ukrainian
Greek Catholic Church that You head. In
view of the fact, we are surprised by your Uniate proposals which do not only
contradict the documents mentioned, but are also outdated since they were
rejected in the process of the Orthodox-Catholic dialogue.
We are also doubtful of the competence of the Church structure that You head to
make respective proposals, since the UGCC has no separate Statute and is guided
in the canonical sphere by the Code of Canon Law of the Eastern Churches,
according to which it is a part of the "Catholic Church ruled by the successor
of Apostle Peter and the bishops in communion with him" (Canon 7, paragraph
2). In compliance with it, as a
structural unit of the Catholic Church the UGCC has obviously no right to enter
into any canonical or liturgical communions, nonconforming with the canon
regulations of the Catholic Church. All
that makes us think that the ideas expressed in Your letter are devoid of any
ecclesiastic, canonical or liturgical grounds.
In view of that we believe that instead of creation of the new church unions,
conforming neither with Catholic nor Orthodox ecclesiology, it would be more
expedient to join our efforts for resolving the public and social problems, not
resorting to gambling in the ecclesiological sphere. For
the same reasons the Ukrainian Orthodox Church highly approved at the very
beginning the idea of creation of the Council of the Ukrainian Churches of St. Vladimir's
Baptism. It is a good sign that Your Church supports this initiative. We believe that such organization may be a
place of meeting and fruitful cooperation between our Churches.
At the same time, we take this opportunity to note once again that the direct
successor of the Baptism of St. Vladimir and of the ancient Metropolis of Kyiv
is the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. As for the UAOC and UOC-KP, they are the
newly created denominations that have lately seceded from the UOC. We recognize their and the UGCC's indirect
relation to the Baptism of St. Vladimir.
It is our earnest conviction that the united Orthodox Church of all the
orthodox people of Ukraine
may emerge only after the schisms are eliminated. Further on, taking into account the state of
the Orthodox-Catholic dialogue, in the process of which it was acknowledges by
both parties that the model of "Union" as a way of restoring unity was
unacceptable, we find it more commendable for the faithful of the UGCC,
identifying themselves with the Eastern Orthodoxy, to return to the Orthodoxy,
and for those holding dear their communion with the Church of Rome to turn to
her, preserving their eastern rite. All
the more so because after the Second Council of Vatican the Roman-Catholic
Church ahs expanded her view of the rite, to which testifies, for example, the
existence of the famous monasteries in Chevton (Belgium) and Bose (Italy) in
her fold, keeping to the eastern rite, but not separated into a special
canonical structure. Thus one of the significant obstacles on the
way to restoration of the ecumenical unity between the Orthodox and Roman
Catholic Church would be eliminated. We
understand that it is very difficult but in our case it depends only upon us -
the Orthodox and the Greek Catholics of Ukraine. At the same time, implementation of the model
You suggest depends on recognition of the "Ukrainian Local Church" by the rest
of the Churches (the Orthodox and Roman-Catholic), the possibility of which is
very doubtful, to put it mildly.
Greeting the initiative of creation of the Council of the Ukrainian Churches of
the Baptism of St. Vladimir, we pray that the Holy Spirit enlighten our hearts
and that the time come when we praise the Lord with "one mouth and one heart". Journal No.50 | | |
