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Pope expected to focus on moral issues during trip to Ukraine
KYIV, June 15 - Pope John Paul II will draw attention to moral issues and the need for Christian unity during his upcoming visit to Ukraine, the country's Greek Catholic leader said Friday.
"I think great stress will be placed on the moral foundations of human life at all levels, including personal, family, social and political ones," Archbishop Lubomyr Husar said at a news conference.
16.06.2001 (14:34) // Religious Information Service of Ukraine
Source: The Associated Press, June 15, 2001
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Husar met with the Pope on Thursday to discuss organizational issues and said John Paul was preparing thoroughly for the June 23-27 trip. Husar added that he felt a "special atmosphere of expectation" both in the Vatican and in Ukraine.
"His Holiness is creating great publicity for us," Husar said. "This visit puts us very significantly on the map of Europe and the whole world."
Husar is the leader of Ukraine's estimated five million Greek Catholics, who follow Orthodox Christian ritual but profess allegiance to the Pope. There are about 1 million Roman Catholics in Ukraine, too.
John Paul's visit to this predominantly Orthodox former Soviet republic has sparked much controversy.
The visit is strongly opposed by the Moscow-based Russian Orthodox Church, which has jurisdiction over the majority of Ukraine's Orthodox parishes and is feuding with a splinter, Kyiv-based Orthodox church as well as with Greek Catholics over property and believers.
Hundreds of the Moscow-based church's followers have been staging protests and marches against the visit in the capital Kyiv.
Husar said the Orthodox protests only served to publicize the pope's visit even more, drawing the attention of Kyiv residents to the event.
"As you know, publicity is half of a sale's success. By publicizing the event in Ukraine and outside, they draw attention to Ukraine's reality," Husar said.
The Russian Orthodox Church complains that Catholic missionaries are encroaching upon traditionally Orthodox countries and says the pope's visit would only serve to deepen religious tensions.
But Husar argued that John Paul's many trips around the world have brought only positive results and that Russian Orthodox fears were groundless.
"I greatly doubt His Holiness would have agreed to come had there been real proof that his visit would cause Christian feuds in Ukraine," Husar said.
About 1 million people are expected to attend papal masses in Kyiv and about 2 million in the western city of Lviv, a Catholic stronghold.
The Pope plans to meet with leaders of all of Ukraine's confessions, including non-Christians. In Lviv, he will also beatify 28 Greek Catholics, most of whom died at the hands of Communists and German Nazis, Husar said.
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