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Pope prays trip to Ukraine will help unite Christians
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope John Paul II prayed that his June 23-27 trip to Ukraine would help bring all Christians closer to each other.Reciting the midday Angelus prayer June 17 with pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square, the pope said, ``I would like to entrust to Mary in a special way the upcoming pilgrimage I will make to Ukraine."
19.06.2001 (10:05) // Religious Information Service of Ukraine
Source: Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service, June 18, 2001
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``May this apostolic trip mark another step in the journey toward the hoped-for unity of all Christians,'' he said.
Although the Orthodox and Eastern Catholic churches are considered the ``traditional'' churches of Ukraine, for centuries the Roman Catholic Church and the world's major Protestant denominations also have had communities in the country.
Pope John Paul is scheduled to meet with the nation's Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders June 24 in Kyiv, although leaders of the largest Orthodox community, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is in union with the Russian Orthodox Church, have refused to participate.
Meanwhile, a Russian newspaper published a long interview with Cardinal Lubomyr Husar of Lviv, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, on the bonds between Eastern Catholics and the pope.
Union with the Roman Catholic Church is the main distinction between the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, which have the same liturgical and spiritual heritage.
Fides, the news agency of the Vatican Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, published a summary of the interview June 16.
Cardinal Husar told the Russian newspaper that Ukrainian Greek Catholics did not give up their Byzantine heritage when they confirmed their union with Rome in 1596.
The cardinal said the pope's role among Eastern Christians is more symbolic than juridical, ``to be lived as `communion' rather than `submission,''' Fides reported.
``We have always seen the role of the pope as that of St. Peter the Apostle: He has the authority to unite all Christians, but he does not command them. His power is to unite, not to command,'' Cardinal Husar said.
``I am here as a bishop in the name of Christ; I am not the servant of the pope,'' he said. ``The pope does not send me orders as he does to members of the church of Rome.
``We think and act according to our own tradition, for which the pope is the symbol of unity,'' the cardinal said.
Cardinal Husar said that ``harmony and unity with Rome'' are necessary for the ``ecclesial fullness'' and true orthodoxy of each church, a fullness that he hopes will one day embrace the Orthodox churches as well.
If Ukraine had just one church, faithful to its Byzantine heritage and in communion with the pope, he said, ``we would want to be part of this church which would rightly be called the One Ukrainian Orthodox Church.''
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