(UOC) - On December 15, in the morning the representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox church were received by Ambassador extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine at the Holy See Izhevska T.I.. Archbishop Anthony granted her the order of "1020 years of the Baptism of Rus".
Thereafter the meeting of the delegation of the Ukrainian Orthodox church with the head of Pontifical Council for Promotion of the Christian Unity cardinal Walter Casper took place. Taking part in the meeting were the co-workers of the Council. In the course of the meeting some important issues were raised, in particular, the problem of schism in the Ukrainian Orthodoxy and of the Union. Cardinal Casper assured that the Roman-Catholic Church treats the union in terms of the Balamand statement; i.e. does not consider it the means for achievement of the Christian unity. He also emphasized that Rome recognized only one canonical Orthodox Church in Ukraine - the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, headed by His Beatitude Metropolitan Volodymyr of Kyiv and All Ukraine. The Roman See considers other Orthodox communities to be schismatic and is not in contact with them. He also assured that the Roman Church does not provide and would not provide support to those representatives of the non-canonical groupings which address her asking for help in performing worship in Italy and other traditionally Catholic countries.After the dinner, arranged by Cardinal Walter Casper for the Ukrainian guests, they set off for the Embassy of Ukraine in Italy. There they had a meeting with Ambassador Plenipotentiary and Extraordinary of Ukraine in Italy G.V. Chernyavskyi, who was granted the order of "1020 years of the Baptism of Kyivan Rus". They also discussed with him the perspectives of cooperation with the Embassy in patronizing the Ukrainian Orthodox diaspora.
Finally the representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church visited the orthodox parish of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in via Palestro, where they met with its rector archimandrite Pavlo (Fokin). In the morning, December 16, the Ukrainian delegation started out for Kyiv.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Ukrainian Orthodox representatives visit Rome
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Seems understandable enough. I don't think the canonical Orthodox world would appreciate Rome trying to put itself in the middle of a dispute between churches. It would just be spun as a Jesuit plot or used as an excuse to not continue dialogue on issues.
ReplyDeleteMatthias, thanks for commenting. For the benefit of all I'll clarify: The UOC-MP doesn't want credence given to the UAOC or the UOC-KP by Rome nor does it want Rome to give them canonical status by making them Greek Catholic. The Balamand Agreement made it clear that grabbing at each other's flock back and forth through proselytism caused pain and confusion for all and should be avoided. I know of at least one "non-canonical" bishop in Western Ukraine that requested to be accepted into the UGCC along with his flock, but was turned down based on this line of reasoning.
ReplyDeleteQuite a volatile area is Ukraine.
Well that's is a shame : ( . I don't know if I would object to allowing them to become Eastern Catholic though. If they aren't canonical Orthodox, then they don't have grace or real mysteries anyways according to the Cyprianic view ecclesiology so I don't see what the fuss is about. Its not like we are admitting that they are part of the Orthodox Church , it would seem on the contrary we are saying they aren't since we are not allowing the balmand agreement to apply to them : p. We wouldn't be "poaching" real Orthodox.
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