(Reuters) - A senior leader of the Russian Orthodox Church on Monday called on the Vatican to do more to resolve outstanding disputes so that a meeting between Pope Benedict and the Russian Patriarch could take place.Read the rest here.
In an exclusive interview with Reuters, Russian Orthodox Metropolitan (Archbishop) Hilarion, urged the Vatican to show "some signs" of readiness to resolve a decades-long conflict between Orthodox and Catholics in Ukraine that has been blocking a meeting of the two world religious leaders.
An unprecedented meeting between Benedict and Patriarch Kirill could begin to heal the 1,000-year-old rift between the Western and Eastern branches of Christianity, which split in the Great Schism of 1054.
I have said it before, here and elsewhere, but it bears repeating. I may be Orthodox, but if the home team is wrong, it's wrong. The Russian Church is skating on very thin moral ice when the subject is the forced unification of the Ukrainian Greek Rite Catholics in the late 1940's. No reputable historian accepts the claim that it was voluntary and the transfer of church buildings and other property was little more than theft. Let's grow up, admit the obvious and try to reach an amicable settlement.
My above opinion is utterly uninfluenced by the much discussed, but never materializing, Pope-Patriarch summit. I could care less about that. Bickering over real estate is not what divides Rome from the Orthodox Church, and any settlement will not end in restored communion. Nor will any meeting between Benedict XVI and Patriarch Kyril. We need to settle the dispute with the Ukrainian Catholics because they were the victim of a great injustice and right now the Russian Church is perpetuating that situation unnecessarily.
In short we need to do this because it's the right thing to do irrespective of future relations with Rome.
I couldn’t agree with you more; this kind of behavior is what gives Christians a bad name. Too bad that the Russian Church won’t be honest about “Uncle Joe” and his property grab, but in my experience they have neatly swept under the carpet much of the Communist era.
ReplyDeleteIn a similar manner the Ukrainian Catholics should be honest about how Rome sold them down the river during the Communist era as well. In fact, both groups have blood on their hands. This “meeting” so desired by Rome with the Russian Patriarch… it all smoke and mirrors. No one Patriarch speaks for the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Orthodox Church. In reflection is the Patriarch of Moscow & all Russia the only Orthodox Patriarch that hasn’t met recently with the Bishop of Rome, hum?
Father Yohannes
Orthodox Priest-Monk
There are many essays in Russian and Ukrainian that explain the Russian Orthodox perspective on these matters, and detailing their own grievances. But almost nothing has been translated into English or other Western languages, giving non-Slavs only one side of the story.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget that the Polish Catholics also took part in the confiscations.
ReplyDeleteSee this article by Archmandrite Serge Keleher:
http://www.melkite.com/keleher.html
"In 1946, Poland expelled the Greek-Catholic Bishop of Peremyshl’ and his auxiliary bishop to the Soviet Union, where they soon died in prison. In 1947, the Polish government deprived the Greek-Catholic Church of its legal existence, and deported all the Greek-Catholics from south-eastern Poland, either to the Soviet Union or to the ‘western lands’ newly acquired from Germany - where the Roman Catholic authorities refused to allow any Greek-Catholic pastoral service. In the regions from which the Greek-Catholics had been expelled, the Polish Roman Catholics appropriated the Greek-Catholic church buildings, rectories, monasteries, convents, seminary and cathedrals."
How many Orthodox churches were taken, and how many Orthodox were forcibly converted, at the formation of the Unia?
ReplyDeleteMultiple wrongs do not make a right. One would like to think we might apply the Gospel to such matters: But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you (Lk 6:27); And if a man will contend with thee in judgment, and take away thy coat, let go thy cloak also unto him (Mt 5:40.
ReplyDeleteWouldn't it be awesome if we Orthodox, who claim (rightly) to be the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church founded by Christ, could act like our Founder?
We rightly decry the persecution of Holy Orthodoxy by the Marxist-Leninist state; can we not extend to others the benefits of its downfall? Or will we be like the wicked servant of Mt 18:23-25?
It is a worthy goal to have the Unia return to Orthodoxy, given the role politics played in its creation. But that goal cannot be served by pride or greediness. If we can't, or won't behave differently from the Roman methodology that we condemn, how can the faithful of the Unia possibly see anything more authentic or loving in us that might draw them back?
Schema-monk Theodore
Pope St. Proskomen, you're right once again.
ReplyDeleteThe Unia issue will have to be worked out comprehensively, or else nothing will have been accomplished.
Thank you for your honesty and candor on this topic, which, alas, is not always consistently to be found among some Orthodox, Russians especially. One other recent exception is the Russian Orthodox theologian Antoine Arjakovsky, in his new book *En Attendant le Concile de l'Église Orthodoxe* in which he admits to Russian collusion in the pseudo-synod of Lviv of 1946 and calls for Ukrainian-Russian and Catholic-Orthodox reconciliation on this difficult question. (Further details on Arjakovsky's book may be found at http://easternchristianbooks.blogspot.com/2011/03/great-and-holy-council-draws-nigh.html)
ReplyDeleteFr. Theodore, I did not say two wrongs would make a right. However, to me, it makes sense to take a step back and look at the whole picture.
ReplyDeleteEven if it's true that Orthodox were the sole aggressors in these particular unpleasant events, the whole history of the conflict must be taken into account.
Thank you, John. I agree that Rome too owes some explanations for wrongs committed in the past, but nothing grates on me more than Anglo-American converts who play at being ethnic defenders. I appreciate your magnanimous stance.
ReplyDeletenothing grates on me more than Anglo-American converts who play at being ethnic defenders
ReplyDeleteI'm delighted to see that my small efforts have been paying dividends. I try to make sure that the enquirers are familiar with the comprehensive nature of traditional Orthodox concerns, which you trivialize as "ethnic".
I hope that all of us Orthodox--cradles and converts--continue to grate the Hell out of you.
Vis, my comments were not directed at you as I really only know you through blog commenting. My apologies for the offence.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do stand by what I say.