Construction Resolves M.P. Orthodox/Catholic Tensions in western Ukraine

Marko Putko, head of the Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Administration's Committee on Religious Matters, reports that there are no disputes between UGCC and UOC-MP faithful in the Ivano-Frankivsk region. There were disagreements over property issues at the beginning of the 1990s but they were always limited to a parish by parish basis, never becoming a bigger issue. Putko notes that Ivano-Frankivsk is the Ukrainian region with the smallest number of parishes of the UOC-MP: it has 24. There are a total of 450 Orthodox communities in Ivano-Frankivsk: in addition to the UOC-MP parishes there are 308 parishes of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate (UOC-KP) and 118 parishes of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC). The UGCC in Ivano-Frankivsk has 682 parishes. The situation in the Ternopil region is similar. Ivan Palianytsia, head of the Ternopil Regional Administration’s Committee on Religious Matters, mentioned one village where there were tensions a few years ago between Greek Catholics and MP Orthodox regarding a church building. But the tensions have been resolved because the Greek Catholics decided to build a chapel for themselves. The Ternopil region, as opposed to the Ivan-Frankivsk and Lviv regions, has a fairly large number of UOC-MP communities; they are located in its northern districts. In the Ternopil region there are 763 Greek Catholic and 601 Orthodox communities, with 117 UOC-MP, 200 UOC-KP and 284 UAOC. Both of the government officials commented that the religious situation in their regions has not been aggravated by Pope John Paul II's visit to Ukraine from June 23 to 27. In fact, the majority of people have expressed a lively interest in the upcoming visit, though, understandably, there is more interest among Catholics than among Orthodox.

The Moscow Patriarchate hierarchs of these regions have a similar assessment of the situation. Archbishop Serhii of the Ternopil region (UOC-MP) says that the time of disputes has already passed. "Only our parishes in Volyn [in the northern part of Ternopil] are left, and they are making no claims to anything and no one has any claims on them." He does not see any aggression from the Greek Catholic side. "The Church lives its life and each community lives its own life. And, of course, having contact with one another, people sometimes get into arguments, on a purely human level. Right now we have a situation which is difficult to characterize. There seems to be calm, but it is a relative calm." Bishop Mykolai of Ivano-Frankivsk (UOC-MP) gives a similar assessment. In his opinion, there are no disputes "because there is nothing to reclaim any more": property has changed hands and there is now a stable situation.

Emphasizing that the exclusive cause of the arguments between denominations was property concerns, the Bishop did not dismiss the possibility of new disagreements arising. Both hierarchs say that their faithful seem indifferent to the Papal Visit and probably will not take part in the events that will be associated with it. The Ivano-Frankivsk and Ternopil regions are in western Ukraine, the territory where Moscow Patriarch Alexis II has claimed "there is a Greek Catholic war ... against Orthodox believers." (As reported in Tass on June 4.) The situation between M.P. Orthodox and Greek Catholics in Lviv, the third of the three regions of western Ukraine, is likewise calm. (See RISU's article of June 12 for details about the situation in Lviv.) This is the second article in RISU's continuing series: "Resolving Tensions between Orthodox and Catholics in western Ukraine."