Moscow Patriarchate Orthodox Protest Papal Visit
On May 31 about 300 Orthodox marched in Kyiv, protesting Pope John Paul II's upcoming visit to Ukraine. The protesters, among whom were 30 priests, and monks and laypeople from a number of dioceses of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), celebrated the traditional prayer service "for the defeat of a terrible enemy." After conducting the service near the walls of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) they marched past the President's Administration building to the Apostolic Nunciature in Kyiv.The protest was led by the radical groups Union of Orthodox Brotherhoods of Ukraine and the Slavic Party of Ukraine.
This was the second time such a protest has occurred. On May 24 about 250 members of the same groups made what they called "the way of the cross," processing from Kyiv’s Monastery of the Caves to the Verkhovna Rada building. They compared the Pope's visit with the fascist German attack against the Soviet Union, which will mark its 60th anniversary on June 22. As the protesters on May 24 picketed the Verkhovna Rada, they told reporters that they were coming from the Monastery of the Caves, where they had celebrated a liturgy on the occasion of the Christian feast of the Ascension. They sang the prayer, "Hail Mother of God, Virgin and God-bearer," and carried banners and icons. They also displayed signs with the slogans "Pope of Rome is persona non grata!" "Orthodox, unite! Ukraine-Belarus-Russia is the three-fold Rus," "Orthodox people of Ukraine protest against Pope's visit." On May 31 the Union of Orthodox Brotherhoods and the Slavic Party were joined in protest by the Union of Orthodox Citizens of Ukraine and by national deputies of the Ukrainian Parliament who support a reunion of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.
Some participants in the May 31 march also expressed their discontent with the Patriarchate of Constantinople's interference in the affairs of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, announcing "The Russian Orthodox Church is one and undivided over all its canonical territory and we don't need any autocephaly [self-government]." The present major divisions in Ukrainian Orthodoxy were caused by disagreements over the self-governing status of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate. The episcopate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate has emphasized repeatedly that it is not leading protests against the Papal Visit. An official representative of the UOC-MP stated that monks of Kyiv’s Monastery of the Caves, who are not very obedient to decisions of the hierarchy, were behind this. But a recent declaration of the Theological Commission of the UOC-MP indicates that the sentiment behind the protest has official support.
On May 18, Pope John Paul II's birthday, the commission passed a resolution repeating claims that the Catholic Church in Ukraine aggressively proselytizes and that Orthodox in Galicia (western Ukraine) are discriminated against. "Because of the existing situation," the resolution reads, "there is no doubt that, regardless of the status and the format of the visit, it will not heal the conflict. It will only make the conflict harsher, for it will not remove the problems which caused it in the first place." Because of this situation, the Theological Commission thinks a papal meeting with Metropolitan Volodymyr, the head of the UOC-MP, would be pointless. The commission's head is Archbishop Augustine of Lviv and Galicia (western Ukraine), who is also the spiritual director of the Union of Orthodox Brotherhoods of Ukraine. The organizers intend to continue their protest every Thursday until the Pope arrives on June 23. [Some of the information in this report was taken from Mir Religii and Interfax-Ukraina]
