Russian Orthodox official again named Eastern-rite Catholics obstacles to ecumenical unity

Speaking on September 16 at a meeting of a joint Catholic-Orthodox theological commission, the chief ecumenical officer of the Russian Orthodox Church said that the activity of the "Uniates" - the Eastern churches in communion with Rome - is the greatest obstacle to greater unity between Catholics and Orthodox.

On September 19, 2016, Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev repeated his alligations against Greek Catholics during his meeting withCardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity. He expressed his "profound concern over hostile statements and actions recently made with regard to the Moscow Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church by leaders of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. He also expressed the conviction that the issue of unia needs to be revisited by the Joint Commission for Orthodox-Catholic Dialogue", DECR Communication Service mentions.

The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church is represented at the meeting with Rev Ivan Dacko, president of the Ecumenical Institute of the Ukrainian Catholic University.