The meeting of the Head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Metropolitan Epifaniy of Kyiv and All-Ukraine, with Pope Francis in the Vatican was an important step towards the continued recognition of the Local Ukrainian Church.
Andrii Yurash, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the Vatican, stated this on Ukrainian Radio, Ukrinform reports.
According to Yurash, the spiritual dialogue of the Western Catholic Church with the Churches of the Eastern tradition and joint prayer services is a form of diplomatic and mediative (if not canonical) recognition and support of said Churches.
“It was hard to imagine holding joint prayer services a few years ago. Today, they are attended by representatives of the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See and representatives of countries with which Ukrainian diplomacy does not always find common ground,” said Yurash.
Commenting on Moscow's sharp reaction to the meeting between Pope Francis and Epifaniy, which the Russian media have already dubbed “the Pope's betrayal of the fraternal dialogue with Moscow,” Yurash noted that this is the first meeting of the Local Church, recognized by the mother Church of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, with the head of the Western Church.
“Moscow has done and is doing everything possible to isolate the Local Ukrainian Church. It did everything possible to prevent the Unification Council, which took place on December 15, 2018. Then it did everything possible to keep other Local Orthodox Churches from canonically recognizing the Ukrainian Church. We know that today 4 Orthodox Churches have full liturgical canonical communion with the Ukrainian Church: The Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Patriarchate of Alexandria, the Archdiocese of Greece and the Archdiocese of Cyprus. And in this context, the meeting with the Roman Pontiff in the Vatican is a very important continuation of this line of recognition. Recognition not in the classical sense, when we talk about the Orthodox Churches, but recognition of the spiritual power with which the Church of the West cannot but communicate,” said the Ambassador of Ukraine to the Vatican.