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Posted by Lada on August 24, 2005 at 02:07:01:
In Reply to: Re: Of course the UGCC should be in Kyiv NOT posted by Greg on August 22, 2005 at 19:08:23:
The Pope does *not* actually govern the Ukrainian Catholic Church. The church is self-governing. It's been stated many times, for example, that the UGCC did not require anyone's permission to move its HQ. The UGCC is in communion with Rome, but it's not ruled by it. That's an extremely important distinction. The UGCC at times sets aside its own goals to further the (ephemeral) cause of Christian unity, but the Pope doesn’t actually dictate to it.
Acts 1:6-8: They therefore who were coming together, asked him, saying: Lord wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? But he said to them: It is not for you to know the time or moments, which the Father hath put in his own power: But you shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria and even to the uttermost part of the earth.
Beware of spiritual nationalism. The apostles also had to learn to curb their own nationalistic impulses. I think that one of the failings of the Orthodox churches it that they fail to curb theirs. They are handmaids of the state, which are inherently interested in accumulating power, and lose sight of the Christian love they should bear for others. Nearly all national Orthodox churches use their political clout to discriminate against non-members, but no one is guiltier of this than the Russian Orthodox Church. The fact that the major patriarchs function in extremely adverse religious circumstances means, unfortunately, that they’re being held hostage by an imperialistic, almost Stalinist ROC.
The Catholic Church has outgrown this mentality, and it functions well enough as a union of 22 churches using eight different rites, even if the non-Latins are still treated like poor relations. A church that unites people from, say, the Philippines, Brazil, Canada, Belgium, Hungary, Uganda, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, even Tibet is the closest thing the world has to a universal church, and it is beginning to recognize that part of its universality stems from the fact that it embraces all the traditional liturgical rites, Byzantine included. The unfortunate tendency toward Latinization is being reversed. It’s also reassuring to see a German pope struggling to greet Ukrainian pilgrims in their own language, as he does on those rare occasions when Ukrainians actually make it to Rome. (I’m not holding my breath waiting for Alexy II to speak Ukrainian.)
But it’s still elbow-deep in politics. (I can just hear the cardinal-diplomats at the Vatican: Why not sacrifice Taiwan for the sake of mainland China?) Sure, I think that the Catholic Church has let its Ukrainian faithful down on many occasions, in the name of I’m not sure what. Union with the Russian Orthodox? Oh, please. “Dialogue” is pointless when one of the parties isn’t genuinely interested in it. So I often wonder, what do Ukrainians benefit from being in union with Rome if Rome doesn’t stand up for them? (Rome does stand up for them, but not nearly to the extent that it ought.) In my frustration I have been guilty of wanting to spit on the world’s churches and ally myself with an autocephalous Ukrainian church “without Greeks, Romans or Muscovites.” But make no mistake, this is a huge sin of pride.
Deuteronomy 6:4-5: Hear, O Israel, the Lord Our God is one Lord. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with they whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole strength.
There are many false gods out there, but politics is one of the most dangerous. Among other things it leads us to create churches in our own image rather than God’s. You ask, “If Ukrainians can govern themselves politically, then why not ecclesiastically?” It is an extremely seductive prospect, and when most people are asked to choose between church and country, they choose country. The English tried this, and we see the folly of it now. A church was created to suit the sexual and hereditary demands of a wilful monarch, and nearly 500 years later little has changed. The future head of the Church of England is an adulterer married outside the very Church he is destined to head, while the Anglican Communion itself is threatening to implode. To reject this model is not unpatriotic. No one in his right mind would accuse Thomas More of not loving England, yet he recognized that fidelity to God outweighed fidelity to king. Hence, “the King’s good servant, but God’s first.” Likewise, the Catholics of western Ukraine could hardly be accused of lacking patriotism. Still, life is short and the afterlife is eternal, so the only safe course is to err on the side of God. Exodus 20:2-3: I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt not have strange gods before me
John 17:21-22: That they all may be one, as thou, Father, in me, and I in thee; that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou hast given me, I have given to them; that they may be one, as we also are one.
All Christians have a profound duty to this vision, and we Ukrainians must never lose sight of the ultimate goal: a unified Ukrainian church. But it must never be a completely unaffiliated, autocephalous entity. That would simply turn us into a very large groups of schismatics, and that’s obviously not what Jesus wanted. It must be a church in full union with both the Orthodox and Catholic churches. If anyone is capable of this, Ukrainians are. Remember that Prince Danylo was crowned by a papal legate 199 years after the Great Schism supposedly cut Ukrainians off from Rome. Remember that one of the most enthusiastic proponents of the Union of Florence was Metropolitan Isidore of Kiev. Remember the Unions of Brest and Uzhhorod, which have, at the very least, proven that’s it’s possible to be both Byzantine and Catholic. Finally, look at the response of the UOC-KP and UAOC to the UGCC’s new address. They’ve proven that it’s possible to be Orthodox without hating Rome. I defy anyone to show me how the presence of the UGCC in Kiev does any damage to ecumenism between parties that are genuinely interested in it. (The hysterical response of the UOC-MP and its puppet hardly counts since they’re not remotely interested in dialogue and reconciliation.) Obviously, Ukrainians will need several generations to rid themselves of residual anti-Catholic and anti-Orthodox prejudice, but it is our solemn duty to strive for full, canonical unity among ourselves and with all Christians. Ut unum sint.