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Head of UGCC would like to meet with Patriarch Kirill to relieve tension



1 April 2011
In an interview to Left Bank, in response to the question whether he would like to meet with Patriarch Kirill and what he would say to him, the new head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Patriarch Sviatoslav, said that the best way to communicate is to be open in a brotherly dialogue, be open to the purification of our memory, to ask for forgiveness and to forgive.

"I would like very much to visit him and hold a personal meeting with him. I am convinced that in peacefully and openly communicating with each other, we can relieve any tension.

"Our church has voiced its readiness and openness for a dialogue ever since it emerged from the underground. I remember how Patriarch Ivan Lubachivskyi, who ordained me, after he moved to Ukraine, said: 'We forgive and ask for forgiveness.' It was a very deep call to reconciliation on his part. It was in the 1990s, at the time of the strongest confrontation, particularly in western Ukraine. There was the will for reconciliation on our part. Later, His Beatitude Lubomyr confirmed and repeated the same in the presence of Pope John Paul II who visited Ukraine.

"I think that today, we should heal the wounds rather than irritate and deepen them. One can heal the wounds of our memory only with mutual forgiveness. Therefore, as for any our brethren or neighbors who wounded us or were wounded by us, the best way to communicate is to be open in a brotherly dialogue, be open to the purification of our memory, to ask for forgiveness and to forgive," said Patriarch Sviatoslav.


http://risu.org.ua/en/index/all_news/confessional/interchurch_relations/41567/

I seem to remember Patriarch Miroslav-Ivan announcing his call for mutual forgiveness shortly before he left Rome for L'viv. He may of course have repeated it on various occasions. The Moscow Patriarchate never responded.

Father Serge

Of course the MP never responded. These our fellow Byzantine Christians still think the Pseudo-Synod of Lviv was perfectly justified. (if I'm mistaken about this I'd like to know how & why) If they regret anything about it, it's that their malevolence was eventually disclosed to the entire world and they lost face.

That being the case I'd give Patriarch Sviatoslav's fraternal overtures toward the MP a snowball's chance in hell.

Now please don't nobody go complaining to me that I'm unfairly knockin' the MP. As aware as I am of the MP's failures, it's NOWHERE close to my awareness of the historical evils perpetrated in the Name of Christ by my fellow Catholics

Have faith dear brother!
Perhaps Patriarch Kiril will see himself as a "father figure" to our much younger Patriarch Sviatoslav and with the workings of the Holy Spirit all things are possible.

You may be right.I sure hope so. I'd like all this stuff to turn out right one of these days. I'd prefer reconciliation and the establishment of mutually cooperative & cordial relations between the UGCC & the MP.

For better or for worse, however, the fact remains that I am an unreformed sceptic. And that's why I find your hopeful & positive suggestion that His Beatitude Patriarch Kiril regard himself as a father figure toward Patriarch Sviatoslav to be a downright spooky thought indeed.

"spooky" as in wary or "spooky" as in frightening???

The suggestion that Patriarch Cyril of Moscow would see himself as a father figure to Patriarch Sviatoslav of Kyiv-Halych and All Rus is not merely"spooky", it is downright bizarre! Fortunately, it is about as likely as a holiday trip to the Land of Oz.

Father Serge

I suppose everything is possible. Let's see if Patriarch Kirill is really "a rational, intelligent human being, and [...] not an enemy of Catholicism," as Father Archimandrite Robert (Taft) once claimed [natcath.org].

Due to the seniority in time and in rank between the Sees of Kiev and Moscow, I suppose that it is Patriarch Sviatoslav who shall act as father figure of Patriarch Kiril (but I'm not so sure that MP will accept this fact without any objection...)

Both.

Slava Isusu Khrestu

In recent articles on Zenit, it mentioned that Moscow Patriarchate are showing signs of wanting to have some sort of cooperation with Rome. I wonder at " whose" expense this will be?
A wild guess is the UGCC?

Kolya

It seems to me that the Russian Orthodox Church, and in particular Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev), is being extremely inconsistent. On the one hand Metropolitan Hilarion congratulates [albionfourthrome.blogspot.com] His Beatitude Sviatoslav on his election. On the other hand the same Metropolitan Hilarion "unhesitatingly" affirms [archden.org] that the 1946 L'viv Sobor was a "theologically legitimate ecclesial act."

Now, I am very happy to have good relations with the Moscow Patriarchate, but may I suggest that the time has arrived for the Russian Orthodox Church to get serious and not just pretend at ecumenism? They simply cannot hold such blatantly contradictory views and at the same time expect to be taken seriously by the Catholic Church.

Oh, well.
If Metropolitan Hilarion's (IMO) defective ecclesiology ever catches up with his verily superb musicology, it'll be a better world.

By the same token, if I ever catch up with what King Jesus expects outta ME, it'll also be a better world.

The part that baffles me is, if a Catholic cleric is received into Orthodoxy, there's a reasonable chance, depending on the place, that he'll be re-baptized and re-ordained. Now, if you regard a man as a non-Christian non-cleric, how can you get worked up if he calls himself Patriarch?