RFE/RL Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine Report Vol. 3, No. 43: excerpts
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Subject: RFE/RL Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine Report Vol. 3, No. 43: excerpts
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
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RFE/RL Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine Report Vol. 3, No. 43:
excerpts
RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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RFE/RL Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine Report
Vol. 3, No. 43, 13 November 2001
A Survey of Developments in Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine by the
Regional Specialists of RFE/RL's Newsline Team
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UKRAINE
KYIV PATRIARCH WARNS AGAINST LIQUIDATION OF INDEPENDENT ORTHODOX
CHURCH.
Patriarch Filaret, the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Kyiv
Patriarchate), told journalists on 6 November that the government is
preparing the liquidation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church's
autocephalous status. Patriarch Filaret said he drew this conclusion
after reading a government document dated 24 October 2001, which is a
plan for a promotional action called "The Year of Ukraine in Russia."
According to Filaret, the document envisages such measures as the
building of a Ukrainian-Russian church, the organization of an
assembly of Ukrainian and Russian hierarchs, and the Moscow
Patriarchate's offer of autonomous status to the Ukrainian Orthodox
Church. "They want to forcibly drive us into [mere] autonomy and
subordinate us to Moscow Patriarch [Aleksii II]," STB television
quoted Filaret as saying.
Patriarch Filaret also said none of the Kyiv Patriarchate was
invited to talks on the status of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church that
took place in Zurich on 29-30 October. He added that the government
was represented at those talks by State Committee for Religious
Affairs head Viktor Bondarenko, who visited Moscow and Constantinople
before going to Zurich. "We do not know what was discussed at those
talks, but the fact that they were held behind our back testifies that
some murky business is being done," Interfax quoted Patriarch
=46ilaret as saying.
According to the Kyiv Patriarch, that "murky business" may
relate to the creation of two autonomous Orthodox churches in Ukraine:
one of them subordinated to the Moscow Patriarchate (some 9,000
Ukrainian Orthodox parishes which are currently under the jurisdiction
of the Moscow Patriarchate), the other under the Constantinople
Patriarchate (some 1,000 parishes, mostly in western Ukraine, which
belong to the third major Orthodox organization in Ukraine -- the
Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church). Filaret did not say what
center -- Moscow or Constantinople -- would take charge of some 3,000
parishes belonging currently to the church he leads.
Filaret said that Constantinople Patriarch Bartholomew I, who
has repeatedly declared his readiness to help Ukraine's three Orthodox
churches to unite, is now being pressured by Moscow. "We do not know
whether he [Bartholomew I] will withstand this pressure or agree to
autonomy of the Ukrainian Church," Filaret noted. According to
Filaret, establishing two autonomous Orthodox churches in Ukraine
would be tantamount to the situation in which the country "does not
have its own national church that defends the interests of the state."
And he added: "This would be a prelude to a division of Ukraine
itself."
The government denied it has made any decisions regarding the
country's Orthodox churches. "Certain media have recently freely
interpreted one internal working document of the Cabinet of Ministers'
secretariat, which is not of a normative character and which cannot be
regarded as a document explaining the government position. This brings
about undesirable tension in society," the government said in a
statement.
In addition, Deputy Premier Volodymyr Seminozhenko assured the
public and Filaret that the government is not seeking autonomy for the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate). "Of course, we would
like to have a single Orthodox Church, which would eliminate a lot of
currently existing problems," Seminozhenko said, but added that "no
artificial intervention from the outside is able to help resolve such
a tricky problem" as the current conflict between the Moscow
Patriarchate and the Kyiv Patriarchate over their Ukrainian flocks.
.............
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Copyright (c) 2001. RFE/RL, Inc. All rights reserved.
RFE/RL Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine Report is prepared by Jan
Maksymiuk on the basis of a variety of sources including reporting by
"RFE/RL Newsline" and RFE/RL's broadcast services. It is distributed
every Tuesday.
Direct comments to Jan Maksymiuk at [email protected].
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