Ukraine's Greek Catholic archbishop has said the Pope's early July two-day meeting with his Church's bishops brought closer Vatican recognition of a Greek Catholic patriarchate, as well a papal visit to help stop the country's five-year war with Russian-backed separatists. The war has left more than 13,000 dead, according to the United Nations.
"We feel we are only working now to modify the consequences of this conflict, whereas we also need to counter its causes - when the Pope comes to Ukraine, it will contribute to ending the war", said Archbishop Svietoslav Shevchuk of Kiev-Halych. "But these two days weren't intended to provide ready-made decisions. They were days for study, analysis and thinking about further steps … to create structures and mechanisms for helping our Church prosper".
The 49-year-old archbishop was summing up the results of Francis's 5-6 July talks with bishops from the Greek Catholic Church's 34 dioceses in Ukraine and abroad, which combine loyalty to Rome with the eastern rite. In an interview on his Church's website, he said the meeting had also moved forward the expected beatification of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky (1865-1944), who headed the Church for four decades after 1901, and the official elevation of a Ukrainian Greek Catholic patriarchate.
"If our Church develops and flourishes, this isn't any threat to our Orthodox brothers, since we are not against anybody... While its roots are in Ukraine, the Greek Catholic Church is also a global Church which goes beyond the borders of a geographical territory," Archbishop Shevchuk said.
The Rome meeting took place a day after a 4 July Vatican visit by President Vladimir Putin and against the background of Russian-led opposition to the newly formed Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), which was established last January under a decree, or tomos, from the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew. Ukrainian newspapers claimed Mr Putin's Vatican visit had been misrepresented by Russian media, including the Interfax agency, which had reported that Pope Francis gave the president a special medal in recognition of his "work for peace".
In his interview, Archbishop Shevchuk said his Greek Catholic Church was ready to "co-operate where possible" with Orthodox leaders, but added that many Ukrainians could not understand "why the Orthodox are so divided among themselves". "By providing autocephaly, the Ecumenical Patriarchate tried to settle these differences, but we can see there's still a long way to go", the archbishop said.
Speaking on Monday to a Ukrainian news agency, Patriarch Bartholomew reiterated his view that Ukraine's Orthodox Christians "deserved self-rule" and said he believed the Orthodox church of Greece would become the first to recognise the new OCU.
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