Catholic and Orthodox in Ukraine: The Rest of the Story

By Dr. Jeff Mirus ( bio - articles - email ) | Jun 17, 2014

You’ll recall (of course you will) that on June 4th, I pointed out the remarkably self-serving statements of the Russian Orthodox Church regarding the situation in the Ukraine. The chairman of that church’s Department of External Church Relations praised the Ukrainian Orthodox Church for trying to unite all parties and blamed Ukrainian Catholics for partisanship and divisiveness.

I admit that (in a gentlemanly way) I snorted in derision.

Now we find Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, the retired Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, emphasizing how much ecumenical relations between the Catholics and the Orthodox in the Ukraine have improved in the wake of the Russian invasion. The Ukrainian Orthodox have usually followed the Russian Orthodox lead in hostility to the Catholics, he said, but in this case the partiality of the Russian Orthodox to Russian control has given the Ukrainian Orthodox a reason to balk.

You will recall (yes, I know you will) that I claimed Russian Orthodox territorialism typically skewed that Church’s Christian commitments. Perhaps there is a silver lining in the cloud.