Catholic World News News Feature

A Turn for the Worse? September 28, 2001

By Geraldine Fagan

"If the Vatican really does ignore the request to postpone the papal visit to Ukraine, things can't improve," Igor Vyzhanov told Keston News Service. The spokesman for Orthodox-Catholic relations at the Moscow Patriarchate's Department for External Church Relations added: "They are already getting worse and worse."

In recent years Pope John Paul II has made official visits to the predominantly Orthodox countries of Romania and Georgia, but only with the support of the local Orthodox hierarchy. In the case of the scheduled papal visit to Ukraine this June, such agreement has not been sought. In his January written request to Pope John Paul II to postpone the visit, Ukrainian Orthodox Metropolitan Volodymyr (Sabodan) argued that the visit could create the false impression that the conflict between Orthodox and Byzantine Catholics in West Ukraine had been resolved. Russian Orthodox Patriarch Aleksei II has repeatedly stated that this conflict, and proselytism by the Catholic Church in Russia, constitute the main obstacles to an improvement in Orthodox-Catholic relations.

However the chancellor of the Apostolic Administration for Catholics of European Russia, Father Igor Kovalevsky, questioned the validity of the arguments continually cited by the Russian Orthodox prelate. In Ukraine, in his view, the Moscow Patriarchate's concerns about jurisdiction and authority within the Orthodox hierarchy are really problems that should be addressed with the Ecumenical Patriarchate, rather than the Catholic Church. Moreover, he maintained, the Catholic Church was not engaging in proselytism in Russia. "We are just trying to function normally in Russia and provide for our minority here," he said. "If I proselytized in my parish then I would have three times as many parishioners."

The reasons for the Moscow Patriarchate's accusations, as understood by Russian Catholic clergy, are various. Father Kovalevsky cited a widespread "tribal" attitude toward religion, which suggests that "a Russian must be Orthodox; a Tatar, Muslim; a German, Lutheran." A Byzantine Catholic priest, Father Andrei Udovenko, rejected the associated view that a Russian Catholic must therefore be the result of proselytism:

If a person was baptized Orthodox but never went to church, then it is all right for him to become Catholic, and vice versa. If a person is truly Orthodox then he won't leave. Orthodoxy can't mean very much to him if he abandons it so readily.

Father Udovenko surmised that a weak Moscow Patriarchate fears a religious exodus in Russia similar to the one that occurred in West Ukraine in the early 1990s, when 600 Orthodox priests, all trained in Zagorsk, went over to the Ukrainian Catholic Church as soon as that Byzantine-rite body emerged from under the legal suppression imposed by the Communist regime. "They can't have been trained well in the traditions of Orthodoxy if they switched as soon as they had the chance," the Catholic priest argued. In his view, there was also a long-standing Orthodox prejudice against the Catholic Church--ironically encouraged by tsars of Protestant origin--as "politically Western, a tool of Western expansion." This was not in fact the case, he maintained, since there were religious divisions even within the Western orbit. He cited the tensions between Polish and Ukrainian Catholics, and the history of religious warfare in western Europe.

MOSCOW'S WORRIES

According to Igor Vyzhanov, however, Catholics misunderstand Orthodox objections. He showed Keston a recent report from the Rome-based Catholic news agency Zenit, which claimed that "the Russian Orthodox Church is opposed to the presence of the Eastern rite in Orthodox lands and to the return of their property expropriated under Stalin." Exclaimed Vyzhanov: "This is a lie!"

The Russian Orthodox official explained that the true concern of the Moscow Patriarchate regarding the religious tension in Ukraine is that "we are against the persecution of the Orthodox." He explained: "The situation in West Ukraine is like in Northern Ireland, where the Catholics are the minority." When told that during a recent visit to West Ukraine, Keston had been unable to find evidence of more than a handful of local conflicts between Catholic and Orthodox believers, Vyzhanov expressed genuine surprise. He remarked: "But our bishop there constantly tells us that there are problems."

Turning to the issue of proselytism in Russia, Keston asked how Catholics could be accused of enticing believers away from their traditional Orthodox ties, when the current numbers of Catholics in Russia represent only a fraction of the Catholic strength prior to the 1917 revolution. Vyzhanov pointed out that "the picture has completely changed since then," since the pre-revolutionary Russian empire included Lithuania, Belarus, and parts of Poland--all predominantly Catholic territories--while large numbers of ethnic German Catholics had emigrated from Russia since 1917, and the ethnic Poles remaining in the country are by now completely Russified. For all these reasons, he said, Catholic priests sent from Argentina or Mexico to reclaim old Catholic parishes in Russia today find 10 believers where there had once been 100.

However, Vyzhanov charged, those Catholic clergymen do their best to regain their old numerical strength. "They preach in the villages, force literature on people and soon they have their 100," he said. He singled out the presence of missionary orders for special criticism: "If they are missionaries then they must be coming here specifically to convert people."

When asked whether it was acceptable for a Mexican priest to press literature onto a Russian citizen with a Polish surname, but not one with a Russian surname, Vyzhanov deliberated for a few moments before replying that it was not. "It is still expansion," he reasoned. "Why does he think the supposed Poles are waiting for him? They would have invited him themselves."

On the other hand, Vyzhanov did not equate the Catholic Church with the influence of the West, and he contrasted the Latin with the northern or Germanic Catholic tradition. "Here [in Russia] they talk about the West as if it were a homogenous unit, but England is completely different from Italy," he observed. "We don't have concrete problems with Catholics in Germany." When Keston suggested to Vyzhanov that it was German Catholic foundations--not the Vatican--that had funded the construction of the many new Byzantine Catholic churches in West Ukraine, he appeared unconcerned. "Well, let them build, that's their business," he said.

The Moscow Patriarchate, maintained Vyzhanov, in no way wishes to claim "that a Russian must be Orthodox." Rather, he said, "it is a question of jurisdiction." He explained that behind the accusations of proselytism--but never openly discussed, because of the absence of theological dialogue between the two churches--there lies the theological question of the primacy of the pope:

Rome is a local Church, but it is set up higher--the Vatican considers the whole world its canonical territory. To us this position is unacceptable. The pope should just be the Bishop of Rome.

An improvement in Orthodox-Catholic relations, Vyzhanov maintained, would manifest itself in productive discussions of such theological concerns.

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No Room in Sevastopol

Catholics--of both Latin and Ukrainian rites--have been frustrated in their efforts to recover old parish churches or build new ones.

By Anna Vassilyeva

In the weeks leading up to the visit to Ukraine by Pope John Paul II, a Byzantine Catholic community in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol is continuing to experience opposition from the Orthodox Church, which has prevented it from building a church to serve its 300-strong community.

Despite having obtained registration a decade ago, the Byzantine Catholics' persistent attempts to obtain a plot of land in central Sevastopol for their own church have brought them nowhere. The city's development plan, approved by the city council in 1995, includes room for up to 99 Orthodox churches, but leaves no space for a Byzantine Catholic church.

It was not clear whether the refusal to grant the Byzantine Catholics land for a church was discussed when the papal nuncio to Ukraine, Archbishop Nikola Eterovic, visited Sevastopol in February. But the archbishop did speak with members of the city council about a closely related issue: the city's refusal to hand back a confiscated Roman Catholic church.

"Our community was registered back in 1991," recalled Father Pyotr Kamensky, a priest of one of the two Byzantine Catholic communities in Sevastopol. "And despite having applied for an appropriate plot many times, we have failed to obtain one." After applying for a plot in the Kamyshovaya Bukhta district of the city, the Byzantine Catholics were refused by the city council since the land had already been allocated to the Orthodox. Father Kamensky admitted that the council did offer the parish two other sites, but "one was on the slope of a mountain and the other not far from a dump." The latest refusal was issued last summer.

Father Kamensky ascribes the city's rejection to Orthodox intolerance toward the Byzantine Catholics. While denying that there is any such intolerance between (Latin-rite) Roman Catholics and Orthodox, a senior official of the religious affairs department of Sevastopol city administration, Anatoli Sigora, admitted by telephone that "there is certainly such intolerance between the Byzantine Catholics and the Orthodox."

DISPUTED PLANS

Accompanying the city plan approved in 1995 was a map with (according to different sources) either 70 or 99 sites for Orthodox churches marked on it. This plan was presented to the city council by the Orthodox dean of the Sevastopol region, Father Georgy Polyakov. Today a spokesman for Orthodox Metropolian Lazar (Shvets) of Sevastopol cannot recall the exact number of projected sites with certainty. "I cannot say about 99, but I know for sure about 70 such planned buildings," said Father Paisi Dmokhovsky.

Viktor Yevlashkin, deputy head of the city council, declined to give any details of the plan, telling Keston that it was perhaps "misinformed" regarding the number of Orthodox church sites. And although he confirmed that the plan "did exist," Sigora declared it "has lost its legislative power." He said that the rejection of the Catholics' bid was due to other reasons: "We offered the Byzantine Catholics two plots of land, but they rejected them. They insisted on a plot in the city center, which is impossible."

However, when pressed to reveal whether the city's plan restricts the Byzantine Catholics, Sigora replied:

The Orthodox do everything they can to prevent Byzantine Catholics, whom they consider "uncanonical," from obtaining a plot, especially near Orthodox churches. Historically, there has never been a single Byzantine Catholic church in this area.

"I thought they had already built a church," Father Dmokhovsky remarked about the Byzantine Catholics. "I feel sorry for them." But the Orthodox cleric declined to say whether there was any official policy restricting the Catholics. He reported that Orthodox church-building is continuing in the city. The most recent parish church was completed in 1997; five more are now under construction. And he suggested that the 70 plots allocated in the city plan may not be adequate to provide for the growing number of Orthodox parishes. "At the moment we have at least 15 communities on the waiting list for registration," he reported. There are currently 31 registered Orthodox parishes loyal to the Moscow Patriarchate in Sevastopol.

Orthodox obstruction has also prevented the Byzantine Catholics from joining the Inter-confessional Council of the Crimea, of which a Roman Catholic priest, Father Roman Derdzyak, is a permanent member. Father Pyotr reports that the Byzantine Catholics of Crimea were twice refused admittance on the grounds that they were a "non-traditional" denomination in the region.

PLEA TO STRASBOURG

After battling unsuccessfully for the return of its parish church building for over five years--and even being turned down by the Ukrainian Supreme Court--the Roman Catholic parish of St. Clement's in Sevastopol has taken its case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. The city administration believes the Catholics' demands are within the law, but the city council, which has the final say, is refusing to return the church, which now houses a cinema. Asked by Keston News Service where the Catholics should hold their services, Viktor Yevlashkin, an adviser to the city council chairman, replied: "That's their problem and we haven't put that question to them." The pastor of St. Clement's, Father Leonid Tkachuk is particularly upset that public toilets are still operating where the altar once stood.

Having exhausted all legal avenues in Ukraine, the parish submitted its case to the European Court on November 6, 2000. In its suit, it is demanding not only the return of the church but compensation for loss of $140,000. A spokesman for the Court confirmed from Strasbourg that the parish's application has been received, but reported that it had not yet been registered. The court--whose jurisdiction covers Ukraine as a member of the Council of Europe--will then have to rule on whether the case is admissible.

Built in 1911, St. Clement's church was closed and confiscated in 1936, when its pastor was arrested. It was then used to house an electricity sub-station. Partially destroyed during World War II, it was later rebuilt as the Druzhba children's cinema. Father Tkachuk told Keston that in addition to continued use of toilets on the site of the altar the church "is still being defiled by the screening of inferior films that are far from being children's films."

Despite the return of confiscated religious property in Ukraine and the persistent efforts of local Catholics--including more than 50 appeals to local officials, the Ukrainian president, and Pope John Paul II--the parish has had no success. Legal cases brought by the parish in 1999 and 2000 were unsuccessful. In May 2000 the board for civil cases at the Supreme Court turned down the parish's appeal against the city council's refusal, in February 2000, to return the church.

Registered in 1995, the 300-strong Catholic parish has to meet for services in the priest's apartment, which cannot accommodate all those wishing to attend. "The community has been allowed to hold services in the church only twice: in 1998 and 1999," Father Tkachuk complained.

CONTRADICTORY EXPLANATIONS

Asked why the church had not been returned to the Catholic parish, Viktor Yevlashkin replied that the building was not a church but a children's cinema; he claimed that the church and its foundations had been destroyed during the war. However, a document from the Sevastopol State Archive (of which Father Tkachuk produced a copy) disproves this contention. The certificate of the building's technical condition, dated October 1958, indicated that the church building has retained its walls and foundations largely (80-100 percent) intact and is deemed "suitable for restoration and reconstruction."

Next Yevlashkin went on to cite another underlying reason for the refusal. "According to article 21 of the principles of the law on culture, the closure of cultural establishments is not permitted in cases where premises are taken from them and transferred into the possession of, or for the free use of, religious organizations," he claimed. However, in Sevastopol, the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul-- previously the city's Palace of Culture--has been formally handed over to the Orthodox, and services are held there on feast days.

Anatoli Sigora, of the religious-affairs department in Sevastopol, confirmed that "justice is on the side of the Catholics, and if the city council wished, the cinema could be relocated to any of the other 19 functioning cinemas in the city, particularly given that attendance at the Druzhba cinema is quite low."

Under current law, Sevastopol's cultural establishments are under the jurisdiction of the city administration, but the city council must agree to any transfer of one of these establishments. The city council clearly has different plans for the building.

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Underground Churches?

Within European Russia, Eastern-rite Catholics are searching for recognition.

By Geraldine Fagan

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When the Ukrainian-rite Catholic community in Moscow attempted to register a parish (as reported in CWR, "World Watch," March 2001), they were told by government officials that their application required the supporting signature of Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, the Roman Catholic apostolic administrator for European Russia. "He refused to sign," the Ukrainian Catholic Bishop Gbur reported, "saying it would be viewed as proselytism by the Moscow Patriarchate, and the consequences would be bad for the Catholic Church."

Father Sergi Golovanov, who maintains an Internet site for Ukrainian Catholics, is unsure of the number of Byzantine Catholic communities in European Russia, but knows of the presence of such groups in Vladimir, Tula, Moscow, Perm, Samara, and St. Petersburg. But none of these groups has official recognition as a parish. Father Andrei Udovenko--the only Ukrainian Catholic priest in European Russia--said that the Moscow community, with approximately 40 members (most of them ethnic Russians), meets for worship in the chapel of Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity on the eastern edge of the capital city. In Father Udovenko's view, this situation gave Moscow's Byzantine Catholics "enough" freedom, since "all we need to do is gather together."

Father Udovenko says the Moscow community is content to be "invisible and quiet." If the Ukrainian-rite community obtained its own church building, he said, "the priest would not be free, nonbelievers would come and try to get baptized, there would be financial issues to deal with." He estimated, however, that if there were a Byzantine Catholic church building, it could support a parish of several thousand people. If the community is never able to obtain such a church, he added, "There are no prospects for us; it will all end with my death."

Although Father Udovenko reported that seasonal workers from Ukraine formed a significant part of the Byzantine Catholic presence in Moscow, he thought the Ukrainian parishes in Siberia were openly tolerated since they were "ethnic Ukrainian" communities. Father Igor Kovalevsky, of the Latin-rite apostolic administration of Moscow, made the same link. "There are of course Byzantine Catholics in Russia because there are a lot of Galicians [west Ukrainians] here, especially in Siberia," he noted.

Father Golovanov, however, denied that this was an accurate explanation for the difference in treatment of Ukrainian Catholics between Siberia (where Ukrainian parishes are registered and supported by the Catholic bishop) and European Russia. The real difference, he maintained, was not the number of Ukrainian Byzantine Catholics, but the attitude within the apostolic administrations. "Bishop Josef Werth [of western Siberia] takes responsibility upon himself and is of truly catholic views, whereas in Europe they are trying to keep on the right side of the Moscow Patriarchate," he charged.

In Siberia, the priest continued, it was the policy of Church officials to register a Byzantine Catholic parish under the apostolic administration if it had a priest. Under that policy there are now four registered Ukrainian Catholic parishes, with a total of approximately 400 parishioners, in Novokuznetsk, Prokopiyevsk, Omsk, and Sargatskoye. Father Golovanov said that his own Omsk parish even had its own church building--a former mosque, bought with funds from the German Catholic foundation Renovabis.

ORTHODOX OPPOSITION

Igor Vyzhanov, spokesman for Orthodox-Catholic relations at the Moscow Patriarchate, told Keston that the Russian Orthodox Church would naturally view an open Byzantine Catholic presence in Russia negatively, "but it isn't very strong right now, thank God." If 100 Byzantine Catholics said they needed a church and a priest, the Moscow Patriarchate would not complain, he said: "We can't stop them; it is for the state to decide." If the Ukrainian community decided to build the church before assembling 100 believers and gaining legal registration, however, that would constitute proselytism, Vyzhanov maintained.

Father Udovenko told Keston his community was not encountering concrete obstruction from the Moscow Patriarchate "as yet." Father Golovanov added that the Orthodox around Omsk had tried to warn people about "Uniates" five years ago, "but they stopped when it became clear they were merely advertising our presence."

Father Golovanov added, nonetheless, that the current situation causes some people who wish to form Eastern-rite Catholic parishes to turn away disillusioned. He reported:

A group forms, sees that there is no future, and splits up. Some go to the Latin-rite church, although it is an alien place to us. Others attend Orthodox churches but are afraid to say they are Byzantine Catholic; they pray for the Pope in secret.

ARMENIAN CATHOLICS

Ukrainian Catholics are not the only Eastern-rite believers whose existence in Russia is a delicate issue for the Catholic Church. Sister Nune, who is a member of Georgia's Armenian minority, disclosed that the worsening economic situation in Armenia has resulted in the formation of a community of Catholics of the Armenian rite in the Russian capital. This community is neither listed in the official 2000 directory of the Catholic Church in Russia nor advertised at the church where it meets.

Since spring 2000, Sister Nune reported, the community has met within the Roman Catholic Church of St. Louis every Sunday for half an hour of prayer and song in the tradition of the Armenian rite. There is no facility for the full liturgy in the Armenian rite (which is the same as in the Armenian Apostolic Church, except for the addition of a prayer for the Pope). Sister Nune explained that this would require a different altar arrangement, curtains, and other adjustments--as well as a priest. As a result the Armenian Catholics celebrate the sacraments with their Latin-rite Catholics neighbors. "They normally make their confessions in Armenian," she said; "the priests are very patient."

As with the Byzantine Catholics, the Armenians are subordinate to the Latin-rite administration and are not registered as a parish. At the moment, said Sister Nune, "We are not talking about a parish; it is forming very slowly. Everyone is happy with the current situation--that they have been given the opportunity to pray for half an hour."

This situation contrasts sharply with that of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Moscow. Two of three pre-revolutionary buildings belonging to the Armenian Apostolic Church in Moscow were destroyed under the Soviet regime; the third is a chapel within the Armenian cemetery. Last summer, billboards in Moscow's metro carried public appeals for the construction of a second church. The appeal carried a message from Patriarch Aleksei of the Russian Orthodox Church expressing the hope "that the Armenian diaspora will soon receive the opportunity to erect a new church in Moscow." The church, on which construction has already begun, is to have room for 1,000 worshippers.

Igor Vyzhanov appeared surprised to learn of the existence of Armenian Catholics in Russia. Asked how the Moscow Patriarchate would react if the Armenian Catholics sought to build a church in Moscow, he replied that it would depend "whether there would be mission or if it were in response to real pastoral need." Then why, asked Keston, had the construction of a large Armenian Apostolic church been unequivocally welcomed? Vyzhanov replied, "Because the Apostolic Church doesn't say that the Pope has jurisdiction over the whole world."

INVESTIGATING "CATHOLIC EXPANSION"

Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the nationalist leader who is vice-speaker of the Russian Duma, or parliament, has embarked on a campaign to investigate Catholic activity in Russian territory in general, and the Roman Pope's visit to Ukraine in particular.

The RIA Novosti agency reported that the Duma, responding to pressure by Zhirinovsky, has charged a Committee on International Affairs to seek information about measures being taken to prevent the expansion of Catholicism in the territory of Russia and other Orthodox states, to sound out Moscow's reaction to Pope John Paul II's planned visit to Kiev, and to discover the purposes of the February visit by Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasjanov to Pope John Paul II.

Zhirinovsky also obtained formal authorization for the Duma's Committee of Culture and Tourism to request information from the Ministry of Culture of Russia about measures being taken to return the icon of Kazan Mother of God--which is now located in the Vatican--to its native city.

Catholic priests in Russia say Zhirinovsky's instructions are not surprising. Although some suspect that he is concerned with his own political reputation, his actions are in keeping with a state doctrine which sees nationalism and the Orthodox religion as the glue that holds together a disintegrating society.

In February, Zhirinovsky met the chairman of the Department of External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kalingrad. They discussed a wide range of questions, including the Pope's visit to Ukraine and the divisions within the Orthodox community in that country. Zhirinovsky suggested the organization of a unique "agitation train" which would travel through Ukraine, explaining to the Orthodox faithful the errors of the "schismatic" Orthodox groups, and stressing the importance of fidelity to the canonical hierarchy of the Moscow Patriarchate. - Fides News Agency