In Moscow they should hear the words of Metropolitan Antoniy about the absence of conflicts between UGCC and UOC (MP) in Galicia – His Beatitude Sviatoslav

Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, noted that lately the Orthodox have substantially reduced their accusations of proselytism by Greek-Catholics in Western Ukraine.

He stated this on June 10^th in Lviv while visiting UCU, in answer to a question by RISU journalist, whether Vatican can make an agreement with Moscow that it refrain from accusing Greek-Catholics of proselytism, since UOC (MP) itself does not consider its relations with Greek-Catholics to be conflictive. “Such accusations are not heard as often right now as they were in the past,” stated the guest of UCU.

Cardinal Kurt Koch emphasized that the issue of proselytism is in itself a very complicated one because not every accusation of proselytism has real grounds.

“Behind this issue stands the issue of the freedom of choice of every individual.  Each person has a right to choose that confession and Church to which one wants to belong.  Therefore such issues should maximally grant the individual their freedom of choice,” he said.

UGCC Head Sviatoslav (Shevchuk), who accompanied the Honored Guest during his visit to UCU, expressed his own expectations that all accusations from the side of the Russian Orthodox Church against the Greek-Catholics will finally totally become history.

“During 20 years we have heard accusations, yet problems remain only when there is no desire to have unity.  Metropolitan Antoniy’s words are significant and we hope that finally all the accusations of the Greek-Catholics which we hear from representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church will remain in the past.  We expect that this information which comes from the representative of UOC (MP) will be heard in Moscow in the Russian Orthodox Church.  As for us, Greek-Catholics, we will always speak the truth, no matter how bitter it may be,” emphasized His Beatitude Sviatoslav

As is known, the issue of “proselytism by UGCC” and conflicts between Greek-Catholics and Orthodox (Moscow Patriarchate) in Western Ukraine are raised by the Eparchy of Russian Orthodox Church before the Vatican, whenever talk turns towards settlement of the Orthodox-Catholic dialogue and the possibility of a meeting between the Roman Pope and the Moscow Patriarch.  One of the favorite topics among ROC clergy is “the forced liquidation” of three Orthodox eparchies in Galicia at the beginning of the 90s.

In fact, on May 27^th during The VII Festival of the Orthodox Media in Lviv, the Manager of UOC (MP) Issues, Borispil Metropolitan Antoniy  (Pakanych) assured all that in Galicia there are no misunderstandings between Orthodox and Greek-Catholics and that the relations between the two Churches in this region are stable.

RISU