Orthodox Priest Explains Splits In His Church

KIEV, Jun 25, 01 (CWNews.com) - Father Georges Mytsyk, an Orthodox priest of the Patriarchate of Kiev-- which is viewed by the Russian Orthodox Church as "schismatic," offered reporters in Kiev an analysis of the Russian opposition to the papal visit to Ukraine.

Father Mytsyk, who is 49, was ordained to the Orthodox priesthood after what he describes as an inadequate preparation, "because there was a terrible shortage of priests." Today he is a professor of history and sociology at the University of Kiev.

The Orthodox priests reminded reporters that "Ukraine was attached to Russia by force for 350 years." During that time the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was subordinated to the Patriarchate of Moscow. "Since we are politically independent today, we should be independent on religious terms as well," he reasons.

When Patriarch Filaret of Kiev-- who had been acknowledged as the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-- was excommunicated by the Moscow Patriarchate because of his outspoken stance in favor of independence, Father Mytsyk cast his lot with the upstart Kiev Patriarchate. Filaret, he had concluded, was "closer to the people."

Father Mytsyk explained that in Orthodox churches of the Kiev Patriarchate, the people could pray in their own language, rather than in the Russian language that was imposed in the parishes that remained loyal to Moscow. He added somewhat bitterly that the "official" Orthodox Church-- that is, the branch recognized by Moscow-- "is the only Church that does not celebrate Masses in memory of the victims of the artificial famine caused by the Communists in 1933, which caused several million deaths in Ukraine."

Finally, the Orthodox priest charged that the Russian Orthodox Church today is following the unhappy example set by the Byzantine Empire, in which "the Church serves the State, and vice versa." He complained that the Moscow Patriarchate "is virtually a department of the Russian foreign ministry."

Father Mytsyk said that he looks forward anxiously to the day when the Patriarchate of Kiev is recognized by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople as the authentic voice of the Ukrainian Orthodox. That recognition in turn will facilitate ecumenical ties with Catholics, he said, explaining that today such ties remain unofficial because of the uncertain status of the Kiev Church.

Catholic World News Service - Vatican Update
25. juni 2001