Response of the Holy Synod of the UOC to the "Address of the Head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church of Byzantine rite His Beatitude Cardinal Lubomir Hu
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At the session of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church presided over by His Beatitude Metropolitan Volodymyr of Kyiv and All Ukraine the Holy Synod heard the information of His Beatitude concerning the Address of the Head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church of Byzantine rite His Beatitude Cardinal Lubomir Husar to the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Letter № Р-08/214 of April 26, 2008).
It was resolved to send the following answer of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to Head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church of Byzantine rite His Beatitude Cardinal Lubomir Husar:
His Beatitude Cardinal Lubomir Husar
Head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church of Byzantine rite
Your Beatitude!
In response to your letter of April 26 of the present year where you suggest your own model of reunification of the Ukrainian Churches who are direct or indirect successors of the Baptism of Volodymyr, and express your own vision of the further cooperation between our Churches, we inform You that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church shares Your anxiety of the dissents in Ukraine between the full blood brothers, who had confessed one and the same faith in the past, but we cannot agree in all details with Your view of restoration of the lost unity.
We believe that the questions you raised in Your letter fall into two groups, i.e. a) the question of restoring of the unity between the Catholic and the Orthodox Churches on the whole, b) the question of restoring of the unity between the Orthodox and the Catholics of the Eastern rite in Ukraine. It follows from Your letter that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and other Orthodox confessions, and the Orthodox and Catholic world on the whole are suggested the classical Uniate model of restoring unity.
First of all we'd like to emphasize that such an approach does not correspond the general context of the Orthodox-Catholic dialogue, the task of the latter lies in finding mutual theological understanding of the dogmatic divergence between our Churches, such as the issue of primacy in the Church, Filioque etc. Only after elimination of these dogmatic differences restoration of unity of our Churches is possible.
Among the issues discussed in the course of dialogue was the problem of ‘union' as a means of achievement of the unity of the Catholics and the Orthodox. This problem was considered by the Combined Commission on the Orthodox -Catholic Dialogue in Freising (Germany, 1990) and in Balamandi (Lebanon, 1993). In particular, the Balamandi document states that "the form of missionary apostleship" called "Uniate", is no longer acceptable both as a method or a model of unity our Churches are striving for." Let's remind that this document was ratified both by the Orthodox as well as by the Roman Catholic Church whose structural part is the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church that You head. In view of the fact, we are surprised by your Uniate proposals which do not only contradict the documents mentioned, but are also outdated since they were rejected in the process of the Orthodox-Catholic dialogue.
We are also doubtful of the competence of the Church structure that You head to make respective proposals, since the UGCC has no separate Statute and is guided in the canonical sphere by the Code of Canon Law of the Eastern Churches, according to which it is a part of the "Catholic Church ruled by the successor of Apostle Peter and the bishops in communion with him" (Canon 7, paragraph 2). In compliance with it, as a structural unit of the Catholic Church the UGCC has obviously no right to enter into any canonical or liturgical communions, nonconforming with the canon regulations of the Catholic Church. All that makes us think that the ideas expressed in Your letter are devoid of any ecclesiastic, canonical or liturgical grounds.
In view of that we believe that instead of creation of the new church unions, conforming neither with Catholic nor Orthodox ecclesiology, it would be more expedient to join our efforts for resolving the public and social problems, not resorting to gambling in the ecclesiological sphere. For the same reasons the Ukrainian Orthodox Church highly approved at the very beginning the idea of creation of the Council of the Ukrainian Churches of St. Vladimir's Baptism. It is a good sign that Your Church supports this initiative. We believe that such organization may be a place of meeting and fruitful cooperation between our Churches.
At the same time, we take this opportunity to note once again that the direct successor of the Baptism of St. Vladimir and of the ancient Metropolis of Kyiv is the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. As for the UAOC and UOC-KP, they are the newly created denominations that have lately seceded from the UOC. We recognize their and the UGCC's indirect relation to the Baptism of St. Vladimir.
It is our earnest conviction that the united Orthodox Church of all the orthodox people of Ukraine may emerge only after the schisms are eliminated. Further on, taking into account the state of the Orthodox-Catholic dialogue, in the process of which it was acknowledges by both parties that the model of "Union" as a way of restoring unity was unacceptable, we find it more commendable for the faithful of the UGCC, identifying themselves with the Eastern Orthodoxy, to return to the Orthodoxy, and for those holding dear their communion with the Church of Rome to turn to her, preserving their eastern rite. All the more so because after the Second Council of Vatican the Roman-Catholic Church ahs expanded her view of the rite, to which testifies, for example, the existence of the famous monasteries in Chevton (Belgium) and Bose (Italy) in her fold, keeping to the eastern rite, but not separated into a special canonical structure. Thus one of the significant obstacles on the way to restoration of the ecumenical unity between the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Church would be eliminated. We understand that it is very difficult but in our case it depends only upon us - the Orthodox and the Greek Catholics of Ukraine. At the same time, implementation of the model You suggest depends on recognition of the "Ukrainian Local Church" by the rest of the Churches (the Orthodox and Roman-Catholic), the possibility of which is very doubtful, to put it mildly.
Greeting the initiative of creation of the Council of the Ukrainian Churches of the Baptism of St. Vladimir, we pray that the Holy Spirit enlighten our hearts and that the time come when we praise the Lord with "one mouth and one heart".
Source:
http://orthodox.org.ua/eng/node/262
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