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'What do you mean by Orthodox Catholics?" The imperfect union who has? What issues?

I meant Eastern Orthodox (commonly referred to as being the Orthodox Church), and i should have used that term, and the imperfect communion refers to them, in distinction from the full communion of the UGCs, while issues (from what i understand) would be whatever remains of the conflict regards support from Rome in the UGCs conflict with the Greek Orthodox (which is far more of an issue), and the de-Latinization of ceremonies and practices, which the below portions deal with (see here and a full reading, which is educational).

► Polish Roman Catholics versus Ukrainian/Greek Catholics in Galicia [2001]

Several of our interviewees felt that the Greek Catholics had been abandoned by Rome. The head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church's Department for External Church Relations Ihor Ozhievs'kyi cited to us the absence of direct financial support for his church from the Vatican. The funding which had permitted the extensive church construction we had observed in L'viv and Ternopil' oblasti had come, he said, from two German-based Catholic charities, 'Aid to the Church in Need' and 'Renovabis', as well as from the US Catholic Bishops' Conference - but not from Rome. The Vatican, he maintained, was terrified 'that we will destroy the system which has developed within the Catholic Church', since in effect the Greek Catholic Church was a 'local church', and the Catholic Church 'does not recognise local churches'. In Patriarch Filaret's view, the Greek Catholics already sensed that 'Rome does not need them any more'. Greek Catholic village priest Fr Ihor Fedorishin told us that in his view the Roman Catholic Church was a quite separate structure. The Greek Catholic union with the Vatican, he maintained, was purely symbolic, 'just as the Moscow Patriarchate is symbolically subordinate to Constantinople'...

There are 'serious contradictions' between the Greek and Roman Catholic Churches in Ukraine, Viktor Bondarenko told us. When we visited western Ukraine we did indeed encounter evidence of substantial friction between the two branches of the Catholic Church at local level...

Oksana Zhaborinskaya told us how Archbishop Avhustyn (Markevich) of L'viv had written to the papal nuncio in Kiev, Archbishop Antonio Franco, on 19 July 1995 to complain about the behaviour of Greek Catholics in Urizh. When he had tried to investigate the conflict in the village, the archbishop wrote, Greek Catholic parishioners had attempted to push him down some steps, ripped his surplice and used foul language. In his reply of 7 August 1995, apparently without independent confirmation of the incident, Franco apologised to the archbishop for the acts of violence perpetrated against him by the Greek Catholics - and lamented that similar incidents also occurred between Greek and Roman Catholic parishes in western Ukraine.

According to Fr Legowicz, Roman and Greek Catholics used to attend each others' churches before the Second World War, but now Greek Catholic priests sometimes forbid their parishioners to attend Roman Catholic churches: 'The Greek Catholics are viewed as a Ukrainian church, the Roman Catholics as Polish.' This clear demarcation of nationality was reflected in the words of one woman leaving the Roman Catholic cathedral in L'viv: she apologetically remarked to us that she liked the church very much and attended it 'even though' she was Ukrainian.

At the close of a Greek Catholic service in the village of Beneva (Ternopil' oblast'), the choir and congregation tearfully sang a Ukrainian nationalist hymn: '0 Lord, listen to our plea, take misfortune from our land, a people's strength is in unity, o Lord, grant us unity.' The village priest Fr Ihor Fedorishin later told us that he believed the latinisation of Greek Catholics to be the aim of Poland rather than of the Vatican, 'because then it will be easier for Poland to take this territory'. During the sixteenth century, he told us, the patriarch of Constantinople had visited Ukraine and castigated the people for having paganised Christianity with so many national elements. 'But these are so strong with us', he explained to Keston, 'that neither Rome nor Moscow can destroy us. - GERALDINE FAGAN & ALEKSANDR SHCHIPKOV, — 'The Ukrainian Greek Catholics in an Ambiguous Position, Religion, State & Society, Vol. 29, No. 3, 2001. *The material for this article was collected by the authors on a visit to Ukraine in September 2000. http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/rss/29-3_207.pdf

And if there is any truth in this report from a Ukrainian Orthodox

► “Orthodox in communion with Rome:”

Trials and Tribulations of Eastern Catholics

Dr. Alexander Roman

Eastern by ritual, Western by ecclesial jurisdiction, Eastern Catholics have historically been pulled in two directions by competing loyalties that continue to cause tension in their church identities and lives. With politics and cultural issues thrown into the mix, it is no wonder that they appear to be forever pondering what the future holds for what is a true complex of various, distinct perspectives on everything from liturgical issues to what really constitutes a “Particular Church” in union with Rome . . .

Even the issue of “union with Rome” can provoke numerous arguments that never do seem to get resolved. (If you doubt me, then join an internet Eastern Christian chat forum and see for yourself!)

One may go happily on one’s way talking about the ups and downs of Eastern Catholic “union with Rome” when someone breaks into the debate to say that “union” implies “subservience” and so “in communion with” should be used to avoid that implication.

Eastern Catholic discussion circles are also prone to develop their own sense of “political correctness” and Roman Catholic and Orthodox “intruders” can be rudely corrected in the way they innocently express themselves about the realities of Eastern Catholic life.

Thus, under the terms of such correctness, “Church” replaces “Rite.” In every which way, Eastern Catholics involved in such discussions wish to carefully distinguish themselves from the Roman Catholic West, while insisting they are “Orthodox” in all but the papacy.

And even with respect to the papacy, they have their own (Eastern) theological viewpoint that qualifies their relationship with the Pope in Rome. Some maintain they recognize him only as a “first among equals.” Others say he is only the court of last resort and when the primates of the Eastern Catholic churches ask him to step in. As in other respects, what Rome expects of Eastern Catholics is at variance with what some of their bishops and laity feel is actually the case.

Of course, one would find that the majority of Eastern Catholics, the people in the pews (oh my, now let’s not get started on the issue of PEWS!) are oblivious to any of this. They truly do see themselves as “Catholics” rather than as “Orthodox in communion with Rome” – in fact, the very idea of calling themselves “Orthodox” would suggest, to them, that they aren’t fully under Rome or fully “Catholic.”

Within the Eastern Catholics Churches, especially the Ukrainian and Ruthenian Churches, there are parishes which are truly very Eastern. In some cases, they are “more Orthodox than the Orthodox” in terms of their liturgical practices. Apart from the commemoration of the Pope of Rome, there is no other apparent distinguishing feature about them that would make a visitor to them suggest they are anything other than “Orthodox.”

And yet, this particular Eastern Catholic movement is not without its own pitfalls.

One of these is that the more “Eastern” they seem to become, the more likely that members of such parishes will eventually become formal members of Orthodox Churches (“definitely NOT in communion with Rome”). — http://www.ukrainian-orthodoxy.org/articles/catholic/communionWithRome.htm http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/rss/29-3_207.pdf