Cardinal Husar denounces Uniatism - urges establishment of one Orthodox-Catholic Church in Ukraine

Interfax ^ | September 24, 2005

[NYer]

Moscow, September 24, Interfax - Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholics, following President Viktor Yuschenko, has spoken in favour of establishing a one Church in Ukraine.

According to the cardinal, all the church problems would be solved, ‘if Ukraine had one patriarch for all’. This is the basis on which both the Orthodox and Catholics could ‘return to the primary unity’, he believes as cited by the Religious Information Service in Ukraine this week.

At the same time, he adds, ‘there are no claims that a Greek Catholic should be the patriarch’; what is only important is that ‘this patriarch should be a person capable of uniting all’.

However, Husar lays down the condition ‘that this Church and this patriarch should be united with Rome’. It seems to mean that if the patriarch is not initially Uniate, he will have to join the Unia afterwards.

The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, its leader affirms, ‘continues the historical policy of the Kiev Metropolia’, but as the cardinal’s present designation of ‘supreme archbishop’ is little known in ‘the tradition of Eastern Churches’, ‘an ordinary Christian does not know what to do with it’. In Husar’s view, the UGCC ‘has long grown up to act as patriarchate, for it is a natural development for a Local Church in the Eastern tradition’.

At the same time the cardinal is concerned about ‘the failure of the Latin theology to appreciate any sharing between Local Churches and Rome’. The Vatican, he believes, understood unity ‘as subjection’ and this process was called ‘Uniatism’.

‘Denouncing Uniatism today’, Husar points out, he seeks ‘a vision of unity which should be built not on uniformity, but on the preservation of everyone’s own tradition in the form of sharing’. This is ‘a rather complicated’ problem and, to the cardinal’s regret, ‘not quite adequately solved’. The Ukrainian Greek Catholics, however, intend ‘to move towards its solution and to be in the vanguard’, though ‘not everyone in Rome has been made to change his mind’.

The Supreme Archbishop underscores that in the matter of one Church ‘much hangs on relations with the Orthodox’, referring to both the Ukrainian Orthodox Church linked with the Moscow Patriarchate and the unrecognized Ukrainian Autocephalous Church.

He believes however that among the Orthodox ‘the spiritual processes develop in a very much disordered way’ - a reason for which ‘we all are in a rather chaotic state, from which we should come out step by step’.

Husar says he would welcome the emergence of three patriarchs in Kiev at once, ‘Russian Orthodox, Greek Catholic and Autocephalous’, because they would make ‘three partners in negotiations’, and this would make ‘a concrete talk much easier’ and help to come ‘to the idea of one patriarch and one patriarchate’ much sooner.

According to the cardinal, ‘neither Moscow nor Rome will give us our unity’. It has to be developed independently. And then ‘Rome, Constantinople or Moscow, which is much younger compared to them, will just accept this fact’. He sees it more desirable to consider this issue ‘in a discussion in which various confessions and the government could participate’, since ‘the Ukrainian president has stated on many occasions that the government would like to see a one Local Church’.

In order to influence those Ukrainians who ‘are not disposed’ to such a dialogue today, the cardinal proposes to use the existing ‘examples of certain decisions’. He cites Northern Ireland, where ‘people are struggling for a life in harmony’. His also cited relations between the Palestinian and the Israeli as a similar example.

In Husar’s opinion, the negotiations on unification should be started by ‘people with higher education and solid religious training’. In doing so, they should understand that the aim of the negotiations is already clear: ‘the Church should be one, and we all recognize it’, so the unification ‘is not a matter of our good will. It is the commandment that is in point’.

[TexConfederate1861]

I have...he is a "hoot" as we say in Texas! :)

[Kolokotronis]

"Ow Most Howly Theowtowkos Paahrthaaynaay!"

[Agrarian]

My favorite story about pronunciations was when my kids were at a Greek Orthodox teen retreat when we were attending a GOA parish. Peter Gilquist (not my favorite guy) was the guest speaker, and he started out by saying cal....eeee....MEEEEER...ah!

He got no response so he tried again, and still no response. The third time, somebody figured it out and said to his neighbor "oh, kalimera -- that's what he's trying to say!

He also very solemnly informed these Greek kids (the ones at our church were pretty fluent Greek speakers) that the word "thee-AWS" means "God." Even my white-bread convert kids with a grand total of one year of Greek school under their belts were embarrassed for him.

What a doofus. At least Bp. Kallistos can blame an Oxford/Cambridge education for his pronunciations...

[Agrarian]

Hm. I've never been a big fan of Retsina, but if the Turks hate it, I'll have to work harder on developing a taste for it (I still have a bottle sitting in my wine-cellar that I got as a gift last year.)

I agree that ouzo is dreadful stuff...

[Agrarian]

A loose cannon, indeed. It will take decades to undo the damage Schmemann did to American Orthodoxy...

[MarMema]

Ok now you have to share more...I have only read some of his books and I really like Great Lent.

[MarMema]

I agree that ouzo is dreadful stuff...

If you really liked benzene in the old lab days, you might like Ouzo.

[annalex]

What makes you think you are Orthodox?

Get those canned sardines in the supermarket. Cut, thinly, a bunch of fresh parsley. Slice onion. Use oil. No, not that stuff, real oil. Sprinkle lemon juice. More lemon juice. Repeat the lemon juice. Some more. Put pickled olives on the side. Go for those purple black fat ones.

Put three large ice cubes in a wine glass. Pour ouzo. Watch it go white. Turn off the TV.

Welcome to the Phronema. Or was it Enigma?

[MarMema]

Don't you have some knives that need sharpening?

[TexConfederate1861]

Peter is a good guy, but very Californian, if I'm not mistaken. His heart is in the right place though. :)

[kosta50]

Ah, the domacha -- home brewed -- is like none other. I had a distinct pleasure of sipping on one in 1999, which I bought in Belgrade in 1987. Smooth is an understatement. "Shlyiva", pronounced sh-lee-va, as the Serbs like to call it affectionately, which stands for shlyivovitsa (sh-lee-voh-vitsa), comes, as the name betrays, from the prune plums -- a true schnaps, and "spiritual" delicacy.

[kosta50]

This is a good sign! Turks hate it

Turks hate it? I want some retsina!

[sergey1973]

Actually I read in one online Russian edition, that in Russia's Ural region one guy (not a church official at all) suggested pretty much the same thing. Uniting Catholic and Orthodox church into one Catholic-Orthodox church. He even sent to Benedict the request for recognition or something. Sounds far-fetched for now, but who knows--nearly all great ideas were initially considered insane and unnatainable.

My personal view--I'm a believer in God without a particular religion--but I believe that church squabbles and rivalries is one of the worst thing that possibly could happen. They church wars turn the churches from instrument of God work on earth to the instrument of political rivalries. I'm not an idealist to believe that the centuries old rivalries could be easily put behind, but at least I believe that it's time to start to do some practical steps to end Orthodox-Catholic rivalries. To rephrase the Bibile a bit, God Bless the genuine peacemakers.

[annalex]

knives

I am Latin Rite, but I got my Uniate knife after talking to Kosta. Here it is again:

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What is the connection between ouzo and uniatism?

There are two problems with drinking Ouzo in America.

One is the disconnection: you are still sitting on an American suburban porch. A true Ouzo experience includes the smells and sound of a Greek fishing harbor: bilge and sea water, at a distance you hear men arguing in sing-song crescendoes, calling each other "my little child", the boats bump into one another with a groan... stuff like that. These atmospherics are not importable.

The second is internal: neither Ouzo or smelly fish fits the American palate, even if that palate had traveled to Mytilini.

Nevertheless, a willing soul can approximate a Greek experience in America. Ouzo can be imported; norwegian sardines (the kind in loosely fitting plastic wrapper stamped with a likeness of a Norwegian saint or something) can substitute for the real stuff. It requires a careful matching of the available ingredients, well-considered substitution and extrapolation in the mind.

It is very similar with the Holy Spirit. The dogmata of the faith, like Ouzo, can be readily bottled in Rome and sent East. The liturgical practice has to remain local, as it is futile and does nothing but damage to latinize what has been handed down from Byzantium and preserved in an excellent shape. But more importantly, the internal attitude must not rebel, as the taste of Rome is a new taste for the East. That, I think, describes both the difficulties and the hopes of uniatism.

[kosta50]

I got my Uniate knife after talking to Kosta. Here it is again...

Hey, and I thought it was your "Jesuite" knife!? Just how many knived do you have?

Personally, I think the example of saridnes and phronema is a bit odd, although technically I understand what you are trying to say. Christian phronema is a lot more palatable...to my taste. :-)

[annalex]

I can wax nostalgic about slivovitz as well. With pickled carrots and cauliflower, under a walnut tree, in front of a backgammon table. Is "Gradi Ilia kilia" ever sung in Serbia in a drunken state?

This is my Jesuit sword:

O
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V

[Kolokotronis]

"A true Ouzo experience includes the smells and sound of a Greek fishing harbor: bilge and sea water, at a distance you hear men arguing in sing-song crescendoes, calling each other "my little child", the boats bump into one another with a groan... stuff like that." You mean as in, "Ella, paidi mou!"

"Nevertheless, a willing soul can approximate a Greek experience in America. Ouzo can be imported;"

Not real Ouzo, at least not much. The stuff we get here is terrible as a general proposition. But there are actually some good Ouzos in Greece, one in particular from Mytilini in fact. Here the best thing to do is take a pass on the ouzo unless you luck out and someone has some from the Old Country or you run across a bottle of "12", the famous dodekari.

Truth be told, I'd rather, if I'm here in the States, drink schlivo with a drunken Serb buddy while eating Serbian cheese and pickles and sausage, the names of which I forget (and maybe some olives from my trees!). By the way, the last of my domaca went the other night as part of a cold remedy! :(

[MarMema]

from the prune plums -- a true schnaps, and "spiritual" delicacy.

Ah - that very delightful and wonderful plum stuff! I love that stuff! I always get it at the dinners at the Serbian church and then ask FL every year or so what it is called, again...

[MarMema]

The Jesuit sword looks much more deadly.

[annalex]

It is "Ochi vre pedaki mou, ooochiii". Yes, one should stay away from Metaxas Ouzo. Some Lebanese Araki might be better.

Your Greek, by the way, has become awful since you moved to the States. It is filled with Americanisms. Why don't you just use Latin. (Alphabet, I mean).