Vatican officials say pope unlikely to make Ukraine a patriarchate

Published: 2004-02-24

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope John Paul II wants to recognize a Ukrainian Catholic patriarchate, but Vatican officials say he is unlikely to do so because of the negative reaction of the Orthodox churches and out of concern for Catholics in Russia. In letters published in February, a dozen Orthodox church leaders asked Pope John Paul not to name the head of Ukraine's Eastern-rite church a patriarch. During a late-February visit to Moscow, Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, told Russian Orthodox leaders that the Vatican was taking the Orthodox concerns into "serious consideration." Vatican officials told Catholic News Service Feb. 24 that there is no doubt about the pope's admiration for the fidelity of the Ukrainian Catholic Church and for the traditions of the Christian East, including the fact that mature Eastern churches are led by patriarchs. But Pope John Paul also has spent the 25 years of his pontificate working to improve relations with the Orthodox churches, and their reaction to the idea of a Ukrainian Catholic patriarch has been unequivocal: Do it, and there will be no more dialogue of any kind.

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