Lviv archbishop says Eastern Catholics have not returned church

Published: 2008-01-30

WARSAW, Poland (CNS) -- A Latin-rite archbishop in Ukraine said the country's Eastern Catholics broke a promise to return a Lviv church, and he threatened to appeal to the Vatican. "For the past 16 years, we've been asking for it to be given back," said Coadjutor Archbishop Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki of the Latin-rite Archdiocese of Lviv. "This is no longer a government matter. It's a church issue of great importance to us. Greek (Eastern) Catholics should keep the promises they made to restore it." In a Jan. 29 telephone interview with Catholic News Service, Archbishop Mokrzycki said Lviv's 17th-century Mother of God and Lord's Presentation Church had "huge historical and spiritual importance" as a seminary church that also served as the city's Latin Catholic curial offices and bishops' residence. However, he added that his Eastern-rite counterpart, Ukrainian Catholic Archbishop Ihor Vozniak of Lviv, had reneged on a pledge to return the church when restoration was completed on another nearby place of worship, St. Kazimierz Church.

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