Photo: prolviv
Mechyslav Mokshytsky, Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church and His Beatitude Sviatoslav (Shevchuk), Primate of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, confirmed that Pope Francis will arrive in Ukraine. In February 2020, President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the Vatican for the first time and had an audience with the Pope. Last Friday, 24 December, Visvaldas Kulbokas, the Apostolic Nuncio and Vatican’s ambassador to Ukraine, arrived in Lviv. The editor-in-chief of the Religious Information Service of Ukraine Taras Antoshevskyi told Lviv Now what procedure precedes the Pope’s visit and how this process is organized.
What it takes for the Pope to visit Ukraine
In order for the Pope to visit a country, he first needs to be invited by the churches that are directly under his authority – Roman Catholic and Greek Catholic. The second step is an invitation from the President, Taras Antoshevskyi says.
«For the Pope to come to the state, there must be an invitation from representatives of the Roman Catholic and Greek Catholic churches. There should also be an invitation from the state. First, the churches themselves ask, and then the state joins. This was the case the previous time Pope John Paul II came to Ukraine. Now, we have everything that is needed. This time, the Pope decides whether he goes or not. He has to decide when he wants to come and coordinate this visit with the state of Ukraine. This will be primarily a state visit, so it must first be agreed with the state,» Taras Antoshevskyi explains.
Read also: Greek Catholic leader says pope Francis likely to visit Ukraine soon
The reasons for the pontiff’s visit to a particular state may be different. Many aspects of state and church policy are taken into account in order to make a final decision on the visit, Taras Antoshevskyi says.
«The Pope can go somewhere just because he was invited, but it can also be a certain anniversary. There are many points to consider when deciding whether or not to go to a country. It is considered political expediency in church politics. Representatives of the Roman Catholic Church once wanted Pope Benedict XVI to come to the 600th anniversary of their establishment in Ukraine. But the Greek Catholic clergy were then quite biased. They said that this was the 600th anniversary of the occupation of Ukrainian lands by Poland, and, as a result, the creation of structures of the Roman Catholic Church. Hence, Pope Benedict XVI did not come that time,» – the editor-in-chief of the Religious Information Service of Ukraine said.
The Pope’s visits can be used by unfriendly states for their own purposes, which can try to organize them for their own interest, Antoshevskyi claims.
«Several years ago, there was an idea in which Russia was interested in making the Pope visit the «three fraternal peoples « in a row – to Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. That didn’t happen then,» Antoshevskyi says.
The Ambassador of Ukraine to the Vatican, whose position in Ukraine was vacant until recently, has to complete preparations for the visit. Only recently has Ukraine appointed Ambassador Andrii Yurash, the former head of the Department of Religions and Nationalities of the Ministry of Culture. The editorial office of Lviv Now was unable to reach him. According to Taras Antoshevsky, because of this, relations between the two countries were cool and it is designed to improve interstate relations and prepare a hypothetical visit.
Read also: Lviv theologian becomes Ukraine’s ambassador to the Vatican
«The ambassador should take care of the organization of these events and decide everything. Instead, Ukraine has not had an ambassador to the Vatican for several years. For the past few years, relations between Ukraine and the Vatican have been far from the best. On the one hand, Ukraine has not appointed an ambassador to the Vatican for a long time – and this is an unfriendly step. On the other hand, there were some cold spells, because Roman Catholics made certain demands on the state, and Ukraine did not fulfil them,» Taras Antoshevskyi says.
These problems, he says, needed to be addressed. Since the summer of 2020, Andrii Yurash, then the head of the Department for Religions and Nationalities of the Ministry of Culture, dealt with them. Now, he is not commenting on anything. He was appointed to improve relations and in particular to organize a hypothetical visit. He was not directly involved in the previous Pope’s visit, but he published a book about Pope John Paul II’s visit to Ukraine in 2001.
It should be noted that Pope Francis constantly supports Ukraine. Thus, 12 December, he assured Pope Francis in his prayer for Ukraine and its people, calling for overcoming tensions through international dialogue and for Christmas to bring peace.
Read also: Pope Francis «I want to assure my dear Ukraine in my prayers»
Pope Francis recently visited Greece and Cyprus in his 35th apostolic journey, Hungary and Slovakia in his 34th. The Pope spent two days in Cyprus in Greece. He was in Hungary for one day at the World Eucharistic Congress, and in Slovakia for three days.
Also, 5 March 2021, Pope Francis visited Iraq. This was the first papal visit to this country in history. In 1999, Pope John Paul II planned to visit the country, but he cancelled plans to travel for some reason.
It will be recalled that the Pope’s previous visit to Ukraine took place 20 years ago and lasted for five days. 20 June 2001, Pope John Paul II visited Lviv and Kyiv.
For reference:
Greek Catholicism, the majority religion of Lviv, Ukraine, is a Christian confession which acknowledges Catholic doctrine and is in communion with the Pope, but maintains Eastern rites and rituals, including married priests. It emerged in 1596, when a part of the Orthodox Church recognised the supremacy of the Pope. Later, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) became mostly localised in the Western Ukraine, becoming one of the markers of the national identity for the region’s population during Austrian, Polish and Soviet rule.
Currently, Kyiv is the center of Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, under the jurisdiction of His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, major archbishop of Kyiv-Galicia, and it is present in many regions of the country, though Galicia, where Lviv is, still remains its bulwark. It also has a strong presence among the Ukrainian diaspora, especially in parts of Canada, the United States, and Australia.
Roman Lamansky
Translated by Vitalii Holich
You can read a Ukrainian language version of this story here.
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Lviv Now is an English-language website for Lviv, Ukraine’s «tech-friendly cultural hub.» It is produced by Tvoe Misto («Your City») media-hub, which also hosts regular problem-solving public forums to benefit the city and its people.
