Government–UGCC meetings: Harping on the future "single Church"?
On the same day, V. Zelensky met with the students of the Catholic University, while D. Shmyhal met with the leader of the Uniates. What could this mean and what might it lead to?
On 18 December 2024, on the eve of the memory day of St. Nicholas of Myra, which, however, both the OCU and the UGCC already celebrate according to the new style, the top leadership of the state decided to hold two significant events with Ukrainian Catholics of the Orthodox rite. The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky met with the students of the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) in Lviv. The President spoke about how good it is to study at universities with quality education, and about 200 students asked the guarantor of the Constitution about how to rebuilt Ukraine and promote our country in the international arena. On the same day, 18 December, Ukrainian Prime Minister Dmytro Shmyhal held a meeting with the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Sviatoslav Shevchuk. According to the press service of the UGCC, they discussed the Church-state cooperation at the domestic and international levels.
What lies behind this vague wording is unclear. But it can hardly be assumed that the Prime Minister of the warring country in the middle of an extremely difficult heating season was very interested in what happened at the last session of the Synod of the UGCC. After all, this is precisely what S. Shevchuk, according to the press service, was discussing with him. And of course, badly needed to hear from the head of the UGCC that this religious organization supports all "government initiatives aimed at strengthening the unity and economic stability of Ukrainian society".
But that's not all. On 11 December 2024, members of the Synod of the UGCC met with the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Oleksandr Lytvynenko. According the press service’s reports, the same issues were discussed, and the same statements were made. Also, worth mentioning in this context is the visit of Ukraine’s First Lady, Olena Zelenska, to the UGCC cathedral in Rome on 21 November 2024. Another important piece of this puzzle is the meeting between the head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), Serhiy (Epifaniy) Dumenko, and Pope Francis in Rome on 13 December 2024.
At the same time, the authorities are not at all disturbed by the fact that the day before, Pope Francis referred to Ukrainians and Russians as brothers and cousins. In Ukraine, the SBU would typically carry out searches and detain individuals without bail under charges such as "treason" or "justification of aggression" for similar statements. Yet, it seems that the authorities have completely overlooked the pontiff’s remarks.
So, what could all this mean? What consequences might such extensive high-level contacts with the UGCC and OCU have? What can we expect from the clear bias of the Ukrainian authorities towards the Greek Catholics?
What to expect in the year of the Nicaean Council anniversary
It is quite likely that, before our eyes, the plan that the UOJ has written about numerous times, both before and after the creation of the OCU in 2018, is being realised – that Ukraine will be the testing ground for the Vatican and Phanar's ecumenical experiments on union. The OCU and UGCC represent very convenient structures for this. According to the Tomos, the OCU recognises Patriarch Bartholomew as its head, while the UGCC is subordinate to Pope Francis. Both have repeatedly stated their desire for unity and also made it clear that they would like to see it happen in their lifetime; and they are both already at a very advanced age. The upcoming 2025 year provides a very suitable occasion for significant ecumenical steps. This year will mark the 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, at which both the Eastern and Western Churches were still united, and the dogmatic differences that divide them today did not exist at all.
Had the UOC broken in 2018 or in subsequent years and joined the OCU, the situation for unity would have been almost ideal – a country where the largest Christian denominations were united, if not administratively, then at least "eucharistically", would have appeared. They would have recognised each other's Sacraments, served together, and provided a model for overcoming thousand-year-old divisions. But things did not go according to the plan. The UOC became stubborn and began to declare that Truth is more important, and that no union could be built on the disregard for God's commandments and Church canons. Neither persuasions, nor repressions, nor legislative prohibitions could have moved the UOC from its firm standing in faith and the preservation of Orthodox purity. The authors of the unification project actually failed to spread it to all Ukrainian Christians. The largest denomination refused to participate in it, and the picture now looks much less appealing.
Let us recall how, shortly after the creation of the OCU, several high-profile events and statements followed, raising hopes for quick integration between the newly formed structure and the Greek Catholics. For example, after the "Unification Council" on 15 December 2018, Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the head of the UGCC, congratulated "Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine" Epifaniy Dumenko and stated that he considered the OCU creation a "God-given gift" on the path to "full unity of the Churches of Volodymyr's Baptism."
"At this significant moment, I extend a hand on behalf of our Church to you and all Orthodox brothers, suggesting that you begin together to pave our path to unity, to the truth," Shevchuk said at the time. But then the process seemed to stall. It is not to say that the unification process came to a halt: meetings, conferences, and joint prayers were held, and the simultaneous shift of the celebration of Christmas to 25 December should not be overlooked. However, there was still a sense that participants were hesitant, not making any serious moves toward rapprochement. Perhaps, this was due to the state's attempt to push at least some UOC bishops and their parishes into the OCU. It again failed.
And so, it seems that a decision was made to move forward without regard for the UOC. Deadlines are pressing. Perhaps, this explains Pope Francis’ agreement to meet with the head of the structure that is aggressively and blatantly seizing other people’s temples, a structure that has already become firmly associated in the public’s mind with the term "the Church of the crowbar and the angle grinder". And now, Dumenko is serving on the relics of St Nicholas the Wonderworker, while the Ukrainian authorities are holding public meetings with the Greek Catholics.
Unia + unia = unia
However, one must recognize that any unia (union) with another unia is also a unia. In other words, if the UGCC and the OCU were united in any form, it would still result in a Uniate Church, one that is in communion with the Vatican while maintaining Orthodox rituals. And considering that the meetings between Ukrainian authorities and the Uniates are taking place within the framework of the President's plan for unity and internal stability in Ukraine, it can be inferred that this unity is envisioned by the authorities based on Uniatism, not Orthodoxy. If this is the case, then the Ukrainian authorities stand on the verge of repeating a global historical mistake that had irreversible and catastrophic consequences for our country.
In 1596, the Union (Unia) of Brest was signed between the Orthodox Ukrainian hierarchs and the Catholic Church. One of the main motives then, as now, was the desire to ensure the unity of the Commonwealth, a state that included Ukraine. The Polish rulers at the time believed that the existence of Orthodox Ukraine in a state with Catholic Poland would lead to religious discord, especially with the neighbouring Orthodox state, the growing Tsardom of Moscow. Instead of granting the Orthodox of the Commonwealth the same rights as Catholics, and ensuring that Ukrainians could freely live and develop their culture, religious, and national identity, the Polish authorities decided that they would ensure "unity" by making all of their subjects Catholics. As if millions of people could simply be forced to change their faith and their shrines with the snap of a finger.
A significant part of the Ukrainian nobility and nearly all the bishops, mostly from the nobility themselves, eagerly embraced the Union, thinking they would now be on equal terms with the Polish gentry. Of course, their expectations were not met, as the Poles continued to look down on them. However, there was a part of the nobility, and even some, as we would now say, oligarchs, as well as ordinary people, who did not want to betray their faith and join the Union. Instead of unity, the authorities of the Commonwealth created a deep internal conflict, which led to severe suffering for the Ukrainian population and, in many ways, was the cause of the disappearance of Poland as a state due to the well-known "three partitions of Poland".
Why we read but do not hear Taras Shevchenko
After the signing of the Union of Brest, Ukraine was hit by a wave of repression: Orthodox Christians were deprived of their churches, church and even personal property, they were deprived of their rights, expelled and persecuted. About a hundred years later, Taras Shevchenko vividly described this in his poem "To the Poles":
When we were free, proud Cossacks bold,
No Union’s chains our land could hold,
The steppes were wide, the orchards bright,
Our lives were filled with joy and light.
With Polish brothers bonds we made,
In peaceful fields, our dreams we laid,
The maidens bloomed, like lilies fair,
Their beauty graced the fragrant air.
Mothers took pride in sons so strong,
Who grew in freedom, proud and long,
And brought their joy to elder days,
Until, in Christ's name, came the blaze.
The priests arrived with flame and sword,
Destroyed the peace our lands adored,
They spilled wide seas of blood and tears,
And filled the land with endless fears.
In Christ’s own name, they tortured, slew,
And nailed the orphaned, helpless too,
The Cossacks’ heads, like trampled grass,
Fell one by one, no strength to last.
Ukraine laments, it mourns, it cries,
As heads to dust in sorrow lie,
The tyrant rages, priests proclaim,
"Te Deum! Alleluia!" in shame.
Today, Taras Shevchenko is honoured with statues and streets named after him, but for some reason, people seem unwilling to listen to his words. They stubbornly step on the same historical rakes.
Shevchenko described the suffering of ordinary people under the Union, and there are also historical facts that help us understand the consequences of the Union for Ukraine as a whole, for its statehood and sovereignty. After the signing of the Union in 1596, Ukraine was plunged into a series of Cossack uprisings against the forced Catholicization of the Orthodox people. In this bloody struggle, various hetmans frequently sought help from different geopolitical players: the Crimean Khanate, Muscovy, and Poland.
Now, Ukrainian authorities, together with the Patriarchate of Constantinople, claim that the transfer of the Kyiv Metropolis to the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate in 1686 was wrong and illegal. But for some reason, everyone seems to forget that the reason for such a transfer was the threat of forcibly bringing the Kyiv Metropolis into the Union. Without the Union, there would have been no religious division in Ukraine, and no reason to transfer the Kyiv Metropolis.
The second half of the seventeenth century generally went down in history as the “Ruin”, when continuous wars, robberies and raids almost wiped out entire regions. Of course, other factors – geopolitical, economic, and so on – also played a role in this. But it cannot be denied that the religious factor was one of the main causes, and the trigger for all these events was the Union of Brest. The Orthodox Ukrainian people could not be turned into Catholics of the Orthodox rite, but they were divided for centuries.
Today's Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church is a religious organization like any other. Uniates are citizens just like everyone else, and they have the same right to freedom of religion as any other group. No one denies them the right to be Catholics of the Orthodox rite. No one calls for reversing history or attempting to restore the "historic justice" or the status quo that existed prior to 1596.
Yet, history must be acknowledged, its lessons must be learned, and under no circumstances should we repeat the monumental mistakes of the past –errors that brought immense suffering to our people, cost countless lives, and stripped us of our independence.
