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Pope Visit Harms Inter-church Relations: Russian Patriarch
MOSCOW, June 23 (News Agencies) - Pope John Paul II's visit to Ukraine will make relations between the Catholic and Orthodox churches "more difficult," the head of the Russian Orthodox Church said Saturday, in a statement carried by the Russian Itar-Tass news agency.
Patriarch Alexi II made the statement as he left for a visit to Belarus, which borders Ukraine and is also a predominantly Orthodox country.
The Patriarch said the Pope's five-day visit, which began on Saturday would not help calm inter-faith relations, but would on the contrary "make them more difficult," the news agency said.
Meanwhile, Pope John Paul II asked Ukraine's Orthodox majority in KIEV Saturday to forgive Catholic "errors" at the start of a controversial visit that Orthodox leaders have criticized.
The ailing 81-year-old pontiff flew in to Kiev's Borispil airport where he was welcomed by President Leonid Kuchma, who angered Orthodox militants by inviting the head of the Catholic church to the former Soviet republic.
Dressed in his customary white robes, the pontiff seemed alert and delighted with the reception as he walked unaided down the steps from the airplane. "I rejoice that I am now on Ukrainian soil," he said.
But he formally rejected charges by Ukraine's Orthodox majority that the Catholic church was seeking to convert the population, saying: "I have not come here with the intention to proselytize, but as a witness for Christ."
Speaking at the airport, he sought to defuse militant opposition to his visit by appealing to the Orthodox to forgive "the errors committed towards them in the ancient and recent past," an reference to the sack of Byzantium by crusaders in 1204, and the interfaith disputes of the 1990s.
Kuchma hailed the pope as "not only the head of the Catholic church but also a remarkable figure of modern times" and "an unbeatable fighter for human rights and dignity."
Referring to the dispute sparked by his visit to Ukraine among its Orthodox militants who regard the pontiff as a "forerunner of the Anti-Christ," the pope said he came to Kiev as "pilgrim of peace and brotherhood."
He added that he hoped he would "be received with friendship all those who, without belonging to the (Catholic) church, have an open heart for dialogue and cooperation."
Since the collapse 10 years ago of the Soviet Union, which outlawed religion, Ukraine's Orthodox majority has accused the Roman Catholics of seeking to convert the population, taking control of parishes and seizing church assets.
He added that he had looked forward to making the visit to Ukraine, which borders his native Poland, for many years and had "prayed that it would take place."
And in a bid to smoothe over Christianity's East-West clash, the religious equivalent of the Cold War, the pope highlighted Ukraine's "evident European vocation underlined by the Christian roots of your culture."
Around 10,000 Orthodox Christians marched through the streets of Kiev earlier this week denouncing the frail pontiff as "the forerunner of the Anti-Christ."
Orthodox militants mounted an all-night vigil in two of Ukraine's holiest Orthodox sites on the eve of the pope's arrival but a senior church leader said there were no plans to disrupt the visit itself.
However, Bishop Mitrofan of the Moscow Patriarchate warned that Orthodox anger at the pope's visit was so heartfelt it was becoming "more and more difficult to restrain people."
He added that the Ukrainian Orthodox church, which has almost eight million followers, was determined to prevent the pontiff entering the country's holiest shrines, such as the Saint Sophia's Cathedral and the Pecherska Lavra monastery.
Around 300 Ukrainians staged a demonstration Saturday at the Lavra cave monastery to protest against the pope's visit to the predominantly Orthodox west of the country.
"We don't want the pope here. He is coming to Orthodox territory without being invited" by the Orthodox church, said Vladimir Vrublev, who had traveled from Odessa on the Black Sea in order to attend the rally.
"If he had just gone to Lviv (the Catholic bastion in eastern Ukraine), that would have been OK. But why is he coming to Kiev?" Vrublev added.
Earlier, Patriarch Alexis II, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, warned that the papal visit to Ukraine would make relations between the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches "more difficult."
Orthodox clerics loyal to Moscow are boycotting an audience with the pope Sunday, but two rebel church leaders, Metropolitan Filaret of the Kiev patriarchate and Metropolitan Methode of the Autocephalous Ukrainian Church, said they would attend.
Ukraine's Uniate (or Greek) Catholics are so called because, though loyal to the pope, they worship according to the Eastern Rite that was retained in the Greek Orthodox church after the Great Schism of 1054.
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