VATICAN, April 28. /TASS/. The Roman Catholic Church cannot recognize the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) until all Orthodox churches do so. An associate professor at the Pontifical Oriental Institute and expert on the Russian world, Don Stefano Caprio, told TASS on Friday that the Holy See "is committed to ecumenism" so it’s not cutting off channels of communication with the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC).
"The conflict [in Ukraine] affects the Roman Catholic Church's relations with the Russian Orthodox Church, but more than that it is a source of discord within the Orthodox world. There is no reason for a direct conflict with the Roman Catholic Church. On the contrary, it can try different channels of communication with the Moscow Patriarchate, unlike the Constantinople Patriarchate, with which the ROC has broken off communion. The Holy See is committed to ecumenism so it can’t stop communication, but that’s not to say that things are looking up in this area," he said.
He recalled Pope Francis’ visit to Kazakhstan in September of last year for the VII Congress of the Leaders of World and Traditional Religions. There, he said, the pontiff sincerely hoped to meet with Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia.
But Russia’s delegate at the event was Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, the head of the Department for External Church Relations, and he met with the Pope, Don Stefano recalled.
"The Roman Catholic Church can recognize the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church only after all other Orthodox churches have done this. In the case of the OCU, only some of them have recognized it, but most have not spoken out yet. The Vatican will be the last," Don Stefano said. He noted that the Holy See recognized all elements of Orthodoxy in the context of a common apostolic church.
"It is a theological recognition, but not a legal one," he explained. The Roman Catholic Church does not maintain official direct contacts with the OCU. "There are only contacts through the local Greek Catholic Church."
Schism in Ukraine
In 2018, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) was created in Kiev after the so-called unification of two schismatic religious organizations and received autocephaly from Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople. As of today, the OCU is recognized by the hierarchs of the churches of Alexandria, Greece and Cyprus, whose bishops are mostly Greek, as well as by those in the Church of Constantinople. The decision of the Patriarch of Alexandria was also supported by the Synod of the Church of Alexandria. However, most of the local Orthodox churches do not recognize the OCU.
The Russian Orthodox Church responded to the recognition of the dissenters by breaking off relations with Constantinople and those bishops in other local churches who agreed with the Ukrainian schism. After the establishment of the OCU, its supporters began to seize churches of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church by force.