Catholic and Orthodox leaders meet in Ukraine as Russian missile strikes intensify

The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine met Tuesday to discuss ecumenical cooperation, hours before Russia launched strikes

The heads of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine met Tuesday to discuss ecumenical cooperation, hours before Russia launched a heavy bombing assault on the country.

Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk (left) is greeted by Metropolitan Epiphanius, Jan. 14, 2024.

Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, who leads the largest of the 23 Eastern Catholic Churches, met Jan. 14 with Metropolitan Epiphanius, leader of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, the autocephalous Ukrainian Church recognized by the Patriarch of Constantinople but not by the Russian Orthodox Church.

The meeting immediately preceded an overnight onslaught by Russian forces, who launched a missile strike against strategic civilian infrastructure in the west of Ukraine, leaving sections of the country without electricity in the dead of winter.

The proximity of the strikes to the Polish border led to NATO jets being scrambled in response.

In their meeting Jan 14, the two Church leaders discussed their recent international trips to shore up support for Ukraine in the face of the ongoing Russian invasion, and their efforts to secure a peace deal: Major Archbishop Shevchuk visited the head of the Orthodox communion, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople in October and Metropolitan Epiphanius went to the Vatican for talks last month — the first such visit by the head of the OCU.

In recent weeks, Pope Francis has indicated that he will accept a long-standing invitation to visit Ukraine, though a date for a papal trip has yet to be set, and diplomats in Russian, Ukraine, and the Vatican all expect the situation to develop further with the return of President Donald Trump to the White House; Trump has said ending the war in Ukraine will be an immediate policy priority.

Francis, too, has made brokering peace in Ukraine a key priority, including securing the return of thousands of Ukrainian children abducted and deported by Russian forces. To that end, Francis has dispatched Cardinal Matteo Zuppi on several visits to Moscow, Kyiv, and Washington as his personal peace envoy.

Last year, two Catholic priests were released from Russian detention after nearly two years of captivity. While details remain unclear, it is widely believed that diplomats from the Holy See played a pivotal role in securing their freedom.

However, despite those overtures, Ukrainian leaders, including Catholics, have been at times sharply critical of the Vatican’s interventions, including statements made by Pope Francis.

The two leaders also discussed how to increase inter-Church cooperation, specifically through the work of the Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations, a body comprising all the Churches and confessional communities of the country.

In the UCCRO’s end of year meeting in December, the body specifically highlighted the state of church-state relations in the country and religious freedom during a time of war, including “problematic issues” like the the transfer of religious property for public use, “the unnecessary requirement [for Churches] to disclose information about their ultimate beneficiaries,” and the status of clergy.

Those concerns are of immediate impact on the country’s third major Church, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church — Moscow Patriarchate, which is in communion with the Russian Orthodox Church.

The UOC-MP has come under increasing pressure and sanction from the Ukrainian government during the war, which considers it “an ideological continuation of the regime of the aggressor state, an accomplice to war crimes and crimes against humanity committed on behalf of the Russian Federation and the ideology of the ‘Russkiy mir.’”

Last year, the Ukrainian parliament passed a law banning institutional collaboration with Russia by religious bodies, essentially handing the UOC-MP an ultimatum to formally sever ties with the Russian Church or face state suppression.

The new law, signed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last August 24, effectively bars activity by the Russian Orthodox Church within Ukraine and required the Ukrainian Orthodox Church connected to the Moscow Patriarchate to completely sever all ties with the patriarchate within nine months.

A state minister told The Pillar at the time of the law’s passage that “The [Ukrainian Orthodox] Church can continue to exist,” and that “the only requirement is to sever ties with the Moscow Patriarch, who is actively involved in propaganda supporting the war against Ukraine.”

“We are not talking about banning a Church for the actions of a few dozen collaborators. The requirement is to cut ties with those who inspired those collaborators,” Victor Yelenskyi, head of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience, told The Pillar last year.

The law came despite the UOC-MP asserting its independence from Moscow in May of 2022, although it initially insisted that it was not formally breaking from ecclesial communion with the Russian Orthodox Church.

Since the beginning of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, authorities have opened more than 100 criminal cases against UOC-MP priests and bishops, with 26 of these cases already resulting in court sentences, according to the Security Service of Ukraine.

These cases primarily involve charges of treason, collaboration, and aiding and abetting Russia.

In 2023, government forces attempted to evict the Church from an historic monastery in Kyiv shortly before Easter, leading to tense scenes during the liturgical feast.