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KIEV, Ukraine (CNS) -- Orthodox leaders in Ukraine are warning of
negative consequences for Vatican relations if the Ukrainian Catholic Church
moves its cathedral to the capital, Kiev.
The planned move from the western city of Lviv to Kiev is viewed as a
provocation by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate,
whose leading clerics describe the construction of a new Catholic cathedral
on the banks of the Dnepr River in foreboding terms, according to the
Catholic News Service on Wednesday, April 16, 2003.
"It is evidence that their expansion to the East is continuing. The
uniates have not given up their plans," said an Orthodox spokesman, Father
Georgy Kovalenko. "Uniate" is a term some Orthodox use to describe
Eastern-rite Catholics in union with Rome.
The Orthodox claim a vast swath of the world from the Baltic Sea to the
Pacific Ocean as their historical and canonical territory. Kiev, known as
the "Mother of Russian Cities" and the place where in 988 St. Vladimir
accepted Christianity as a state religion, occupies an especially beloved
place in Orthodox history.
The story about the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate
and their strong refusal to support freedom of religion in Ukraine and
other many other places was monitored by the Ukraine Market Reform
Group and the www.ArtUkraine.com Information Service in Kyiv,
Ukraine and Washington, D.C.
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