Реферат: Catholic

case they came to power, to take church buildings from the Orthodox and give them

over to Eastern Catholics. Therefore, they thought it unnecessary to carry on

dialogue with the Orthodox Church.

The attempts to come into contact with the local or central authorities and to urge

them to insure human rights and religious freedom, brought no result.

The Orthodox continued to be forced out with ever growing malice. Moreover,

world public opinion was distrustful of the protests on the part of the Moscow

Patriarchate, believing that what was going on in Western Ukraine was the reversal

of historical injustice.

In such a situation it was important to do the utmost to bring it home to public

opinion, to international organizations, to Christian Churches, including the Roman

Catholic Church, that beating Orthodoxy in Western Ukraine was not only an act of

violation of human rights and religious freedom, but also an annihilation of

whatever progress the dialogue between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches had

made in the previous years. It was essential to show that uniatism was a dangerous

and unacceptable way for achieving unity.

Unia has brought about new divisions, tearing the One Body of the Orthodox

Church. The four centuries of its maintenance have revealed it as a dangerous form

of proselytism against Orthodoxy. Human sufferings and even bloodshed were the

sad aftermath of the divisions it had caused.

At the same time, it is important to emphasize that while repudiating Unia as a

method, the Churches do not abjure people. The Greek Catholic communities

existing today, with a legal right to existence, like any other religious organization

or association, should cease to be the source of divisions and conflicts between the

Orthodox and Catholics. To serve this purpose, there should be worked out rules to

regulate co-existence and relations in places where there is tension causing the

sufferings of the people of God.

That is precisely why, on the initiative of the Russian Orthodox Church, which found

the support of all Local Orthodox Churches, the Orthodox-Roman Catholic