Pope John Paul II has rightly expressed concern over his scheduled visit to Ukraine this summer. Addressing pilgrims from that country yesterday he said he awaited the visit with anxiety. By travelling there he will be entering a political and religious minefield in which Christian churches are openly hostile to each other. He may also meet President Leonid Kuchma who is currently accused of involvement in the murder of a journalist.
Ukraine is deeply divided in linguistic and religious terms. The eastern part of the country is largely Russian-speaking and Orthodox. In the west, centred on the city of Lviv, the population is Ukrainian-speaking with large areas adhering to the Eastern Rite Catholic faith. The western part of the country is in a politicoreligious ferment engendered by strong nationalistic and anti-Russian feeling. Not surprisingly, the Russian Orthodox Church has been targeted. It has, however, retained the loyalty of a large number of Ukrainians despite a bitter challenge from a new and zealous Ukrainian Orthodox Church with its headquarters in St Vladimir's cathedral in Kiev. But the tension between the Orthodox churches is relatively minor compared to the acrimony which has arisen between Moscow and Rome over the revival of the Eastern-Rite Catholic Church in Ukraine. This Church, whose members are known as Greek Catholics, was banned by Stalin and its premises handed over to the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox faith. It also remains essentially an underground Church in the Russian Federation. After Ukraine's independence, the Greek Catholics began to take over Russian churches which had previously belonged to them. This religious revival, however justified, was also accompanied by an unrelenting zealotry verging on fanaticism, frequently on the part of US and Canadian citizens of Ukrainian origin who returned to their mother country.
As a result, the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, Alexiy II has blocked all the Pope's attempts to visit Russia which has a Catholic population made up largely of people of Polish, Lithuanian, Belarusan and Ukrainian origin. Significantly, on his visit to Rome last year, President Vladimir Putin did not extend an invitation to the Pope to visit Moscow.
On the political side, Pope John Paul will find himself confronted with another, perhaps even more delicate, situation. Ukraine's President, Mr Leonid Kuchma, stands accused of complicity in the murder of a journalist who was investigating political corruption. Demonstrators on the streets of Kiev have been calling for Mr Kuchma's resignation.
While the Vatican has expressed the hope that the visit will reopen an ecumenical debate in Ukraine, there is a danger that it may lead to an increase of sectarian friction. As for meeting Mr Kuchma, Vatican policy has always been to engage in dialogue with political leaders, whatever their record, although many Ukrainian citizens may view such a meeting as support for the presidency.