UGCC Head Says Russian Church Aided Stalin; Wants Russian Orthodox Church to Admit Its Role

The Catholic Culture website reports today (March 22, 2012) that ecumenical relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) are being stymied because the Moscow patriarchate will not admit its culpability for cooperating with the Stalinist regime, says Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk.

The leader of the UGCC -- which suffered brutal persecution during the Stalin era -- said that the Russian Orthodox should acknowledge their role in that historic era.

The UGCC leader said that the Moscow patriarchate's unwillingness to acknowledge moral responsibility for cooperating in the persecution is "a serious obstacle to the development of mutual relations."

The Moscow patriarchate insists that tensions in Ukraine are caused primarily by the activity of the UGCC, which is interfering in the "canonical territory" of the Moscow patriarchate.