Moscow celebrations mark rapprochement between Orthodox Church and Ukrainian Catholics

Papal team meets Gorbachev
by Vivienne Hewitt in Rome
VATICAN Secretary of State, Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, is preparing for a series of talks with Soviet leaders at the Kremlin during his sojourn in Moscow for the Christian Millennium celebrations, unofficial church sources said.
Annoucing details of the Holy See delegation for the event, which opened on Sunday, the Vatican said the official church spokesman, Spaniard Joaquin Navarro, would also travel with the Rome party.
His surprise inclusion suggests Cardinal Casaroli has lined up a mini-summit with Soviet leaders, probably to prepare the way for a papal visit if not next year, then in 1990, sources said.
Papal representatives at the Millennium celebrations will be divided into two groups. One comprises eight cardinals led by Cardinal Franz Koenig, former Archbishop of Vienna and includes Milan Archbishop, Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, and Polish Primate, Cardinal Josef Glemp. With them will be Cardinal Julijans Vaivods, the 93-year-old Apostolic Administrator of Riga, the Latvian capital, and the only cardinal in the Soviet Union until last week when the Pope elevated a second.
This group's duties are to follow all the official celebrations in the cities of Moscow, Leningrad, Minsk, Leopoli, Vladimir, Kiev and Norvogorod.
Cardinal Casaroli leads the second group representing the Holy See. Accompanying him will be Dutch Cardinal Johannes Willebrands of the Congregation for Eastern Churches and French-born Cardinal Roger Etchegaray of' the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples. The three will make up a type of diplomatic party. Apart from religious events, also on the itinerary for the Vatican delegation is a musical evening to be televised at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow on Friday, and a reception at the Kremlin next Monday when Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev will receive them.
No details are available on other, private meetings Cardinal
Casaroli may have organised with Gorbachev. However, it has been announced by the Metropolitan Filaret of Kiev and Galioh that the Russian Orthodox Church will be opening discussions next month with the Vatican on the future of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, which has operated underground since 1946 (Catholic Herald, June 3).
Both the Soviet Government and the Orthodox Church have in the past been opposed to the restoration of Ukrainian Catholicism. The former, is wary of the nationalistic implications of such an action. Moreover, it could cause a setback in the growing rapprochement with leaders of the Orthodox Church who are reluctant to hand back the property and jurisdiction which were taken over in 1946.
Metropolitan Filaret warned that if Catholic representatives became "aggressive" over the issue, it would strain improving relations between the Orthodox and Catholic hierarchies.
The Rome representatives left on Wednesday for Moscow, while Orthodox hierarchy were concluding a special synod at the Monastery of St Sergei 50 miles from Moscow.
On Sunday the Orthodox Church has organised a special Mass of thanksgiving in Moscow's Trinity Cathedral.
A notable absentee from the Moscow celebrations "for reasons unknown" is Dimitrios I, Patriarch of Constantinople. The Russian Church stressed he had been invited, but that "everyone is free to accept the invitation or not".
Ukrainian Catholics have also refused to send delegates to Moscow claiming that the celebrations should be centred round Kiev, the Ukraine's capital, and where 1,000 years ago, Prince Vladimir was baptised a Christian.
Accordingly they have organised an alternative unofficial celebration which includes the laying of flowers and the lighting of candles around the statue of Prince Vladimir.
Meanwhile all this week half a million bibles, printed in the Soviet Union and gifts in part from churches around the world, are being distributed throughout the country.