Latin and Ukrainian Catholics Dispute Church

Church of the Presentation of Christ, Lviv, Ukraine

(Warsaw)Ukraine's Eastern-rite cardinal has written his Latin-rite counterpart in an effort to resolve what church sources say is the first intra-Catholic dispute over a church building....Read more here.

This is the continuation of a series of disputes that have arisen over the fate of former Latin-rite churches in the city. As a once predominantly Polish (and therefore Roman) Catholic city, Lwow (Lviv) now must face the uncomfortable decisions that are the results of sixty years of communist goverments. When are confiscated churches to be returned? To whom are they returned? Who pays for the costs of remodeling (some were converted into concert halls, others into basketball arenas, and others into libraries and office buildings). For any adventurous architects out there, now is the time to go there to help everybody sort these problems out.

What is truly needed is a massive effort on the part of both the Ukrainian Church and the Roman Church to leave past grievances behind, and to move forward in order to build a strong, Christian Ukraine. The seeds of the New Evangelization were sown by JPII in 2002 during his visit--and I saw the thousands of Ukrainians at Pope Benedict's meeting with youth in Krakow last year. These young and zealous Catholics must not give up their faith and bend to the lures of secularism, and must seek to strengthen their faith particualrly through their unique religious heritage.