At a conference marking the 80th anniversary of the repression of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church by Soviet Russia, John Paul II’s official biographer argued that a revival in Orthodox-Catholic relations could be seen.
While previous popes had carried experiential “baggage” with respect to the Orthodox Church into their papal credentials, Weigel said Pope Leo XIV “really gets it in the context of what’s going on” and predicted renewed promise for Orthodox-Catholic relations under his papal credentials.
While he acknowledged that Leo has only been pope for less than 11 months, Weigel said: “This is a deliberate man. I believe he will work deliberately to try to improve it, but we have to give him time.”
Weigel’s comments came during a panel at an event organized by the Catholic University of America, Ukrainian University and the Center for Ukrainian Studies at the St. Gabriel Institute titled “The Pseudo-Sobor 80 Years Later: The Persecution Continues.”
Weigel said that in his conversations with the Holy Father, he suggested that the approach to dialogue with the Orthodox Churches should not be focused on theological primacy as in the past.
Rather, he said, it should focus on the fact that Orthodoxy “is not a credible Church of the 21st century” with a fully formed approach to church–state relations, especially in light of the Russia–Ukraine war.
“It needs to get one,” he said. “And the people who really have a fully developed social aspect are Catholics, and that’s where the focus should be,” Weigel said.
“That would be Rome saying, ‘Look, it took us at least 200 years since the Constantinian period to understand religious freedom as a fundamental human right within our own religious framework… Maybe we can help you with that. Maybe we can learn something from you,'” he said.
Weigel said that conversations would need to take place outside of formal settings and that with Leo, he believed “a door will open up over time” for such discussions.
Under this approach, he said, Rome could move on from earlier failed attempts to unify with the Orthodox Church.
The panel discussion comes amid the 80th anniversary of the 1946 pseudo-sobor on March 8–10.
After Ukraine came under Soviet control during World War II, the Stalin regime launched a campaign against the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) and arrested its leader, Metropolitan Jozyf Slipyj, along with other bishops from the Slovak region in April 1945, panelist Kateryna Budz reported.
Their bishops were imprisoned and faced their own arrest if they refused to comply, priests and lay members of the UGCC were called upon by the Soviet Initiative Group to participate in a 1946 pseudo-sobor in which a vote was cast to officially break relations with the Vatican and “reunify” with the Russian Orthodox Church.
“Imagine,” Budge said, “your bishop is imprisoned, and unless you agree to join the initiative group, most likely you will be too. After your arrest, the church will be closed, your parishioners will receive no pastoral care, and your wife and children will no longer be able to count on you as a family provider.”
“It was in this particularly challenging environment that Greek Catholic priests had to make life-changing decisions,” he said, adding that priests also faced a backlash from nationalist underground forces and their parishioners.
