Untitled PConfessional identity and national engagement. Greek-Catholic Churches of Central Eastern Europe in XIX-XX centuriesage.

Confessional identity and national engagement. Greek-Catholic Churches of Central Eastern Europe in XIX-XX centuries.
May 15-19 2002

An international conference organized by Spiritual-Scientific Centre of Central European History and Culture (GWZO), Leipzig and Institute of Church History L’viv Theological Academy was held in L’viv. It was a good possibility for Greek-Catholic communities to cognise one another better, find out conjointly the new proposals of solving the actual problems, and form a program of their own original ecumenical initiatives.

A laconic phrase of Hans Christian Manner, co-organizer of the seminar, can serve as a credo of this academic forum: "We want to speak about the Church but not without the Church". No doubt that the conference was an unprecedented event from the viewpoint of actuality and manifoldness of the discussed problems as well as an assembly of the participant scholars. First of all, the conference had gathered around one table the representatives of academic elite of mostly all Greek-Catholic Churches of Central and Eastern European region, including, that was no less important, the representatives of Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches. Three main visions of ecclesial identity of Greek-Catholics and their role in ecumenical negotiations was presented in the reports and discussions:

an inner vision and understanding of ecclesiology, ecumenical perspectives and problematical aspects of national and confessional consciousness of each particular as well as all Greek-Catholic Churches in Europe jointly;
Orthodox position concerning the ecclesial status of Greek-Catholics and the problem of “uniatism’ in modern ecumenical discussions;
Roman-Catholic scholar thought concerning the identity of ‘Eastern rite Catholics’ and relations between them.

The presence of these focuses of view contributed to the representation of a complex, objective and multisided picture of the analysed theme.

One more peculiarity that caused success of this symposium was the combining of two levels - historical and theological. Thanks to this organizer’s approach, the conference revealed different academic approaches, methodologies, mentalities and visions that gave the possibility to compare and supplement ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ viewpoints on the discussed problems.

A historical ‘section’ was represented by such scholars as Prof. Dr. Yuriy Avvakumov (Munich), Prof. Dr. Kris Hann (Galle/ Salle), Prof. Dr. Paul Robert Magosci (Toronto), Dr. Sviatlana Marozava (Grodno), Prof. Janko Ramach ( Novy Sad), Dr. Vasyl’ Rasevych (L’viv), Dr. Stanislaw Stepien (Peremyshl’), Dr. Oleh Turiy (L’viv) and others. Historians aimed for an analysis of the role and level of Greek-Catholic Churches’ engagement into the natio-making processes that took place in various Central European countries and regions in XIX – XX centuries such as Halychyna, Bukovyna, Belarus, Transcarpatia, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Yugoslavia.

The main theme of theological discussions was a question of the modern identity of Greek-Catholic Churches. The theologians concentrated their attention on the actual tasks, problems and future chances t hat Greek-Catholics are concerned about, on the one hand, in the process of their own self-reflection and, on the other hand, in relations with Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches. In theological colloquy participated such theologians as d-r Myron Bendyk (Drohobych), Fr. Dr. Sergiusz Gajek (Minsk/Rome), Fr. Dr. Borys Gudziak, Fr. Dr. Ivan Datsko (L’viv/Rome), Prof. Myroslav Marynovych (L’viv), Fr. Dr. Dorin Oancea (Sibiu), Dr. Johannes Oeldemann (Padeborn), Dr. Rudolf Prokschi (Wuerzburg), Fr. Prof. Dr. Ernst Suttner, (Wien) and others.

The historical and theological levels often interconnected and constituted the complementary wholeness.

Summarizing their work, participants stressed the necessity of tolerant approach in making statements and judgments concerning discussed problems and proposed to organise another interdisciplinary forums that should continue to reflect upon the different aspects of presented themes that still needed further investigations.