Pope John Paul II this morning sets out on one of the most controversial of all the 94 overseas trips of his 23-year pontificate when he starts a five-day pastoral visit to Ukraine. Tensions between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, stretching as far back as the great schism of 1054, form the backdrop to a visit that has also stirred up internal Ukrainian political divisions.
As many as 10,000 Orthodox Christians, many of them loyal to the Moscow Patriarchate, have this week protested against the visit, filing past the Papal Nunciature in Kiev to shout slogans such as "No to catholic expansionism" and "Ukraine does not need the Pope".
Coming just six weeks after the Pope's visit to Greece, which also prompted strong objections from Orthodox believers, this Ukraine trip may further strain the ecumenical dialogue between what the ageing Pope who has often referred to as the "right and left lungs of Europe".
Ostensibly, the Pope is making a pastoral visit to Ukraine's five million Eastern or Byzantine Rite Catholics, mainly based in Western Ukraine and often referred to as "Uniates" since being united with Rome in 1596. The Russian Orthodox Church, however, to which the Urkainian Orthodox population has deep historical ties, is strongly opposed to the visit.
The issue of church property is just one of the many raw nerves touched by this visit. In 1946, Stalin effectively liquidated the Eastern-Rite Catholic Church, handing over its property to the Orthodox Church. Subsequent to the downfall of communism and the emergence of an independent Ukraine in 1991, Catholics all over western Ukraine took back their old churches, often using forceful means. This "repossession" has led the Orthodox Church to accuse Rome of being bent on proselytisation or cultural expansionism.
Urkainian orthodoxy has split into the three main factions since independence: the Moscow patriarchate, which is the largest group; the Kievan patriarchate; and the tiny Autocephalous church. Metropolitan Volodymyr, leader of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine, has called on the Vatican to cancel the visit and has ruled out any meeting with the Pope by announcing that he will be "out of the country" for the duration.