Pope Makes Peace Offering to Ukrainians in Poland : Religion: John Paul presents them with a cathedral in effort to soothe ‘the memory of past conflicts.’

Pope John Paul II took his message to the Soviet border regions of Poland on Sunday, greeting thousands of Ukrainians who crossed the frontier to see him for the first time.

The pontiff, on the second day of his fourth trip to Poland, held a Mass for a throng estimated at 500,000 in the eastern Polish city of Rzeszow and went on to Przemysl, just nine miles from the Soviet border, bringing a message of tolerance to Catholics of Roman and Eastern Rite churches, whose relations have been strained by memories of war and decades of mistrust.

John Paul met with a congregation of Ukrainians of the Eastern Catholic Rite at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Cathedral in Przemysl and announced that the church would be turned over to the Ukrainian Catholics, a gesture aimed at reconciling a long dispute between the Latin and Eastern Rite congregations, both of whom recognize the authority of the Pope.

“Both our nations have passed through so much bitterness and torment in the last few decades,” the pontiff said. “May this experience serve as absolution, soothing the memory of past conflicts, offenses and mutual distrust and above all making the forgiveness of past harms easier.”

He urged the two congregations to search for unity. “Any attempt to revive the historical nationalisms and aversions would be against the Christian identity and a glaring anachronism, unworthy of two great nations,” the Pope said.

Ethnic Ukrainians living in this region of Poland were persecuted by Poles at the end of World War II, with much of their property confiscated and their churches closed by the state and eventually given over to the Roman Catholic Church.

The Pope earlier this year announced that a former Ukrainian church in Przemysl, St. Theresa’s, would be returned to the Ukrainian Catholics.

But a group of Poles staged an occupation of St. Theresa’s, and, after local consultations, it was decided to turn over the Sacred Heart Cathedral instead.

The Ukrainian Catholics have been using the cathedral for several years, although it is officially a church of the Roman rite.

John Paul’s announcement, read from the altar of the cathedral, was greeted by long applause and tears of joy from scores in the congregation.

One member of the Ukrainian Catholic congregation, who had wiped tears from his eyes at the Pope’s announcement, Wlodzimierz Dendj, remembered being forced to move from Przemysl with other ethnic Ukrainians in 1947. He saw the restoration of an official Ukrainian Church, to be the seat of a newly appointed bishop for the church, as a vindication.

“The holy father took a decision which was a compromise, but it basically satisfies us,” he said.

About 10,000 Soviet citizens from the Ukraine made the pilgrimage to Przemysl in a fleet of buses to see the Pope.

BACKGROUND

The Ukrainian-Byzantine rite, or Uniates, a branch of the Catholic church that retains some elements of Eastern ritual but recognizes the authority of the Pope, suffered under Communist rule and existed only under the protection of the Polish Catholic church. Poland waged wars against the Ukrainians in the 17th Century over territory, and the Ukrainian Partisan Army fought for independence in southeastern Poland for two years after World War II until it was crushed by the Polish army in 1947. There are about 300,000 Uniates in Poland.