[Ohio UZO News] Ukraine: NYT; Reuters; WoE; Den"

[Deychak, Orest]

The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/23/world/europe/23ukraine.html?scp=8&sq=Ukraine&st=cse (with photos)

 

RUDNO JOURNAL

A Flock Grows Right at Home For a Priest In Ukraine 

By CLIFFORD J. LEVY 

23 March 2010

NYTF

Late Edition - Final

4

RUDNO, Ukraine -- Let the rest of Europe be convulsed by debates over whether the celibacy of Roman Catholic priests is causing sex abuse scandals like the one now unfolding in Germany. Here in western Ukraine, many Catholic priests are married, fruitful and multiplying -- with the Vatican's blessing.

The many feet scampering around the Volovetskiy home are testament to that.

The family's six children range from Pavlina, 21, to Taras, 9. In the middle is Roman, 16, who wants to be a Catholic priest when he grows up. Just like his father.

Dad is the Rev. Yuriy Volovetskiy, who leads a small parish here and whose wife, Vera, teaches religious school. The Volovetskiys serve in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, which believes that celibate priests are not necessarily better priests.

Ukrainian Greek Catholics represent a branch of Catholicism that is distinct from the far more prevalent Roman Catholic one. The Ukrainian church is loyal to the pope in Rome, and its leader is a cardinal and major archbishop.

But it conducts services that resemble those in Eastern Orthodox Christianity. In religious terms, it follows the Eastern Rite, not the Latin one that is customary in Roman Catholicism.

Historically, the Vatican appears to have tolerated the traditions and attitude toward celibacy of the so-called Eastern Rite Catholics in order to retain a foothold in regions where Orthodox Christianity has dominated. But this exception suggests that the Vatican view on celibacy is not as rigid or monolithic as it might otherwise appear.

And so home life with the Volovetskiys offers this portrait: a father who is a Father, wearing a Catholic clerical collar, doting on his children like any other parent, even organizing an impromptu family musical recital. (''I will sing for you!'' said Irena, 13, while she plucked the strings of the bandura, the Ukrainian national instrument).

Ukrainian priests, while reluctant to criticize Pope Benedict XVI over his unyielding stance on the celibacy requirement, said permitting them to raise families enriched their ability to tend to parishioners' needs.

''It is important when a priest has an understanding of not only himself,'' said Father Volovetskiy, 45, who entered a seminary when he was in his 20s. ''Having a family gives a priest a deeper understanding of how to relate to other people and help other people. It is more natural, it makes more sense, for a priest to have a wife and children.''

The Rev. Roman Kravchyk, 50, a senior Ukrainian Greek Catholic official, said he was often asked by seminary students whether they should try to have a family or remain celibate (sexual relations outside marriage are not an option). He said he did not strongly encourage either, though he pointed out the advantages of marriage.

''It seems to me that when a priest is not married, it is difficult for him to explain things to parishioners,'' Father Kravchyk said. ''Because he has not lived through them.''

He added that celibacy would seem to go against human nature.

''Having a sexual life, no one can escape that,'' he said. ''We are all living people. We are not stones. Though there have to be limits.''

Father Kravchyk and Father Volovetskiy, who were interviewed here in western Ukraine before the scandal broke out in Germany this month, declined to address the issue of whether sexual abuse by priests was connected to celibacy.

The Vatican has rejected such a link. Senior church officials have said that if celibacy was the cause of these scandals, then there would not be problems of child sex abuse outside the priesthood. Still, whether or not a link exists, publicity about the German cases has touched off a renewed debate over the issue.

The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, which has roughly five million adherents in Ukraine, is one of a small number of Eastern Rite Catholic churches. Others also recognize the pope's leadership and permit married priests. These churches account for only about 1 or 2 percent of all Catholics.

The Ukrainian Greek Catholic leader, Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, is celibate, as is typical among the leadership of Eastern Rite Catholic churches. The cardinal has not spoken out in recent days on the issue of celibacy, though he has said that he does not think that ending the requirement would help the Vatican confront the declining number of men who want to become priests.

But Cardinal Christoph Schonborn, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Vienna, suggested this month that in response to the German abuse scandal, the Vatican should question its policies, including celibacy. His spokesman later clarified that Cardinal Schonborn was not calling for abolishing the requirement.

Here in Rudno, a suburb of Lviv, the largest city in western Ukraine, Father Volovetskiy has a small church, St. Volodymyr the Great, that hints at a melding of Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism. Inside, there are depictions of Jesus Christ similar to those seen on Russian icons, as well as photos of Pope John Paul II.

At his home the other day, it was clear how Father Volovetskiy's life diverged from that of a Roman Catholic priest. Mrs. Volovetskiy, 44, was teaching religious school on the first floor to 20 or so young children, including their youngest, Taras.

Upstairs, Pavlina, their eldest, who is studying to be an archivist and a religious school teacher, was making lunch. The others, including Yuriy, 18, and Khrystyna, 10, showed off the house. On one wall was an old wedding photo -- Father Volovetskiy carrying his bride, Mrs. Volovetskiy.

The children said they were proud that their father was a priest, though they acknowledged that it was a challenge always having to set an example.

''People may not know you well, but they know who your father is, and they are watching you in the street and in the school,'' said Roman, the 16-year-old. ''It's a little like being a target.''

Father Volovetskiy said having children changed how he approached his calling.

''It helps me to view the world through the eyes of others,'' he said. ''And it helps people trust me more. They see that there is a priest who has a family, and they see how we live. We are part of society.''

PHOTOS: The Rev. Yuriy Volovetskiy and his wife, Vera, prayed at home with two of their six children in Rudno, a suburb of Lviv, the largest city in western Ukraine.; Father Volovetskiy gave communion to his daughter Pavlina, 21, at his parish, St. Volodymyr the Great, part of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. 

MAP: In western Ukraine, many Catholic priests are married and multiplying.

Reuters

Ukraine seeks to overhaul IMF deal, tough talks ahead

March 24, 2010 10:41am EDT

By Yuri Kulikov and Sabina Zawadzki

 

KIEV, March 24 (Reuters) - Ukraine's new leadership went into talks for fresh credit with the International Monetary Fund on Thursday, but did not seem ready to sign up to the fiscal restraint that the Fund has insisted on in the past.

 

The international lender suspended its $16.4 billion bailout programme to the ex-Soviet republic last November, exasperated by bitter political rows, broken promises and the threat of a dirty election campaign for president.

 

After the election of President Viktor Yanukovich, however, and the establishment of a new government dominated by his supporters, investors had hoped turmoil would recede.

 

Gaining IMF funds remains a key test for the Yanukovich leadership as Ukraine's economy, which shrank 15 percent last year, remains battered by an economic crisis and state finances are sapped by a traditionally bulky social support system.

 

But as talks began in Kiev with an IMF mission, Deputy Prime Minister Sergey Tigipko set out far softer economic targets than those the Fund believes are right for the ex-Soviet economy.

In the past, the Fund has demanded increases in heavily subsidised household gas prices, the scrapping of a 20 percent minimum wage increase supported by parliament and a 2010 budget with about a 4 percent deficit.

 

Tigipko, a businessman and former central banker in charge of economic reforms in his new post, seemed to have contradicted all these demands. 

 

He said domestic gas prices might not need to be raised even though Kiev would be paying more for its gas from Russia and expected the minimum wage to rise by 23 percent -- indicating the government intended to go ahead with last year's law on wage increases.

 

Tigipko also talked of a "new" two-year deal with the IMF after disbursement of the $6 billion eligible under the present programme once it had been revived.

 

"Ukraine would like to have a new medium-term programme with the IMF over two years," Tigipko told journalists.

 

"We will discuss all questions. We have to agree positions on the 2010 budget and renew the programme. These will not be easy negotiations. We have 10 days before us," he said.

 

The IMF has not made recent concrete comments on what conditions it might set in its talks but analysts said Ukraine knows it has to compromise and the IMF, in return, could give some leeway -- as it has done during each review since the start of the programme in November last year.

 

"I think it is very likely we will see a new programme. I think the IMF will be supportive of this. It will probably be a 2-year programme with some additional monies, perhaps to bulk existing money to $10 billion," said Tim Ash of RBS.

 

"Discussions ... are likely to be tricky, particularly if the government persists with the claim that domestic gas prices do not need to be hiked and that minimum wages can be increased," said Koon Chow of Barlcays Capital.

 

"However, Ukraine clearly needs IMF funds and to shore up policy credibility by unfreezing the programme. Therefore we think the government will likely compromise," he said.

 

ROOM FOR COMPROMISE?

 

Tigipko said gas prices may not need to be raised at home, even though Kiev will pay $334 per 1,000 cubic metres of Russian gas on average this year, higher than last year's average price estimated by the previous government at $228 per tcm.

 

"One thing I can say -- $334 is an extraordinarily high price, but with such a price according to finance ministry preliminary calculations we can more or less balance our budget without especially raising prices in the domestic sector," he said.

 

Ukrainian officials have also travelled to Moscow this week to try to bring down the price of Russian gas -- at European market levels for the first time this year.

 

Analysts say, however, that because households consume gas that is extracted by Ukraine itself and not Russian imports that are traditionally consumed by industries, the IMF may relent on this condition.

 

"The view on domestic gas prices will probably be that if the government wants to keep low gas prices, then savings will need to be made elsewhere in the budget and the same goes with wage, pension hikes," Ash, head of CEEMA research at RBS, said.

 

Tigipko, speaking to journalists after a regular cabinet meeting, said the 2010 budget deficit could be 4.5-5.0 percent of GDP, without taking account of any financial support for Naftogaz which last year amounted to 2.4 extra percentage points.

 

Naftogaz is the sole importer of Russian gas, priced increasingly high yet sold at home at cheap prices. In that way, its finances have become shattered and it has become a big burden on state finances.

 

Tigipko said the budget deficit last year reached 6.6 percent. He also said he expected real average wages to rise 5.0 percent this year.

 

Window on Eurasia: Moscow’s Expectations for Ukraine Excessive, Likely to Be Dashed, Kremlin Expert Says

 

 Paul Goble

 

            Vienna, March 23 – Russian commentaries on the consequences of Viktor Yanukovich’s election as president of Ukraine have raised expectations in Moscow to such an unrealistically high point that some or all of them almost certainly are going to be dashed in the months ahead, according to a Kremlin expert on national security.

 

            In a comment posted online this week, Aleksandr Mikhaylenko, a professor of national security at the Russian Academy of Government Service in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, says “the idealization of the post-election situation in Ukraine” is not in Russia’s interest.

 

            Since the Ukrainian presidential elections, the national security specialist says, the Russian media have been filled with materials which “excessively idealize the situation in Ukraine,” thus creating among Russians and the Russian political class “heightened expectations” about where Kyiv will go with respect to Moscow.

 

            But, he continues, “an analysis shows that the elections just past were yet another testimonial of the fact that [Ukraine] remains split in half.”  That provides the explanation for the “transparency and democracy” of the elections: “the forces of the competing sides [were and remain] approximately equal.”

 

            Indeed, Mikhaylenko continues, Yanukovich won “to a significant degree” thanks to the actions of his predecessor Viktor Yushchenko, who behaved in such a way that he guaranteed he would lose. As a result, the Moscow writer say, many in Ukraine and in Russia are ready to award Yushchenko the title of Hero of Russia for opening the way for Yanukovich.

 

            And that even division explains both why there was not an echo of the Orange Revolution this time around and why Yanukovich almost certainly will behave very differently now that he is Ukrainian president than he said he would while he was engaged in a campaign to gain that office.

 

            Yulia Timoshenko, whom Yanukovich defeated, clearly was thinking about a repetition of the earlier events, pointedly declaring after the vote that “Yanukovich is not our president,” but the new incumbent countered by bringing in his supporters in the force structures into the Ukrainian capital in a show of force.

 

            That prevented an Orange Revolution II, Mikhaylenko says, but adds that “it is not difficult [for him] to imagine that the next time [there is a political crisis in Ukraine] the opposition will call people to come out into the streets,” something that makes predicting the future of Kyiv’s policies extremely difficult.

 

            And Yanukovich clearly is aware that governing is different than campaigning. By making his first foreign visit to Brussels rather than to Moscow and by declaring that Ukrainian will remain “the single state language,” the new president has shown that he is not going to change direction too far or too quickly lest he exacerbate tensions inside Ukraine.

 

            There has not been and will not be a “180 degree” change of direction under Yanukovich.  “No one needs” what that would entail, the Moscow analyst continues, recalling that one of Yushchenko’s first mistake in 2005 was to replace some 18,000 government employees, insisting on loyalty and getting “absolute incompetence.” No one wants a repetition.

            

             For all these reasons, the Moscow advisor concludes, no one in the Russian capital should assume that there now exists, after Yanukovich’s rise to office, “a single scenario for the development of the political situation in Ukraine” and that that scenario points to a complete rapprochement between Kyiv and Moscow.

 

            “Alongside these excessively optimistic prognostications,” Mikhaylenko argues, “one must keep in mind other possible variants as well.” It could be that Ukraine will not turn toward Russia as many in Russia expect, not only because of its internal divisions but because of Russian and Western actions.

 

            And at the very least, the Kremlin advisor says, there is going to be in the Ukrainian capital “a lengthy struggle” among the various contenders none of whom has left the scene.  Moscow, Mikhaylenko says, must “construct its policy” toward Kyiv not only reflecting Russia’s interests but also Ukraine’s real situation.

 


Den’ (The Day)


More coverage of the March 18th Helsinki Commission hearing on Ukraine:


США — Україна: новий шанс


Вашингтон готовий допомогти Києву вийти з економічної кризи

http://www.day.kiev.ua/294009/ <http://www.day.kiev.ua/294009/> 

 

For hearing press release, unofficial transcript, statements and video:  www.csce.gov

 

 

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