_WORLD WATCH______________________________
____________________ UKRAINE ________________

New Latin diocese erected
This time, no controversy
Pope John Paul II has created a new Latin-rite diocese in Ukraine. The Diocese of Zakarpattie will replace an apostolic administration in the region, in southwestern Ukraine, near the Hungarian border. The apostolic administrator, Msgr. Antal Majnek, will be the first bishop.

The Vatican decision to create four new dioceses in Russia, replacing the apostolic administrations there, drew an extremely angry reaction from the Russian Orthodox Church. The move in Ukraine, however, is likely to be less controversial.

Although there have been repeated clashes between Catholic and Orthodox believers in Ukraine, the tensions have pitted the Orthodox against Byzantine-rite Ukrainian Catholics. Latin-rite Catholics—who account for only about 25 percent of the country’s Catholic population—have generally not been directly involved in the confrontations. The Latin-rite population is centered primarily in the west of the country, where the new diocese is located. Byzantine Catholics predominate in the eastern regions.

The Orthodox Church in Ukraine is split among three separate competing patriarchates. Two of the three groups have friendly relations with the Holy See. The third group, which is aligned with the Russian Orthodox Patriarchate of Moscow, has been sharply critical of the Catholic Church, and opposed the visit by Pope John Paul II to Ukraine in June 2001.