It was no accident that the date of the visit of the Pope was altered for several days (forward). Originally it was scheduled for June 22, the 60th anniversary of the Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union, which inevitably offered an analogy between the Vatican's activity and the aggression of fascist Germany. Despite the altering of the date it's beyond the Roman Pontiff's power to prevent the emergence of such associations anyway. The present visit of the Roman Pope to the canonical territory of the Russian Orthodox Church is not merely an unfriendly act, but a provocative and perfidious move. The open letter of the Ukrainian bishops asking the Pope to postpone the arrival in the country was to persuade the Vatican to change its intention. The fact that this request was ignored was tactless from an ethic point of view; a provocation from a diplomatic point of view and an attempt of expansionism in terms of state policy. The majority of believers, who live in the Ukraine, belong to the single canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. In spite of the ten-year war against the canonical Orthodox Church the number of schismatics as well as, Roman and Greek Catholics together cannot be compared to the number of the faithful of the Moscow Patriarchate, which numbers 35 million, whereas there is only one million Roman Catholics according to the Vatican. To discard the opinion of the Orthodox majority, expressed in the unanimous message of the bishops, is to violate the right of the nation toward self-identify, flout the democratic foundations and international norms.

Not only the leaders of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, but also many public organizations (the Union of the Orthodox Citizens of the Ukraine, a voluntary organization "One Fatherland", numerous Orthodox brotherhoods and movements) and private believers demonstrated against the Pope's visit in their letters and messages to the government of the Ukraine, the church authorities and the mass media.

In 1993 the Vatican and the Russian Orthodox Church (of which the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate is a part) concluded the Balamand agreement on mutual respect and the renunciation of proselytism in each other's canonical territories. In its present context this step of the Pope brings to mind the non-aggression pact between the Soviet Union and fascist Germany, which was flouted by Hitler on 22 June 1941.

By the way, the Ukrainian uniates, (or Greek Catholics) grew infamous during the WW II through their active cooperation with Nazis. It is symbolic that the present head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Lubomir Guzar was ordained bishop by the leader of the UGCC Josip Slipy - the spiritual father of the ominous "SS-Galichina" division , which was made up of uniates living in Galitsia. It's noteworthy that the Guzars emigrated to Austria from the Ukraine in 1944 - after it had been freed from the Nazi invaders. Once Hitler declared the German race to be the highest, he himself was worshipped as a god. Now the Vatican tries to make the words of the "spiritual father" of (the) Galisian Greek Catholicism Metropolitan Andrei Sheptitsky come true: "The Ukrainians are the tool of Divine Providence, and their true vocation is to free the Christian East from the fetters of heresy", (i.e. Orthodoxy). And this is done under the leadership of the "father of the peoples" the infallible Roman pontiff.

At the same time the Vatican clearly understands its more than ambiguous position in the eyes of the international public opinion. That is why again and again the Curia's proxies conduct negotiations with His Holiness the Patriarch and the Department of External Church Relations. In spite of the fact that the negotiations are held behind closed doors, it is obvious that the Vatican strives for a compromise and puts much effort in alleviating the position of the Orthodox Church. The Pontiff understands that otherwise his visit will be an international scandal, which was implied in the official statement of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the March 30. The Vatican is even ready to make considerable concessions - at least in word. After the publication of the Ukrainian bishops' letter to the Papal Nuncio, Nickolai Eterovich hurried to announce that the pontiff had no intention to meet with Filaret Denisenko, the leader of the schismatics.

But the main means for saving the Pope's reputation has been a PR campaign. In this context a part of the relics of Saint Nicholas was brought to the Russian Church; the Moscow Patriarchate was given a church in Rome; and the declaration was made of the possible return of the Icon of our Lady of Kazan which is now kept by the Pontiff . The fact that the Ukrainian Greek Catholics are called "independent" is also within the carefully considered informational strategy - it is obvious to an unbiased observer that they submit directly to the Pope, who appointed Lubomir Guzar Cardinal.

Another PR move is the Pope's assertion that he is going to visit Lvov as the Head of the Roman Catholic Church, while in Kiev he will be only a state leader. Now it turned out that the Pope is going to serve two solemn masses in Kiev - apparently not as a state leader (the events in Greece followed the same scheme, where the Pontiff wanted to arrive as a "common pilgrim", but having received the permission he suddenly began craving for more). To make the solution of the propagandist tasks more effective, they opened a Roman Catholic Church press-center in Kiev on March 31.

The constant theme of the mass media's publications controlled by the Vatican is the assertion of the role of the "hand of Moscow" in opposition to the Pope's visit, of the "unwillingness" of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy to carry out a dialogue. While it is absolutely evident (and the Church Hierarchs have repeatedly stressed it) that it was the Vatican's aggressive actions in the Ukraine which excluded the possibility of a normal dialogue. At the annual meeting of the International Fund of the Orthodox Peoples His Holiness Patriarch Alexy said the main obstacle to the fruitful interaction was "the Catholic expansionism in the territory of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan." The Patriarch interpreted it as revenge for a failed attempt to catholisize Russia in the 17th century. (But it does resemble Hitler's aspiration's for world domination...)

June 22 we will remember a dreadful jubilee - the 60th anniversary of the invasion of the Russian land by the mad fanatic, dictator and murderer of millions. Kiev was bombed that day… Does the Roman Pope understand what bloody associations his visit brings? Will he listen to reason or will follow the logical consequence of coincidence to its frightful totalitarian end?