Orthodox in Kazakhstan Seeking Autocephaly Find Half-Way House in Ukrainian Uniate Congregation Subordinate to Rome

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 2 – Even before Putin launched his expanded invasion of Ukraine and the Moscow Patriarchate blessed that action, some churchmen in Kazakhstan hoped to obtain autocephaly for their church. But the war has increased the urgency and number of such calls for independence from the Moscow church.

            (For background on that trend, see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2023/12/seeking-autocephaly-church-dissident-in.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2023/12/some-orthodox-in-kazakhstan-seek.html and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2023/07/orthodox-leaders-in-kazakhstan-now-say.html.)

            The Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople has not yet come out in direct support of this effort, although judging from its actions in Ukraine, Lithuania and elsewhere, Fanar (the name of the region in Istanbul where the headquarters of that church is located) is very much on the side of the Orthodox in Kazakhstan who are pursuing autocephaly.

            But now, according to Father Yakov Vorontsov, one of the leaders of this drive in Kazakhstan, Orthodox believers in that country have found a half-way house in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Almaty where they can worship according to the principles of Orthodoxy but in a community not subordinate to Moscow (sibreal.org/a/smenit-moskvu-na-konstantinopol/33004030.html).

            Moscow is likely to be especially alarmed by this development, one that will reenforce in Russian minds the notion that autocephaly in the former Soviet space is a Ukrainian project and highlight the role of the Vatican in this effort as well, especially among the smaller Orthodox churches in Central Asia.

            That is because in June 2019, Pope Francis set up an Apostolic Administration of Kazakhstan and Central Asia to oversee the activities of the Uniates and a smaller number of other Byzantine rite churches in the five countries of that region (press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2019/06/01/0471/00976.html).

            Consequently, what some Orthodox in Kazakhstan are now doing will exacerbate relations between Moscow and the Vatican and likely prompt Moscow to provide even more support to conservatives in Roman Catholicism who are opposed to Pope Francis and his policies.