The religious tensions that trouble Ukraine could be solved, Cardinal Lubomyr Husar said, "if Ukraine had one patriarch for all." He told the Religious Information Service of Ukraine that on this basis, Ukrainian Christians could "return to the primary unity."

The Ukrainian prelate argued that "neither Moscow nor Rome will give us unity." Instead, he said, Ukrainian Catholics should join in a single Church, and then "Rome, Constantinople, or Moscow-- which is much younger compared to them-- will just accept this fact."

It is not essential, Cardinal Husar said, that the patriarch of this Ukrainian Church should be a Catholic. The single requirement for such a leader, he said, is that "this patriarch should be a man capable of uniting everyone."

However, the leader of the Ukrainian Catholic Church-- which is the largest Eastern Church in communion with Rome-- went on to say that a united Ukrainian Church must also be in communion with Rome. Therefore, he said, even if the patriarch is not now a Catholic, he would soon enter into full communion with the Holy See.

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