Uniatism

Uniatism, also known as Greek Catholicism, is a hybrid form of Roman Catholicism, which tries to imitate the externals of the Orthodox Church. In reality, despite much inflated figures, there are few Uniats in the world – actual numbers may well be fewer than two million. This at least is positive because Uniatism is a spiritual illness based on alienation from the Church. Of course, I do not speak here of the average Uniat. Bribed, tricked and starved into an outward semi-submission, Orthodox remained in their souls Orthodox, but that is not the case of their latinised and shaven clergy.

For instance, I well remember the story of a friend who visited the Galician (so-called ‘Ukrainian’) Uniat church in London. When the priest began praying for the ‘Pope of Rome’, my friend turned to one of the parishioners and asked him: ‘So you’re Catholic then?’ He was insulted by this and answered, ‘No, no, we’re Orthodox’ – ‘my pravoslavnye’. My friend then said, ‘But your priest is praying for the Pope’. To which he received the reply, ‘Oh, but that’s just him, I don’t know or care what he believes in, but we’re Orthodox’.

I also recall the story of a convert from Catholicism. Taking up Orthodoxy with great enthusiasm, he began painting icons. However, once his initial burst of enthusiasm had died down, he began to lapse and so did his iconographical style. His ‘icons’ began to resemble Uniat ‘icons’. That is to say, his imitative technique was very good, but there was no content, they were empty shells, pictures before which no-one had any desire to pray. Similarly, so-called ‘Orthodox’ music, like that recorded by the Uniat ‘Theophanie’ group in France, is technically excellent, perhaps perfect, but it is just a background noise, an electronic ‘muzak’, which inspires no prayer.

The fact is that the Catholic world, with huge amounts of money and infrastructure, has a great intellectual tradition. Thus, for critical editions of texts of the Church Fathers the French