The leader of the Eastern-rite Ukrainian Catholic Church has made what sounds to my ears like a strange proposal: He wants a single, unified patriarchate for both Catholics and Orthodox, independent from Moscow, Rome, and Constantinople, although he says it should be in communion with Rome.
The situation in Ukraine is complex. First, you have the tiny Latin-rite Catholic Church. It’s so small as to not really figure into the situation. Then you have the much larger Ukrainian Catholic Church of the Eastern rite, which is in union with Rome. Third, you have the various Orthodox patriarchates: the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kiev Patriarchate, which split from Moscow after the fall of the Soviet Union; the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate, which remained united to Moscow; and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Church, a much smaller Orthodox group that also broke from Moscow.
