Religious Conflict in Ukraine

Ukraine's Eastern Rite Catholics on Sunday moved their church headquarters to Kiev amid protests from nationalists and objections from Orthodox believers whose leaders warn the move will further stoke inter-church tensions.

Cardinal Lubomur Husar conducted a ceremony for more than 1,000 believers and priests of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church after he was declared Metropolitan of Kiev and after a priest announced the church's move from the western city of Lviv.

While priests and believers sang hymns against the backdrop of a new church being built, several hundred nationalists and Orthodox believers gathered under red flags, carrying Orthodox icons, chanting through loudspeakers and partially drowning out Husar's words.

``Orthodox or death!'' some yelled as others jostled believers trying to attend the service. ``You can kill us but you cannot take our faith from us!'' others yelled.

Wow. This level of hostility toward the Catholic Church easily exceeds a lot of the stuff that I've seen coming out of some quarters of American Protestantism. Then again, since the conflict between the Orthodox and Catholic Church has been around for over a thousand years, I suppose it really shouldn't be too surprising.