PROGRESS IN UKRAINE-VATICAN RELATIONS.

President Leonid Kuchma conferred with the Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano in Kyiv yesterday. They discussed the opening of diplomatic missions on a mutual basis and a possible visit to Ukraine by Pope John Paul II. Kuchma’s spokesman cited the president as stating that five million practicing Ukrainian Catholics make Ukraine “a part of the Catholic world.” Kuchma pointed out that some 600 church buildings were returned to Roman Catholics and some 700 to Eastern-rite (Uniate) Catholics in Ukraine in the last few years. The official communique’s wording about a possible Papal visit was very cautious–in apparent anticipation of objections from the Russian-affiliated Orthodox Church in Ukraine. That Church also resists the return of property to Ukrainian Catholics. (Ukrainian agencies, June 3)

KRAVCHUK EMERGES AS ANTI-COMMUNIST CHOICE FOR PARLIAMENT CHAIRMANSHIP.