CWN - Emphasizing that Ukraine is not experiencing “a local conflict, but an external assault,” the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church said at a press conference that he has told Pope Francis that his use of the term “fratricidal war … has hurt the sensibilities of the Ukrainians.”
At the same time, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk said that Ukraine’s bishops “felt understood, welcomed, and encouraged” by the Pope during their recent ad limina visit and that they invited the Pope to visit Ukraine.
“I have asked the Holy Father and various bodies of the Roman Curia to launch an appeal for humanitarian aid on an international level,” he added. “We have managed to provide shelter to 40,000 people in our Ukrainian Caritas centers, but this is not enough: there are 140,000 children among the displaced and then there are the wounded. So in order to really save human lives we need solidarity on an international level.”
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