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Last Updated: 25 October 2016

risu.org.ua - Thanks to the coordinated cooperation between the faithful, hierarchs and priests in Western Europe, where the UGCC has no church entities, 255 religious communities have been successfully opened, 173 of which are under the care of priests. Head of PMD Bishop Joseph (Milian) was reported as saying this in a speech the meeting of bishops of the Eastern Catholic Churches of Europe, which continues in the Portuguese town of Fatima.

“The phenomenon of migration to modern Europe has become a major challenge, in which some see a threat, while others see a chance. Looking at this phenomenon in the light of faith, one can see the hand of Divine Providence, which wisely leads humanity. The light of faith tells us to see each the person sent us by the Lord, firstly as a child of God, who is created in His image and likeness. I am sure that only such theological approach can help us find answers to questions about where and in which direction we should move in the pastoral care of the eastern Catholic migrants in Europe,” Bishop Joseph said.

The bishop stressed that the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church continues to work and continue to work hard to pastoral care had all the faithful in their countries of residence. In order to properly coordinate the pastoral care, he said, in 2007, the Pastoral Migration Department was officially founded, "that I head within the mission I was entrusted by the head of the UGCC.”

The activities of the department, according to the head of PMD, were aimed primarily at establishing pastoral care in countries where the UGCC has its own church entities. “Thanks to the coordinated cooperation between the faithful, hierarchs and priests in Western Europe, where the UGCC has no church entities, 255 religious communities have been successfully opened, 173 of which are under the care of priests. It is just superficial statistics, but the number of communities tends to grow,” Bishop Joseph said.

The bishop noted that Ukrainian migrants engender a new Ukrainian diaspora in Europe, being more and more aware of the need for the development of their church identity through active participation in the sacraments of their Church.

“I think the time, Kairos, has come when we have a chance in Europe to apprehend the beauty of the Catholic Church in full, in its various rites and liturgical traditions. We are required only to create conditions to ensure that they are properly developed and serve spiritual and cultural heritage of the people, where they found their protection,” head of PMD said. It was reported by the Information Department of the UGCC.

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Last Updated: 25 October 2016

Lisbon (risu.org.ua) - With a heartfelt appeal to the international community for an end to the conflict in Ukraine and a reminder about persecuted Christians especially in the Middle East, the Patriarch of Lisbon, Cardinal Manuel Clemente, this afternoon in the Portuguese capital opened the meeting of the Bishops of the Catholic Eastern Rite Churches in Europe, Council of European Bishops' Conferences informs.

In the Rua dos Jerónimos parish church hall, in the presence of a large delegation of bishops from Ukraine, led by His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, Patriarch Clemente recalled the forgotten conflict in the Doneck region, inviting the international community to “take this conflict seriously” so that “private interests do not gain the upper hand over the good of peoples and peace”. Turning then to the other bishops gathered in the Portuguese capital – more than 50 bishops from 14 Catholic Eastern Rite Churches, and representatives of the Bishops’ Conferences of Germany, Italy and France – the Patriarch of Lisbon wanted to draw attention to the persecuted Churches. “Today, if your Churches are able to enjoy the fruits of re-discovered freedom, we also have the duty to remember the Churches which today are still persecuted, especially in the Middle East. So allow me to testify to the closeness of the whole of the Portuguese episcopate to the Churches in the Middle East: we do not forget you. Your martyrdom hangs over us! May the Consoler ensure you feel His presence”.

Focussing then on the theme of the meeting The pastoral care of Eastern Rite Catholic migrants in Western countries, the Portuguese Patriarch recalled how the phenomenon of the migration of thousands of Christian faithful which accompanied the fall of the Iron Curtain contributed not just to a better awareness of the ‘Catholicity’ of the Church but also to renewing it: “if years ago you were unknown by the majority of Portuguese, today your countries and your Churches have become for us names, real people, work colleagues, neighbours. This is the other side of migration. … now we don’t know you just as something heard about, but because we have seen and known you, because we have eaten, celebrated and cried with you. This experience of sharing life allows us to say with joy that your people and your Churches are a gift for all of us”. 

For his part, Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, the Vatican body in charge of care for these Churches, wanted to highlight the motive and significance of this meeting, being held so close to the famous Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, where in 2007 “today’s Europe was founded” through the Lisbon Treaty. “We are here as Eastern Rite Catholic Churches in Europe because we, too, have at heart the future and identity of this continent, and we want to walk together with the Bishops of the Latin Church in order to manifest the communion and beauty of all being part of the Universal Church, which gathers to itself a variety of expressions and traditions”. In the face the phenomenon of migration which has profoundly touched the Eastern Rite Churches, too, Cardinal Sandri underlined how “the European, the Italian, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Polish, Hungarian [person] ... has been a migrant. We must be mindful of this from an ecclesial point of view, too”. The Cardinal Prefect recognised that “at times we were unprepared”, and the background to the migrants is not well-known “and so forms of minimalist reductionism are applied”, such as, for example, Mass in the Arabic language but according to the Latin Rite and without taking into account the different ecclesial origins where “Arabic is the largely the language of daily life, but not the instrument of ecclesial recognition and adherence”.

The opening session then concluded with greetings from His Beatitude the Greek Melkite Patriarch Gregorios III Laham of Antioch and His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, Major Archbishop of Kyiv-Halych. The Greek Melkite Patriarch recalled how Christians in Syria are experiencing a long via crucis which has led to a “tsunami of emigrants”, with the consequent drastic reduction in the number of Christians in the country. But alongside the many sufferings experienced by the Syrians, the Greek Melkite Patriarch showed how this time of trial is also marked by a great diaconia (charitable service) among the Christians themselves, by a better and more intense relationship between the people and the church hierarchy, and by an ecumenism of life which overcomes ecclesial divisions. For his part, the Ukrainian Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk stated that he saw in this “encounter-pilgrimage” an opportunity to reflect on “how to be fathers and pastors for our migrants who live in other European nations”. The leader of the Greek-Catholic Church in Ukraine also underlined the positive value of this unique migration. The faithful of the Eastern Rite Catholic Churches in Western countries are not just objects of pastoral care, but true and proper “agents of the new evagelisation”. Thanking the Patriarch of Lisbon for the appeal to end the conflict in Ukraine, Archbishop Schevchuk presented him with an icon of Our Lady of Fatima, conceived and painted precisely in the Donetsk region.

In the evening, the participants transferred to Fatima, where the remainder of the meeting will take place. This morning, at the beginning of the works, Cardinal Antonio Maria Vegliò, for some years President of the Vatican dicastery for the care of migrants, sent a message in which he underlined how “Catholics belonging to the different Eastern Rite Catholic Churches, while being a minority, represent an important, even an essential sign of the catholicity of the Church. Alongside the Latin faithful, they are in nuce the other lung of Christianity”. For the Italian Cardinal, who for years has met with refugees and migrants, “diversity is not a danger, but an undeniable treasure for the Universal Church”. Therefore it is necessary to “find the courage” to live “harmony in multiplicity or diversity”, especially in the countries historically characterised by the presence of one Rite. Finally, the Italian Cardinal recalled how the Eastern Rite Catholic Churches, even though in part different in themselves in their liturgy, ecclesiastical discipline and spiritual patrimony, nevertheless are all in the same way entrusted to the pastoral governance of the Roman Pontiff. So it falls to the Pope “who has the divine mandate of directing the choir” to do so in such a way that “there are no false notes and the symphony of truth and charity is thus guaranteed”.

The first meeting took place in 1997 in the diocese of Hajdúdorog (Hungary) and was promoted by Cardinal Achille Silvestrini, then Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, who wanted to create a space where the bishops of those churches, which had been particularly damaged by atheistic regimes, “may find with ever greater clarity their role in today’s Europe and be loved and respected for their history of loyalty to the Church and to the Pope, paid at a dear price” (From Cardinal Achille Silvestrini’s Introduction to the Acta of the first meeting).

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Last Updated: 25 October 2016

CWN - Several Catholic Church leaders in Syria beg the US and other Western governments to stop supporting rebel groups, in a Catholic World Report article by Alessandra Nucci.

“Please help us to pull our country back from the abyss of the fundamentalist regime in which they are trying to immerse us,” says Archbishop Jean Clement, the Melike Catholic leader in Aleppo. Church leaders contend that support for rebel groups benefits the cause of Islamic jihadists.

“Just stop selling arms to the terrorists,” pleads Father Mtanios Haddad, a Melkite now serving in Rome. He elaborates: "Three things are needful: stopping the trade of arms from America (destined to the terrorists) closing Saudi Arabia’s wallet (which funds the terrorists) and closing the frontier with Turkey (through which come the terrorists)."

Eastern Catholics fear that Americans (and others in the Western world) have been given an inaccurate understanding of the fighting in Syria. “I think that those who control the information in the West have a political agenda,” complains Chaldean Catholic Bishop Antoine Audo of Aleppo.

Speaking for his Melkite flock, Archbishop Clement says: “The idea that one day a fundamentalist Muslim state might be imposed on their children is an unbearable nightmare to them.” Speaking then to the West, he continues: “This is why we turn to our brethren in the West and pray that they may help us prevent this from happening.”

References:

• The Dispatch: More from CWR Christians in Syria: “Help us pull our country back from the brink of the abyss” (Catholic World Report)

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Last Updated: 25 October 2016

CWN - Following his October 23 Sunday Angelus address, Pope Francis issued a new appeal for peace in Iraq.

“In these dramatic hours, I am close to the entire population of Iraq, and in particular those of the city of Mosul,” Pope Francis said to the crowds gathered in St. Peter’s Square.

“Our hearts are shocked by the heinous acts of violence that for too long are being committed against innocent citizens, be they Muslims, Christians or members of other ethnic and religious groups,” he continued. “I am saddened to hear of the killing in cold blood of so many sons and daughters of that beloved land, including many children.”

The Pope added: "This cruelty makes us weep, and leaves us speechless. My word of solidarity is accompanied by the assurance of my remembrance in prayer so that Iraq, although suffering, may remain strong and steadfast in the hope of being able to proceed towards a future of safety, reconciliation and peace. For this, I ask you to unite with me in silent prayer."

References:

• Le parole del Papa alla recita dell’Angelus, 23.10.2016 (Holy See Press Office)
• New appeal for peace in Iraq, 23.10.2016 (Holy See Press Office)

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Last Updated: 25 October 2016

CWN - Fifty Eastern Catholic European bishops were among the prelates who gathered in Fatima on October 20 to discuss the pastoral care of Eastern Catholic migrants in Europe.

Melkite Greek Patriarch Gregorios III Laham spoke of the suffering in Syria, while Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk called for renewed international attention to the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the Congregation for the Eastern Churches, regretted “forms of minimalist reductionism,” such as attempting to provide pastoral care for Eastern Catholic migrants through Latin-rite Masses in Arabic.

References:

• Diversity is not a danger, but a treasure for the whole Church (CCEE)

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Last Updated: 25 October 2016

CWN - The patriarchate of the Chaldean Catholic Church—an Eastern Catholic Church in full communion with the Holy See—has issued a statement assuring the Iraqi army and its allies of prayers as they seek to liberate Mosul.

“We would like to greet proudly the Iraqi courageous army, the federal police, the Peshmerga and the Popular Mobilization and coalition forces sharing in the liberation of Mosul and the towns of the Nineveh area,” he said. “We affirm our support to them in this noble and difficult task and offer our daily prayers to Almighty Lord to protect them.”

The patriarchate added that Iraqis wish for “a homeland for all [Iraq’s] citizens of different creeds and nationalities, and a stable country in which relations are based on mutual respect, acceptance of differences and the rejection of extremism.”

References:

• Statement by the Chaldean Patriarchate