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Photo: Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I embrace.
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CWN - The governing body of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church—the largest of the Eastern Catholic churches gathered in Rome to commemorate the 70th anniversary of its suppression by the Soviet Communist regime of Joseph Stalin.
Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk and other members of the church’s permanent synod met with Pope Francis on March 5 amid tensions over the wording of portions of the recent joint declaration of the Pope and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow.
“We reaffirm what no totalitarian regime could break: our communion with Rome and the universal Church,” said Major Archbishop Shevchuk. “And the Holy Father heard us.”
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Permanent Synod of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church will hold a meeting with Pope Francis on Saturday, 5 March.
risu.org.ua - Archbishop-emeritus of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Patriarch Lyubomyr (Husar) made a statement at a briefing while opening of the exhibition "Toward the Light of Resurrection through the thorns of the catacombs", Ukrinform reports.
"Permanent Synod, ie the six bishops who now reside in Rome, tomorrow on Saturday, to meet with the Holy Father" Husar said.
Recall that on February 12 in Cuban capital of Havana the first ever meeting of Pope and Patriarch of Moscow was held, as a result of which the head of the Catholic Church Francis and the Patriarch of Moscow Kirill signed a joint declaration. The themes of the declaration related to the evaluation of the events in Ukraine caused a powerful reaction both in Ukraine and among the Ukrainians in other countries.
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risu.org.ua - Russia adopted the repressive methods of the Soviet totalitarian system. It is important to know the method of the repressive apparatus, which mechanisms are still in action in Russia, to understand what is happening in Ukraine and is called a "hybrid war".
Volodymyr Viatrovych, head of the Institute of National Memory, said this today in Kyiv during the press conference opening the exhibition "To the Light of the Resurrection through the Thorns of Catacombs", He compared the Lviv pseudo (1946) and present aggression against Ukraine.
The historian stressed that the policy of the Soviet regime against Ukraine was and remains the policy of genocide. An essential element of this genocide was the destruction of Ukrainian national Church, which began in 1920ies in Central and Eastern Ukraine. Later this methodology of extermination was exported to Western Ukraine.
"Literally from the first weeks of the Soviet occupation of western Ukraine the repressive policy against the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church started. This process accelerated after the death of Metropolitan Sheptytsky and was completed by pseudosobor in 1946. This is not just a sad page of our history which we must remember, but we also need to understand the mechanisms of the Soviet totalitarian system which are also used today. This is a classic example of what today is called "hybrid warfare" - coercion, repression and informational provocation. In 1946 during Lviv pseudosobor the participants voted similarly as during the so-called Crimean referendum in 2014. Repressive mechanisms used by Russia in 1946 are in action now” - said Volodymyr Viatrovych.
The UGCC, which despite the persecution and elimination, survived in catacombs and is now growing, is another story of our victory, thinks the historian
"Soviet authorities failed to eliminate this Church and the underground Church gave impetus to the wider national democratic movement that put an end to the existence of the entire Soviet Union. This example inspires us today, "- concluded his speech Volodymyr Viatrovych.
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risu.org.ua - Yesterday Patriarch Sviatoslav Shevchuk, leader of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, with bishops of Permanent Synod celebrated a hierarchical Divine Liturgy at the high altar of the Roman basilica of St Mary Major. A very large number of priests concelebrated; the liturgy was sung by the choir of the Ukrainian College of St Josaphat, and the central nave of the church was packed with the faithful, informs Gregory Dipoppo.
The sermon was given in Ukrainian, but at the end of the ceremony, His Beatitude briefly addressed in Italian those who might happen to be present as pilgrims in the basilica, which is of course a focal point of the Jubilee celebrations and devotions in Rome. He spoke of the persecutions which the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church has undergone over the years, and how “the voice of the Evil One” (la voce del maligno) tried 70 years ago to force the Church which he leads to renounce its fidelity to See of Peter. He then stated that the same voice now seeks to convince them to become Orthodox or join the Patriarchate of Moscow “so as not to be an obstacle.” The celebration of the Divine Liturgy in a Pontifical Basilica in Rome, therefore, is a concrete sign of the continuing fidelity of the UGCC to the See of Peter.
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CWN - The grave challenges that humanity faces move Catholics and the Orthodox faithful “to live and act not as rivals but as brothers,” Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk said in a reflection on the recent joint declaration of Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow.
Writing in L’Osservatore Romano, the chairman of the Department of External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate welcomed the Syrian truce, supported by Russia and the United States, as a “first step” toward joint action against the terrorism that threatens Christians.
Metropolitan Hilarion went on to say that the declaration’s disavowal of “uniatism” was an “important preliminary condition for restoring confidence” and that peace in Ukraine cannot be achieved without “the joint efforts of the Orthodox and of the Greek Catholics to overcome an historical hostility.”
In Europe, he continued, there is a true “persecution of Christianity and of the moral values of the Gospel” under the “pretext of promoting the ideas of tolerance and democracy and of diffusing liberal values.”
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CWN - The head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church has renewed his criticism of portions of the recent joint statement of Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow.
Referring to the Eastern Catholic churches—of which the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church is the largest—the document stated that “it is today clear that the past method of ‘uniatism,’ understood as the union of one community to the other, separating it from its Church, is not the way to re–establish unity. The ecclesial communities which emerged in these historical circumstances have the right to exist and to undertake all that is necessary to meet the spiritual needs of their faithful, while seeking to live in peace with their neighbors.”
Commenting on this portion of the declaration, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk told the Catholic News Agency that “the ecumenical vocabulary of the Catholic Church uses the phrase ‘ecclesial communities’ to refer to Protestant churches, that is to label those communities which do not bear all the richness of the apostolic tradition.”
“Professors of ecclesiology, but also common people, raised concerns and doubts about the use of this expression referred to the Greek Catholic community,” he continued.
While welcoming the Moscow patriarchate’s acknowledgement of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church’s right to exist, he said that “in the end, we are not called to ask anyone permission for our right to exist.”
Major Archbishop Shevchuk explained that “the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church can testify that communion with the Successor of Peter does not take anything out of the richness of the Eastern tradition. It is the contrary! It helps this tradition to grow. It brings this tradition out of provincialism, out of strict nationalism.”
Describing the meeting between Pope Francis and the patriarch as “just the beginning of the path,” Major Archbishop Shevchuk said that “we must not fix our attention on one only point. We must think what to do after. The first thing is to free religion from politics. We cannot reconcile with geopolitics, but we can reconcile with our brothers.”
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