Ukrainian-Greek Catholic Leaders Encouraged After Meeting the Pope
Fears of Marginalization Because of the Vatican-Russian Orthodox Statement Allayed
by Edward Pentin, Rome Correspondent
Wednesday, Mar 30, 2016 3:07 PM
Despite many Ukrainian-Greek Catholics feeling betrayed by the joint declaration signed in February by Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill in Havana, the Eastern Church’s leadership was encouraged by a recent meeting with the Holy Father and a pledge he made to help the suffering people of Ukraine.
At the March 5 meeting at the Vatican, held at the end of the Ukrainian Catholics’ permanent synod in Rome, the Pope stressed that the Havana event was “first and foremost an encounter, and the declaration was lightly weighted,” Bishop Borys Gudziak, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church’s department of external relations, told the Register March 9.
He said their meeting with the Pope focused on the “biggest problem” facing Ukraine: “the war that is killing thousands of people, rendering millions homeless and traumatizing hundreds of thousands.” The Pope, he added, “indicated that he will act.”
Since 2014, Russia has been making several military incursions into Ukrainian territory, beginning with the annexation of Crimea. The war has resulted in thousands of casualties, causing what Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Ch
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