His Holiness Pope Francis invited Father and Head of the UGCC His Beatitude Sviatoslav, members of the Permanent Synod and metropolitans of the UGCC to arrange a common working meeting together with him and the Roman Curia.
In the official letter from the Roman Curia it is said: “Due to the delicate and difficult situation which Ukraine is in now, Pope Francis decided to invite the Major Archbishop, members of the Permanent Synod and Metropolitans of the UGCC to Rome for 5-6 of July, 2019.
With this meeting His Holiness wishes to express his affection for the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church which carries out a service in its Motherland and worldwide.
Moreover, this meeting will give another opportunity to analyze more deeply life and needs in Ukraine with an aim to identify means by which the Catholic Church, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, especially, can contribute to proclaim Gospel, support the ones who suffer, and, as long as it is possible, spread peace and understanding with the Catholic Church of the Latin rite and other Churches and religious organizations.
According to His Beatitude Sviatoslav in his comment for the UGCC Department for Information this is good news for the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and all Ukraine because such kind of meetings complies with the highest level of concern for us on the part of the Roman Apostolic City.
“This type of meetings is a constituent of an internal practice of the Roman Curia, when it is set to understand how to proceed with these or those events”, said His Beatitude Sviatoslav.
Head of the UGCC explained, when His Holiness together with heads of some dicasteries (departments) of the Roman Curia meet personally with the heads of another Church it is a way to work on an advanced strategy for the future.
This strategy, as for His Beatitude Sviatoslav, is always articulated around three points. The first one is maintenance of Church what would like to be heard and understood, what is the way for His Holiness to act in order to support such a Church.
The second point is to care for a proper strengthening of this Church. “It means that His Holiness wants all our metropolitans and members of the permanent Synod to have an opportunity personally represent these or those important issues of Church life in Ukraine and abroad, which as for our bishops is extremely important now. Thus, our Church will take part in mapping out a strategy of Vatican regarding Ukraine and Ukrainian world community. Since heads of Roman Curia departments will be present there, some of the mechanisms will be formed simultaneously in order to strengthen our Church”, explained head of the UGCC.
Finally, the third point is to ensure an organic development of the UGCC according to the challenges Ukrainian Church faces in Ukraine and abroad.
His Beatitude Sviatoslav assumes that this meeting truly symbolize a deep concern of His Holiness for Ukraine and Ukrainian Church in particular. “This is an important signal of supporting our Church and a start of a very serious work to provide a proper development of our Church within its structures and pastoral services in Ukraine and abroad”, added Head of the UGCC.
The UGCC Department for Information