The Father and the Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, His Beatitude Sviatoslav, starts the initiative to create a state program for Ukrainians from all over the world to come to Ukraine for an educational course on the history and culture of Ukraine. He said this at a meeting with the teachers of the Ukrainian school in Philadelphia.
As an example, His Beatitude Sviatoslav brought the State of Israel, which has a special state program, according to which every Jew of the world at public expense can come to Israel on a monthly educational course to open their roots and establish emotional contact with their history and culture.
“This is a state policy that Israel invests in. This is one of the ways in which Israel encourages Jews to return to their historic homeland,” said the Head of the UGCC.
The Primate recalled, as recently as during the Great Lent, he and the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations visited Jerusalem. “I flew from Kyiv to Tel Aviv. This plane was also flown by a large group of young Jewish descendants from Kharkiv. And one young girl in a conversation with others said: “How long I was waiting for this trip. Now I will know who I am,” she said.
“I would like our state, Ukraine, to have such a program, too, that every young man and girl from any Ukrainian community in the world could come to Ukraine and open his/her roots,” stressed the Primate.
His Beatitude Sviatoslav told how some Ukrainian families from Argentina had been on a visit to Ukraine, in particular, to Kyiv and Lviv. “You can not imagine what happened to those people, their hearts, their minds, when they really could touch upon their roots. Because if people do not visit the Museum of Holodomor themselves, then the very talk of genocide and mass hunger will always be far off,” stressed the Head of the Church.
Department of Information of the UGCC