Ukraine at the Vatican
March 31, 2011
Pope Benedict XVI today greeted His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, recently elected as major archbishop of the Greek-Ukrainian Catholic Church, at a private audience.
Speaking to the Archbishop, and the bishops and faithful accompanying him, the Pope assured them of his "constant prayer that the Holy Trinity may bring abundance, and confirm in peace and harmony the beloved Ukrainian nation".
"The Lord", said the Holy Father, addressing the new archbishop, "has called you to the service and guidance of this noble Church, which is a part of the people who for over a thousand years have received Baptism at Kyiv.
"I am sure that, illuminated by the work of the Holy Spirit, you will preside over your Church, guiding her in faith in Jesus Christ in accordance with her own tradition and spirituality, in communion with the See of Peter which is the visible bond of that unity for which so many of her children have not hesitated even to lay down their lives".
Mons. Shevchuk at the General Audience yesterday.
Mons. Shevxhuk reaffirms
UGCC's full communion with Rome
ROME, March 31 (SIR) - “We are an Oriental, Synodal and Catholic Church”, and “today we visited the Holy Father to express this ecclesial nature of ours”, and “to confirm our full, visible and real communion with the Successor of Peter”.
Those words came from Msgr. Sviatoslav Schevchuk, newly elected Major Archbishop of Kyiv-Halyè, of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, speaking to newsmen after being received by Benedict XVI privately this morning, together with the UGCC permanent Synod.
Mons. Schevchuk, 40, said that the Pope “will be welcomed when he will come to Ukraine”, but “today we didn’t talk about an imminent visit.”
He expressed his gratitude to the Pontiff for “confirming the election of such a young archbishop: it is a proof of his trust in my person”. However, he points out that, in his Church, the average age of priests is about 35.
Recalling the presence of representatives of the three Orthodox Churches in Ukraine, at his enthronement ceremony in the Resurrection Cathedral of Kyiv on March 27, the archbishop said it was “a sign of hope” for future relations and for the “progress of ecumenical dialogue”.
Mons. Schevchuk hopes for “constructive dialogue, cooperation and life in common” between the Greek-Catholic Church and the Orthodox Ukrainian Churches of the Patriarchate of Moscow, the Patriarchate of Kyiv, and the autocephalous Church, ttowards “a strategic alliance in defence of Christian values, in Ukraine and in Europe”.
In particular, he said, the pastoral priorities of UGCC are three: “the new evangelisation, cultivation, and social presence in society”.
“In Ukraine, too," he underscored, "we must fight the wave of secularisation coming from Western Europe. Our treasure of faith, strengthened by the blood of martyrs, must not get lost; it has to be handed down to new generations”.
As for cultivation, “we must translate liturgical texts into Ukrainian, because translating them means embodying Christian values in the current culture, approaching them to the people”.
Mons. Schevchuk ne;ieves the Church must be committed to assert its “presence and service within the post-Communist Ukrainian society, inspired by the principles of the social teaching of the Church”, thereby contributing to the “reconstruction of the moral tissue of society”.
He cited many signs of hope for the future of the Church and the country: the high number of sacerdotal and religious vocations and “the new generation of young and skilful politicians”, with whom, he said, “without taking into consideration their specific political convictions, I intend to get in touch”.
I had been meaning to post the pictures of Archbishop Shemchuk's enthronement shown below in the CHURCH&VATICAN thread, but they fit excellently into the stories today.
New Ukrainian Catholic leader
seeks restoration of patriarchal status
By Benjamin Mann
Scenes from Archbishop Shevchuk's enthronement last Sunday in Kiev.
Rome, Italy, Mar 30, (CNA/EWTN News).- Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, newly enthroned as the head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church on March 29, was to discuss the possible restoration of his church's historic status as a patriarchate with Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to the Vatican today.
“A patriarchate is a period in the completion of the development of a church,” he explained to reporters in Kyiv before his departure for the Vatican. He said that the delegation would discuss the development of the Ukrainian Catholic Church that has taken place since its 1989 re-emergence into public life. “I will give the evidence of our maturity to the Pope,” he stated.
The Ukrainian Catholic Church's Synod of Bishop chose the 40-year-old Archbishop Shevchuk as their new leader on March 27. His predecessor, 77-year-old Cardinal Archbishop Lubomyr Husar, retired for health reasons on Feb. 10.
Archbishop Shevchuk's youth, and his prior position as a bishop of a Ukrainian Catholic eparchy in Argentina from 2009 until 2011, made him an unusual choice to succeed Cardinal Husar. His previous appointments included positions at Lviv's Holy Spirit Theological Seminary as well as the Ukrainian Catholic University. He also served as Cardinal Husar's personal secretary from 2002 to 2005.
“Our Church in the twentieth century has walked with our Savior to the end,” Major Archbishop Shevchuk observed in his enthronement homily, referring to the persecution of Ukrainian Catholics that took place under Communism from 1946 until 1989. “The death of hundreds of thousands of our laity, priests, monks and nuns, led by our bishops, was death on a cross – and therefore the giver of life!”
“In its slavery, humiliation and self-giving, our church was brought to this place – the place of resurrection, where the Father glorified it and raised up its imperishable glory,” he proclaimed.
Today, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church – whose existence was denied by Soviet authorities for decades – has approximately 4.3 million adherents.
“Today we are experiencing a new spring of our Church – which in its resurrection by the Holy Spirit begins to get younger and smile anew to the world with the light of Christ's Gospel,” he said.
“Let us boldly carry out our Christian vocation in the world, and together we can renew the face of our nation and its state.”
Major Archbishop Shevchuk's enthronement took place in Kyiv at the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ – whose name reflects the Ukrainian Catholics' own view of their church as the authentic heir to the tradition of Slavic Christianity.
Kyiv was historically the center of this tradition, although the Eastern Orthodox Churches transferred the patriarchate to Moscow in 1589.
Ukrainian Catholics, whose church reunited with the Roman Catholic Church in 1596, have generally continued to regard their leader as a legitimate patriarch – particularly since 2005, when the Church moved its leadership back to the national capital in Kyiv.
Political and theological disputes have left a lasting mark on Ukraine, where two rival Eastern Orthodox churches – both entirely separate from the Ukrainian Catholic Church – are also not in communion with one another.
One of the Ukrainian Orthodox churches is affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow, while the other claims to represent Ukraine independently of Russia.
Amid these disputes, the faithful of the Ukrainian Catholic Church regarded Cardinal Husar as the Patriarch of Kyiv prior to his retirement, and applied the title to him in liturgical settings. Although the Vatican did not officially recognize him under this title, the announcement of his retirement significantly made reference to the portion of canon law that describes the retirement of Eastern patriarchs.
At his installation, Archbishop Shevchuk referred to himself as the “leader and father” of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. He also made reference to Cardinal Archbishop Joseph Slipyj, who led the church from 1944 to 1984, as “Patriarch Joseph.”
At the March 30 general audience in St. Peter's Square, Pope Benedict greeted Archbishop Shevchuk and his delegation, assuring them of his "constant prayer that the Holy Trinity may bring abundance, and confirm in peace and harmony the beloved Ukrainian nation."
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 31/03/2011 17:46]