Archbishop of Madrid visits Ukrainian parish

On September 13, the Ukrainian parishioners of Madrid’s church Nuestra Senora del Buen Suсeso (Mothers of God of Good New) welcomed а venerable guest – Archbishop of Madrid, Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela. He arrived to the faithful from Ukraine to celebrate the 10^th anniversary of the first Ukrainian parish in Spain. For the Divine Liturgy, despite the late hour, gathered quite a lot of Ukrainian faithful and the owners of the church – Spanish people who hospitably share their divine home with the Ukrainians. The archbishop celebrated the Liturgy in concelebrated with Bishop Braen (Bayda), Eparch of Saskatoon (Canada), administrator of the Greek Catholic chaplaincy (parishes) Fr. Ivan Lypka, pastor of the church Fr. Miguel Khimeno Gomes, head of archdiocesan Department on Matters of Immigrants Fr. Antonio Martines, and other Spanish priests. During the sermon Cardinal Rouco Varela highly evaluated the activity of the Ukrainian parish. But the most importantly, as underlined the archbishop, “the Spanish and the Ukrainians have become one family in Christ.” After the Liturgy, Fr. Ivan Lypka expressed gratitude to the cardinal for his guardianship and gave the cardinal an icon, which is to be placed in one of the chapels of Hierarchal church of the Holiest Virgin Mary of Almudena. After the celebration the Archbishop of Madrid conversed with the faithful. Together with Father Antonio Martines he recalled events from ten years ago when the Ukrainian Greek Catholics requested a larger space to hold divine services for the chapel where gathered Ukrainians who arrived to Spain after 1946 and the first workers who moved in the country in the late 1990s was no longer able to hold all the faithful. With the help of Cardinal Rouco Varela, they moved to the main building of the church, and later located to the church of Mother of God of Good News.

informed Lubomyr Kalynets
Madrid, Spain.