From the Head of the UGCC at the beginning of the Synod of Bishops in Przemyśl: This day writes the history of our Church and our people

The Primate noted that bishops have not seen each other for almost three years, two of them due to the pandemic. “But none of us could have ever imagined that this year's Synod, for the first time in the recent history of our Church, our people, the Ukrainian State, would take place under wartime conditions. This Synod showed even more how important the life of the Church, its mission, activity is in these terrible modern circumstances,” said the Head of the Church.

There was time, he noted, when we were called the Church which is silent or mute. But today, the Head of the Church believes, the language of that Church seems to be loosening. “Today, the whole world has Ukraine in the center of its attention. And every word spoken by the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church similarly to that powerful Przemyśl bell of John which spreads to the ends of the earth – to Australia, Brazil, Argentina, Canada and America, Western, Central and Eastern Europe,” he noted, pointing to the bishops from these countries.

His Beatitude Sviatoslav believes that what neither diplomats nor politicians and the military can say today, a person who believes in God can and should say.

“Because we, as the Church, says the spiritual leader, have found ourselves on the front line of the information war. That is why it is essential for us to experience this Synod, to feel the fraternal unity of our global Church, which unites all Ukrainians around the world in Ukraine and in the settlements. Furthermore, it is our Church that becomes a powerful voice to the world public, where today we have the sincere support of peoples and countries that once did not hear well and did not know who Ukrainians are, what they fight for, what they live and die for.”

And perhaps, he assumes, it is precisely our Church that should say that in the modern cruel circumstances of the military calamity, God's mercy and the mercy that we show to each other as manifestation of Christian solidarity to those who are victims of this war, will primarily save good people in the whole world, then saving the victims of war and humanity from a new global holocaust.

Using the opportunity, the Head of the UGCC cordially congratulated the parishioners of the cathedral in Przemyśl on their church feast. He also thanked our Church in Poland, Ukrainian organizations for opening their hearts and homes to millions of Ukrainians who ended up here through force of circumstances.

“We are talking about millions. No one knows the exact number. But on behalf of us, bishops of Ukraine, on behalf of Kyiv, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for this,” he added.

The Head of the Church also thanked Archbishop Emeritus Józef Michalik and all the bishops of Poland for their solidarity with Ukraine, their openness to our refugees in Poland.

“We thank all Poles for their open hearts, because there are no refugee camps in Poland, but open homes,” the Head of the Church pointed out.

The UGCC Department for Information