"God forbid that we rejoice at someone else’s misfortune”: His Beatitude Lubomyr answered a question from the Donets’k web-resource Ostrov

"God forbid that we rejoice at someone else’s misfortune. And if we make some advancement, God forbid that it was at the cost of somebody's harm. Perhaps someone is tortured by this separation and wants to join the Greek-Catholic Church, but it seems to me that this is not a very good reason. If someone wants to enter the Greek-Catholic Church, to become a member, he has to do this from a deeper conviction. We are absolutely not glad that our Orthodox brothers are divided, because this is bad. For them, and for the whole Christian community." So said His Beatitude Lubomyr, answering the question of a journalist of Ostrov [Island], Yulia Abibok, whether the position of the UGCC is not fortified against the background of discord among Orthodox branches in Ukraine. Talking about the problem of division among Orthodoxy and the way to overcome it, His Beatitude Lubomyr said that it is a very difficult question because it is not always possible to understand the particular reasons for this division. "This division is very young yet. But how deep is it? Whether it is only human ambition, whether it is politics, whether there are indeed some deep reasons for it is not easy to say," the Head of the UGCC explained. He said that, meeting on different occasions with the heads of our Orthodox Churches in Ukraine, he sees that they communicate between themselves very well. In no way is some considerable difference felt. "But there have to be reasons, because they are mature people, and this is a large number of people. I suspect that it something not very noble. Because if there is a negative result, and a division like this is something negative, there must be some reason that is not the best. But for me, from the outside, to give estimations is very dangerous, because I can do someone a very serious injustice, though not wishing it," His Beatitude Lubomyr said. In addition to this, in his talk with the journalist of Ostrov, the Head of the UGCC answered questions about reasons for transferring the center of the Head of the UGCC from Lviv to Kyiv, relations with local authorities in eastern Ukraine, the patriarchate of the UGCC, and methods and means for the spirituality of Ukrainians in the post-Soviet period. The Ukrainian-language text of the interview of His Beatitude Lubomyr for Ostrov can be read on our web site at: www.ugcc.org.ua/573.0.html.

Information Department of the UGCC