Head of UGCC speaks to pope about Ukrainian immigrants

On March 16, during a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI, Patriarch Sviatoslav (Shevchuk), the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, discussed the problem of Ukrainian migrants in the world. |At the meeting with the Holy Father, I spoke about the millions of Ukrainian citizens scattered across the world … I said, it is my duty as head of the Church to take care of my people who are outside the structures of our Church, so that no one lacks the Lord's strength. Let the vivifying Cross come into our lives,” the Primate said on the Sunday of the Holy Cross in the Ukrainian parish of Saints Sergius and Bacchus in Rome, where the Ukrainian community prayed with His Beatitude Sviatoslav. The Primate of the Church led the Divine Liturgy. During the sermon, he expressed his pleasure to pray with Ukrainians in Rome and recalled his student years in Rome. Then the preacher spoke about the spiritual meaning of the Sunday of the Holy Cross. “Lent is like a journey that each of us experiences in life. A traveler goes to a destination and knows that he is already half way there. Probably, on the one hand, he thinks the destination isn’t too far, but, on the other hand, sometimes he loses strength, the initial enthusiasm that drove him on slowly begins to fade, and he looks for places to rest. This is similar to what we are experiencing: at the beginning of Lent we want to change a lot in our spiritual lives, but when we come face to face with reality, we see that our strength is small and our abilities sometimes don’t meet our aspirations. We begin to seek help.  So today I want us to reflect on the Israeli exodus through the desert. “The Holy Fathers equated the forty days of Lent with the forty years of the Israeli’s exodus from Egypt to the Promised Land ... On this Sunday of the Holy Cross, the Church of Christ puts before our eyes the Cross, to show us the destination we are trying to reach during Lent. To bow before the cross, to kiss it, means to drink the spiritual nourishment, which continues to flow from Christ’s side. From this we become stronger, are able to move on,” said the head of the UGCC. His Beatitude Sviatoslav remembered that it was a year ago, on the Sunday of the Holy Cross, that the Bishops of the Synod of the UGCC installed him in Kyiv to the throne of Kyiv-Halych Major Archbishop. The head of the church concelebrated with Fr. Dr. Ivan Dacko, the head of a religious association Saint Sophia, Fr. Ivan Kulyk, administrator of the Ukrainian parish in Rome, Fr. Anibal Soltus, Fr. Mykola Stroniansky and Fr. Ivan Hobela. The Liturgy of the Cross Sunday was His Beatitude Sviatoslav’s first solemn Hierarchical Liturgy in the Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus.

UGCC Information Department