His Beatitude Sviatoslav equated the priests of the UGCC in Crimea with the brave ukrainian soldiers

The Head of the Ukrainian Greco-Catholic Church, His Beatitude Sviatoslav (Shevchuk) appealed to the clergy of the Odesa and Crimean Exarchates of the UGCC.

“I know that you and your people are experiencing various disadvantages and pressures,” he writes in his letter to the clergy, “I know that you are receiving threats and that for the realization of your ministry you will have to overcome obstacles which only recently would have been difficult for us to imagine.”

“In these attacks, we find nothing new”, the Head of the UGC Church continues, “We hear in this an echo of all that which our ‘Church of martyrs’ experienced not very long ago in the Communist past. … Today, to you goes our special respect and gratitude that you do not give in to provocations, that you do not fall into despair and panic, but you persevere in prayer and in faithfully carrying out your priestly duties.”    

His Beatitude Sviatoslav pointed out that just as all citizens of Ukraine, with trepidation and hope, direct their gaze toward the brave Ukrainian soldiers, “the eyes of all of our Church are turned to you, dear Fathers.”

The Primate of UGCC counselled the clergy to, “maintain close contact with your local Bishop-Administrator and coordinate with him your next steps with regard to the fulfilment of your pastoral activity in the parishes of the Odesa and Crimean Exarchates”.

Information Department of the UGCC