Social Project of the Apostolic Visitor for Ukrainians Greek-Catholics of Italy and Spain

Ukrainians in Italy feel an increasing need to unify. On June 25, 2009, Apostolic Visitor Bishop Dionisiy (Lyakhovych) invited a group of social workers with experience working for the Ukrainian community in Italy to discuss this topic. More specifically, the purpose of the meeting was to discuss effective methodologies to unify and to bring about the full cooperation from all levels of migration. The meeting took place at the residence of the Bishop in Rome on 3 Piazza Madonna dei Monti. During the meeting, Ukrainian activists together with their Italian colleagues from “Migrantes” (organization of the Episcopal Conference of Italy which deals with immigration issues) agreed to work together, under the patronage of Bishop Dionisiy, towards the following goals:

• building a shelter for those who are temporarily without housing in Rome;
• active pastoral service for prisoners in Rebibbia, Regina Celli and Ponte Galeria jails;
• centralized care for workers from Ukraine;
• creation of an organization for youth, particularly for Ukrainian students, to facilitate their integration into Italian society while ensuring that they maintain strong ties to Ukrainian culture, the culture of their parents.

Despite the enormous volume of work ahead and the lack of fruition of previous attempts by Italian Ukrainians, this new Social Project of the Apostolic Visitor (SPAV) is a very promising initiative. SPAV came about at a time when Ukrainians have a strong presence and influence in the city council of Rome after two visits by the President of Ukraine and Italy’s ambition, together with the whole European Union, to embark on various initiatives to permanently integrate minorities to create a truly multicultural EU.  If this project is successful, Ukrainians in Italy can become an example of good ethnic relations in Italy because of their large presence in Italy and Ukraine’s proximity to the EU.

Andriy Kozlov

For the Information Department