“We should be on the road that leads to forgiveness and unity,” Roman-Catholic Bishops of Poland

Roman-Catholic bishops of Poland, who held their meeting in Czestochowa, decided to prepare together with UGCC an epistle on the occasion of the anniversary of the Volyn Tragedy.  From the Polish side, responsible for this communiqué were selected: Metropolitan of Lublin, Stanislaw Budzyka; General Secretary of the Polish Bishops’ Conference, Auxiliary Bishop of Gniezno Archeparchy, Bishop Wojciech Polak; Head of the Committee for Contacts with UGCC, Bishop of Zamość-Lubaczów, Marian Rojek.

“Nothing can justify the killing of brethren.  Therefore we are obligated to search for the truth about the difficult past and get on the road that leads towards forgiveness and unity, that will permit us to look with trust into the future.  We should be guided by the words of Pope John Paul II during his visit to Lviv:  “So that thanks to the cleansing of the historical memory, we will all be ready to place those elements which unite us above those which separate us, so that we can build a joint future, based on mutual respect, a fraternal community and cooperation with sincere solidarity.”  We encourage prayers for the victims and for unity, especially on July 11^th,” specified the Polish Bishops in their official communique.

The document also informs about the 1025^th jubilee commemoration of the Baptism of Kyiv Rus.  On this occasion, in the second half of June, UGCC Head His Beatitude Sviatoslav will visit Poland in order to commemorate the anniversary with the UGCC faithful.  His schedule also foresees a meeting with Archbishop Józef Michalik, Chairman of the Polish Episcopal Conference and with members of the Committee for Contacts with UGCC in Ukraine.  The UGCC Primate will visit Poland two weeks prior to the commemoration of the 70^th anniversary of the Volyn Tragedy.  Joint prayers for the tragedy victims are planned for that time.

UGCC Department of Information

Note:

On June 26, 2005 in Lviv on the John Paul II Square in front of the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin in Sykhiv, a Pontifical Divine Liturgy was held as part of the All-Ukrainian UGCC Eucharistic Congress.  During the Liturgy, an official act of reconciliation and unification between the peoples of Ukraine and Poland took place.

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