Aid to the Church in Need: Ukraine: Head of the Greek-Catholic Church praises relations with the Orthodox Church

Ukraine: Head of the Greek-Catholic Church praises relations with the Orthodox Church

Posted by ACN News on 16/2/2012, 8:34 am
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ACN News, Thursday, 16th February 2012 – UKRAINE

Ukraine: Head of the Greek-Catholic Church praises relations with the Orthodox Church

By Eva-Maria Kolmann

“Excellent” was how Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the head of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, described its relations with the Orthodox Church during a visit to the headquarters of the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). Relations have never been as good as today, he said. The task of maintaining these friendly and brotherly relations lay especially close to his heart, Shevchuk emphasised.

Ukraine can look back at a history of over a thousand years of Christianity. But in the last century it went through a period of aggressive atheism. According to Shevchuk, it is the special responsibility of the Christian Churches to “rediscover these Christian roots and to find new ways to reveal their presence in society as Christians.”

(Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk)

“At a time of uncertainty, when many people feel that processes occurring in society can no longer be controlled, great faith is placed in the Christian Churches. According to opinion surveys, more people trust me than the President,” said Shevchuk. Since the Church is not dependent on the state, it can “tell the truth and play an important role in society”. Christianity has an important role to play for the national unity of the Ukraine. “We are politically neutral, but we teach Christian social values, preach the Gospels and defend those who cannot defend themselves,” he explained. In order for it to be able to perform these tasks in an authentic way, priority is given to the good training of priests.

At the same time, the head of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, which is in full communion with the Holy See, thanked ACN for the assistance that the charity has provided Ukraine for many years. He expressed special praise for the founder of ACN, Father Werenfried van Straaten, who died in 2003. Shevchuk described himself as “a fruit of the work and beneficence of Father Werenfried”; after the collapse of the Soviet Union he was able to study for his doctorate in Rome with a scholarship from ACN, subsequently to return to his homeland as the first Doctor of Theology where he rebuilt the seminary of Lviv, also with the aid of ACN.

Editor’s Notes

Directly under the Holy See, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need. ACN is a Catholic charity – helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action.
The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, Aid to the Church in Need’s Child’s Bible – God Speaks to his Children has been translated into 162 languages and 48 million copies have been distributed all over the world.
While ACN gives full permission for the media to freely make use of the charity’s press releases, please acknowledge ACN as the source of stories when using the material.

For more information or to make a donation to help the work of Aid to the Church in Need, please contact the Australian office of ACN on (02) 9679-1929. e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org or write to Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148.

On Line donations can be made at www.aidtochurch.org

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Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148 ABN: 62 418 911 594
Ph/Fax (02) 9679-1929 e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org web: www.aidtochurch.org

Catholic Charity helping those suffering Christian persecution worldwide