30th anniversary of the first meeting of the Polish Episcopate and the Synod of the UGCC marked in Rome

A press conference was held in the Vatican Radio conference hall on October 11, dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the first meeting of the representatives of the Polish Episcopate and the Synod of Bishops of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, during which the Declaration on Polish-Ukrainian Reconciliation was proclaimed, and to this year's presentation of the distinction “Capitula Award of Polish-Ukrainian reconciliation.”

This is reported by Vatican Radio.

Head of the UGCC Svyatoslav (Shevchuk), Krzysztof Thomasic, the Deputy Director of the Catholic Information Agency of Poland (KAI), and Marek Lenert, a former journalist of the Polish edition of L'Osservatore Romano, the correspondent of the news agency "KAI" and a co-worker of the Polish State Radio, took part in the meeting with journalists.

Launching the conference, Mr. Marek Lenert, whose family originated from Lviv, pointed to the long historical ties between the Ukrainian and Polish peoples. His mother, according to the speaker, knew three languages: Ukrainian, Polish and Yiddish, indicating the atmosphere of peaceful coexistence that prevailed in those times in Lviv.

“It is with the milk of my mother that I have absorbed this multicultural and multinational spirit,” he said.

Mr. Lenert, who witnessed the historic events of the 1987 declaration of reconciliation in Rome, pointed to the importance of this event for both peoples and the active participation of St. John Paul II and his interest in the life of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. As a proof of this, the speaker demonstrated to those attending the third issue of the Osservatore Romano newspaper in Polish of1980, which described the event of the Extraordinary Synod of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, held with the support of St. John Paul II. He said that this issue of the newspaper never came to Poland for state censorship, indicating that the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church was being persecuted not only in the Soviet Union, but also in communist Poland.

Speaking about the causes of conflict between the Polish and Ukrainian peoples, the Patriarch said that the historians face an important task to investigate historical events, especially in the twentieth century, many of which were ignored because of the communist regime.

The Patriarch of the UGCC paid special attention to the role of St. John Paul II in the reconciliation of the two peoples, who, “in their own history, in their own family, experienced the interweaving of interactions between the Poles and Ukrainians.” The First Hierarch cited the words of St. John Paul II, who during his stay in Przemysl in July 1991 said: “With such a sincere joy, brothers and sisters, it is that I seek reconciliation and true brotherhood between Ukrainians and Poles. Today everything is calling us to reconciliation, brotherhood, and mutual respect, to search for what unites us.”

His Beatitude Sviatoslav said that these words of John Paul II could give an insight how to build the new Europe.

“Today, everyone without exception, including also non-Christians and non-believers, is aware that the new Europe and also the European Union, based on the idea of peace in Europe, the idea of peaceful coexistence among peoples.”

Recalling the events of 30 years ago that gave rise to the spiritual movement of Polish-Ukrainian reconciliation, the patriarch stressed that we want not only to remember the event, but also to join it, listening to the words of St. John Paul II, who believed that reconciliation means granted and received forgiveness.

Then Patriarch Sviatoslav presented this year's winners of “Capitula Award of Reconciliation”, which became the Congregation for the Oriental Churches for support actions that unite nations in Central and Eastern Europe and building a common future on the foundation of truth, love, respect and tolerance and the Secretariat for Communication (Polish, Ukrainian and Slovak versions of the Radio Vatican) for the formation of public opinion in the spirit of tolerance and understanding and promotion of intercultural dialogue in Central and Eastern Europe.

Speaking at the conference, Deputy Director of the Catholic Information Agency (KAI) Krzysztof Tomasik confirmed the important role of St. John Paul II in the matter of Polish-Ukrainian reconciliation and said that the most crucial event in this process was the visit of the Pope to Ukraine in 2001, when Lubomyr Husar of the blessed memory said the same words in Ukraine as he did in the context of the Polish-German reconciliation sounded: “We forgive and ask forgiveness.”

“Reconciliation is a difficult path,” he concluded, “but, being guided by the Gospel and the words of Jesus about reconciliation, we realize that this is the only way that leads us to the goal.”