During the Vatican Synod sessions, a significant meeting occurred between the delegation of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) and Metropolitan Job Getcha, who represented the Constantinople Patriarchate. The hierarchs of the UGCC engaged in discussions pertaining to the situation in Ukraine and the intricacies of inter-church relations amidst the ongoing conflict.
This was reported by the UGCC Information Department.
At the beginning of the meeting, His Beatitude Sviatoslav, the Head of the UGCC, introduced the UGCC delegation to Metropolitan Job at the Vatican Synod. The delegation included Bishop Bohdan Dziurakh, Apostolic Exarch for Ukrainian Greek Catholics in Germany and Scandinavia, and Bishop Teodor Martyniuk, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archeparchy of Ternopil-Zboriv.
The hierarchs of the UGCC expressed their gratitude to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew for his consistent communication with the UGCC and his clear stance on Russian aggression in Ukraine, which is based on the ideological heresy of the "Russian World." The parties also discussed inter-church relations in Ukraine amid the ongoing conflict. Special attention was given to the humanitarian crisis caused by Russian aggression and the daily bombings of Ukrainian cities and villages.
Metropolitan Job leads the Orthodox group and serves as co-president, along with Cardinal Koch, in the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Metropolitan Job has stated that one of its reasons is the "heresy of instrumentalizing faith on the side of the state (Russia)," and he noted that "unfortunately, the Russian Orthodox Church lacks both the strength and the desire to resist this instrumentalization."