On February 8, in the Higher Spiritual Seminary of the Lviv Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church in Lviv-Briukhovychi, a conference of Catholic bishops of the two rites was held. This year, bishops of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and Roman Catholic Church conducted a meeting in this format for the first time.
The delegation of Greek Catholic hierarchs was led at the conference by Patriarch Sviatoslav (Shevchuk) and Roman Catholics were led by Metropolitan Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki.
The meeting was also attended by Apostolic Nuncio to Ukraine, Archbishop Thomas Edwards Gullickson, and Msgr. Krzysztof Nykiel, an officer of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from the Vatican.
“I am very glad that we have this opportunity to gather together again to settle our common problems. My joy is even greater as this meeting is held in the jubilee year, the 600th anniversary of the transfer of the seat of the Archdiocese of RCC from Halych to Lviv,” said Metropolitan Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki in an interview to a TV studio.
“Our bishops are active in various regions of Ukraine and from time to time have difficulties which we try to settle at such brotherly meetings,” said Patriarch Sviatoslav.
The head of UGCC stated that the bishops will prepare a joint address on abortions during the conference activity.
“We will prepare a communiqué on this question. It is interesting that a Roman Catholic Archbishop Petro Malchuk from Kyiv who was in charge of the preparation of the document has calculated that over 40 million people have been killed since the legalization of abortions in Ukraine. A country with the same population as Ukraine has actually disappeared since that time,” he stressed.
According to the Information Department of the UGCC, on the same evening, in the Greek Catholic Cathedral of St. George, the Catholic bishops of both rites concelebrated a liturgy on the occasion of the 120th anniversary of birth of Patriarch Josyf Slipyj.