On October 20, an ecumenical meeting was held in Oslo with leaders from the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations (UCCRO) and the Christian Council of Norway. His Beatitude Sviatoslav, the Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, participated in the meeting. During discussions about cooperation among churches during wartime, he shared his experiences of interchurch solidarity, which have helped save millions of lives in Ukraine.
This was reported by the UGCC Department for Information.
“I want to discuss a specific collaboration that saved millions of lives in Ukraine,” said the Head of the UGCC in response to a question about church cooperation during the war. “When the war began, the UN humanitarian headquarters approached me and expressed their concern: they didn’t know how to handle such a large humanitarian crisis, as 14 million people had been forced to leave their homes and were displaced.” According to His Beatitude Sviatoslav, the UN had never faced a crisis involving such a massive number of people in need.
He emphasized that it was the churches in Ukraine — particularly the Catholic Church of two rites — that were prepared to respond promptly, having established networks of humanitarian aid.
“At that time, the Catholic Church in Ukraine already had organizations known as Caritas Ukraine and Caritas Spes. To respond effectively, you need the right mechanisms in place. We were able to do this thanks to our solidarity with Caritas Internationalis and the broader international Catholic community,” he explained.
The Head of the UGCC noted that the Catholic community worldwide answered Ukraine's call for urgent assistance, enabling swift support for millions.
“It’s not enough to have resources; you also need qualified individuals who can quickly deliver aid to those in need. We felt that over 30 years of independence had prepared our Catholic churches’ humanitarian aid structures for a full-scale invasion,” said the Head of the UGCC.
His Beatitude Sviatoslav expressed his gratitude to Caritas Norway for its ongoing support of the Ukrainian people and thanked all the churches and communities that have shown solidarity with Ukraine.
"Thanks to that solidarity, we have won a significant humanitarian battle. No one in Ukraine has died from hunger or cold, even though Russia attempted to turn the humanitarian crisis into a catastrophe. We succeeded in preventing that from happening," emphasized the Head of the UGCC.