First National Eucharistic Congress of the Roman Catholic Church in Ukraine Launched

In Kyiv, in the Cathedral of St. Oleksandr, the first National Eucharistic Congress of the Roman Catholic Church in Ukraine was launched on May 26. Thousands of clergymen and lay people came from all over Ukraine and abroad to the capital for the opening ceremony.

According to the Catholic Media Center, a considerable part of the faithful had to pray outside as there was no room inside.

The Eucharistic Congress began with a celebratory mass led by the Apostolic Nuncio in Ukraine Thomas Edward Gullickson in concelebration with the bishops of all the Roman Catholic Dioceses of Ukraine and representatives of the episcopates from other countries. Bishops of the Synod of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church led by Cardinal Lubomyr Husar also participated in the service.

The main parts of the service were read in Latin and special books with all the texts were distributed to the faithful for the adoration in the end of the service.

The Head of the Conference of Bishops of RCC in Ukraine, Metropolitan MieczyslawMokrzycki of Lviv welcomed the participants in a greeting address.

The first day of the event ended with a conference where reports were made by Bishop Markian Trofymiak, Archbishop Petro Malchuk and Head of the Organization Committee of the Congress of the Lviv Archdiocese, Fr. Dr. Yan Shchykh.