Greek Catholic Bishops Address Faithful On Famine’s 70th Anniversary

“For decades, the so-called free world has concealed this horrible page of our history, even though it was well informed about the famine. The Soviet government tried to eradicate all memories about the famine, even from witnesses’ minds, and denied its existence at all. We, the bishops of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, together with our whole nation… are calling upon everyone to pray lest such a calamity should happen again,” reads the address of the UGCC hierarchs. According to the bishops, the consequences of the famine can be still felt today. The spirituality of the Ukrainian nation suffered a terrible blow, since, along with physical destruction of people, the famine also presupposed an absolute russification of the population. “Today’s numerous problems, including the inability to organize social, political and economic life, alcoholism, drug abuse, abortion, and suicide, are deeply rooted in the disasters of the previous century, among which the famine was not the least conspicuous one,” stated the bishops in their address. In addition, the bishops believe that the first step to combat the consequences of the 70-year-old tragedy is to return the land to the people and to restore the feeling of national dignity, justice, economic and social stability. The UGCC bishops are convinced that this should be a primary task for the Ukrainian state. Source: press service of the head of the UGCC