Greek Catholic Head Meets with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine

On 20 May, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Patriarch Sviatoslav met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Kostiantyn Hryshchenko.  The meeting was held on the initiative of Mr. Hryshchenko at the Ministry of the Foreign Affairs. According to the press-service of UGCC, the official greeted Patriarch Sviatoslav on his election as the head of the Church and stressed the important role of UGCC in the public life of the Ukrainian communities outside Ukraine. He noticed the earlier successful cooperation with Patriarch Lubomyr and assured that the Ukrainian state will continue to support all the Churches in their efforts to ensure spiritual care for their faithful in other countries.

The head of UGCC thanked the minister for the meeting and for the competent mission of Ukrainian diplomats in various countries, particularly, in the Vatican and Argentine.

After that, the participants of the meeting discussed important questions of the establishment and development of the spiritual care of UGCC for its faithful outside Ukraine. Patriarch Sviatoslav mentioned the experience of UGCC in the pastoral care for emigrants and stressed that the Church cares also about the protection of civic rights and freedoms of all our citizens in the countries of their stay. In practical terms, it means assistance in solving of the problem of the divided families, their legal status, issue of vital statistic records by representative offices of Ukraine. The official assured the patriarch that he understands the voiced questions and that his ministry is open to solving them within its capacity.