He noted that if the church hierarchy at least ceased to attack each other in their statements, declarations and appeals, then they would do a lot, “so that peace reigned in our land and the faithful children of our churches did not die.”
“We as pastors have clearly taken only one side, that of the Ukrainian people, never distinguishing between ‘easterners’ and ‘westerners’, Russians and Ukrainians. During the Maidan, as well as now, we were all united as a society, the one nation of Ukraine: Catholics, Orthodox, Protestants, Jews, Muslims”, UGCC Head His Beatitude Sviatoslav was reported as saying in the broadcast of SiriusXM The Catholic Channel, commenting on the speech of Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of the Russian Orthodox Church at the plenary session of the Synod of Bishops at the Vatican on October 16, 2014, who once again spoke about the problems of the Union, which, in his opinion, tended to aggravate due to recent developments in Ukraine.
According to the Information Department of the UGCC, Patriarch Sviatoslav said that the Greek Catholics, as well as believers and clergy of the UOC (MP), representatives of other faiths Ukraine, prayed on the Maidan, were present among the wounded, needy, tried to dialogue with the President and all parties to the conflict, to preserve peace and prevent bloodshed.
“This Christian ministry was not intended to gain over someone to our church or make someone Greek Catholic. We ... were willing to stand up to the end with our people, without asking anyone what church he goes or what political party he supports,” he said.
Therefore, according to His Beatitude Sviatoslav, to argue that the Greek Catholic Church allegedly supports only a certain part of the Ukrainian society means “to deny reality in the name of the ideology, which is alien to us and claims today that there is a civil war in Ukraine now, and not a war against external aggression.”
“I believe that the Church of the Moscow Patriarchate can do much more for de-escalation of violence in Ukraine and reconciliation between Ukraine and Russia than it has done until now,” said the head of the Church.
He noted that if the church hierarchy at least ceased to attack each other in their statements, declarations and appeals, then they would do a lot, “so that peace reigned in our land and the faithful children of our churches did not die.”