Head of the UGCC spoke about the war in Ukraine and thanked the Austrians for helping Ukrainians during the Holodomor
As part of his visit to Austria, His Beatitude Sviatoslav, the head of the UGCC, visited on November 12 the Abbey of Klosterneuburg, which was founded at the beginning of the XII century by Saint Leopold III, the patron Saint of Austria. The head of the UGCC spoke about the war in Ukraine, which almost daily replenishes its list of dead and wounded. He shared his impressions of a recent visit to a military hospital in Kyiv, where hundreds of soldiers are healing their wounds.
"I ask you to pray for Ukraine, for the cessation of military aggression, so that young people do not die or get injured," His Beatitude Sviatoslav asked the Abbot of the monastery in Klosterneuburg.
In memory of the meeting, the Head of the UGCC presented the Abbot with a presentation edition of the UGCC. "I asked you to pray for Ukraine. In this book you can see the faces of those for whom you will pray," His Beatitude Sviatoslav commented on the gift.
On the same day, a Liturgy was held in the Church of St. Barbara in Vienna, led by the head of the UGCC. Patriarch Sviatoslav spoke about the Holodomor in Ukraine in the 30s and thanked the representatives of the Austrian community, who in those terrible times for Ukraine were in solidarity with the starving Ukrainians.
"We especially remember the Viennese cardinal Theodore Innitzer, who was the first and only one of all Church leaders in Europe to respond to the message of Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky "Ukraine in death throes". Then cardinal Innitzer organized in Vienna an international action to help Ukrainians dying of hunger. He wrote a letter of appeal to the world community about the crimes that are happening against our people in Ukraine," the head of the UGCC said in his sermon.
After the Liturgy, a ceremony was held to unveil a memorial plaque in memory of the assistance of the Archbishop of Vienna, cardinal Theodor Innitzer to the victims of the Holodomor in Ukraine. The event was organized by the Embassy of Ukraine in Austria.
The ceremony was attended by representatives of the Christian Churches, the Jewish community of Vienna and the secular authorities. The head of the UGCC, His Beatitude Sviatoslav, made a welcoming speech next to cardinal Schoenborn and the Rabbi of Vienna.
A separate report on "the forgotten testimony: Archbishop Innitzer and suffering Ukraine" was made by the famous American historian Timothy Snyder. Therefore, the opening of a memorial plaque about Theodore Innitzer's help to the victims of the Holodomor took place. This is reported by the Information Department of the UGCC.
