On Tuesday, March 29, His Beatitude Sviatoslav, the Father and Head of the UGCC met with the Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko. The meeting took place at the request of the mayor of the capital.
The parties discussed the main problems and challenges of the city community, as well as the role and place of the Church in the life of Kyiv under martial law.
The Mayor thanked His Beatitude Sviatoslav for the active presence of the UGCC in Kyiv and for its service to Kyiv community.
According to Mr. Vitaliy Klitschko, today people need words of hope more than food, clothing and medicine. "It is the Church that can now speak to the people and help them believe in Ukraine's victory, and then see that we must build our own country, our own state," he said.
His Beatitude Sviatoslav thanked Vitaliy Klitschko for maintaining Kyiv a living city: all utilities, shops, local authorities, hospitals, schools, and even businesses are trying to come back to life. The Father and the Head of the UGCC assured the Head of the Kyiv City State Administration that the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church is doing and will do everything possible to serve the community properly.
He said that all parishes in Kyiv are functioning. Each of them has become a bomb shelter or a center of social service, where priests and the faithful take care of the elderly and all those who remain in Kyiv and need special care or assistance.
The Primate spoke about the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ, which during the Revolution of Dignity served as a shelter for protesters, during the pandemic - a vaccination center, and today has become a bomb shelter and a center of hope and salvation. His Beatitude Sviatoslav also noted that the Church is establishing logistics centers today, studying the needs of people in order to be able to direct humanitarian aid to its destination.
“We, as the Church, will do everything possible to preach hope that the voice of Kyiv will be heard in the whole world as the voice of hope for victory and be an assurance that good will always defeat evil, "the Primate stressed.