In St. Patrick's Cathedral, the main Catholic church in New York, bishops and priests of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA held a joint ecumenical memorial service for the victims of the Holodomor in Ukraine. Hundreds of people attended the prayer service, including clergy, politicians, diplomats, and representatives of the Ukrainian community.
The ecumenical prayer was led by Borys Gudziak, Metropolitan-Archbishop of Philadelphia; Bishop Pavlo Khomnytskyi, Metropolitan Anthony Scherba, Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA; and Archbishop Daniel Zelinsky, President of the Consistory of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA.
According to Ukrinform, the ceremony honoring the victims of the Holodomor was attended by U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN Andrii Melnyk, and Mykhailo Savkiv, President of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America.
During his speech, Andrii Melnyk emphasized that today Ukraine stands before the world not as a victim, “but as a testament to the unbreakable strength of the human spirit and Christian faith.”
“We want Europe and the United States to understand that the terror of the 1930s could happen again, as the evil committed then has never been punished or fully acknowledged,” he stated.
The Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN pointed out that the Holodomor was a genocide aimed at destroying the Ukrainian nation. He noted that the struggle for international recognition of this atrocity serves as a warning to the world about the threats posed by Russia.
If Ukraine's allies had recognized earlier the lessons of the Holodomor and understood Moscow's true intentions, "perhaps more decisive preventive measures would have been taken to avoid this new destructive Russian war," he observed.
Melnyk emphasized that remembering the atrocities of 1932-1933 is crucial for preventing similar crimes, both in Ukraine and globally, especially in Africa, where famine continues to be weaponized.