Patriarch Lubomyr: Church Must Address Each Nation in its Own Language

In his speech at the round table "The Church and the Ukrainian Language,” the head of Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) Patriarch Lubomyr  stressed that the human community is naturally divided into nations, so the church must address each nation in its own language.

The patriarch noted that the church has two aspects. "First, ecumenical – the church receives from God divine elements: Scripture, Sacraments, hierarchical structure common for Christians wherever they are. But there is a second aspect: the Church of Christ exists in the circumstances of the human community and human community is naturally divided into nations,” says Patriarch Lubomyr.

Professor Alexander Ponomariv said that the UGCC cares about the Ukrainian language. "We have some Christian denominations. The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church is the most consistently concerned about the Ukrainian language," said the scholar.

Bishop Yevstratij (Zorya), the representative of Information and Publishing Department of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate, attended this roundtable. As RISU informed, he expressed concern that if the Ukrainian language is pushed to the background, it can stop playing a leading role in Ukraine.