July 6 the Head and Father of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church His Beatitude Sviatoslav met with Ambassador of the UNESCO Center in Bologna Maurizio Aronica, the Director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Kiev Edoardo Crisafulli and Tetiana Izhevska, Vice President of the National Commission for UNESCO.
During the meeting the sides discussed preservation of a cultural heritage of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in the territory of Italy. Precisely, it was about making particular steps towards preservation and development of a unique landmark which attests the presence of our Church in Castel Gandolfo which is “Villa Andrea”.
“This is a summer residence which metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky presented for Collegium of St. Josaphat in Rome. Today this dwelling belongs to the Apostolic See which is looked after studite monks headed by Fr. Orest Kozak”, explained His Beatitude Sviatoslav.
As for Mr. Aronica, UNESCO found its interest in “Villa Andrea” which is an important attribute of culture and can be a crucial space for meeting and cooperation among cultures, nations and diverse traditions of the Catholic Church.
“We agreed on creating a working group, thus work out a project which might breathe life into this building which connects metropolitan Andrey with our community in Italy and serves as some message, so future generations can get inspiration from it and guidelines for forming a new culture in the post-COVID world on examples of such persons as metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky”, mentioned His Beatitude Sviatoslav.