Today we remember with gratitude all moments of your brotherly support, which our Church has experienced underground, as it were mainly your cathedrals which served as spiritual shelters to thousands of the faithful of our Church. We rejoice in a common communion chalice, where our service emerges from, which we carry out for the faithful in Ukraine, thus showing unity of Christ’s Catholic Church nowadays.
With these words His Beatitude Sviatoslav, the Head of the UGCC expressed his gratitude in a letter to Archbishop Mieczysław Mokrzycki, Chairman of the Conference of Roman Catholic Bishops of Ukraine on occasion of the 30th anniversary of the restoration of structures of the Roman Catholic Church in Ukraine. The Head of the UGCC sent his congratulations on behalf of the Synod of Bishops of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, clergy, monks and nuns and laypeople.
The Head of the UGCC mentioned that these days we thank all-merciful God for granting us all freedom to manifest our faith without restriction, as exactly 30 years ago due to the collapse of the Soviet Union, which was also called “the prison of nations”, Ukraine became an independent state.
“The Act of restoration was introduced by St. John Paul II, who had made a lot of efforts to make totalitarian regime collapse and Churches behind Iron Curtain could develop and deliver service freely. A decade later he made a pastoral visit to Ukraine and thanked its children for their faithfulness to Christ during a time of persecution, lifting to the altars of glory those martyrs who with a price of their own lives showed their indivisible unity with a successor of Peter the Apostle”, reminded His Beatitude Sviatoslav.
He stated that restored structures are not just a sign of God’s mercy but a great credit of faith granted to us for merits and faithfulness of our glorious predecessors. “We sincerely wish that this opportunity you have received is filled with the sense of Gospel, feeding people God with bread from heaven – the Eucharist, an active catechetical and social service”, wished the Head of the UGCC.