UCU Students Invite Pope Francis to Ukraine
The Conference of Students of the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) have approved an open letter inviting Pope Francis to visit Ukraine, Ukrainian Catholic Education Foundation informs.
The declaration signed by Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill in Havana on February 12 has received much attention. “The thought arose that it would be good… to introduce His Holiness and the Vatican to another way of thinking about Ukraine. The idea is simple: The best way to convince someone that the picture that Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church are presenting, in particular regarding events in Ukraine, is distorted and false, is to become a participant in these events and visit Ukraine and meet Ukrainian youth.” So said Mykhailo Shelemba, head of UCU’s Student Council, seen in the photo.
“We are not professional theologians who as experts can evaluate the Declaration signed by Your Holiness and the Patriarch of Moscow in Havana. However, we feel that you need to get to know Ukraine better. So an easy proposal emerged: to invite You to visit us. The best ‘Wikipedia’ is human hearts, and we are ready to open them to Your Holiness,” reads the students’ open letter.
“Our generation, which dreamed of a happy life in peace and prosperity, suddenly finds itself in the middle of a war initiated by the Russian Federation. Military analysts can call this war hybrid as if there is no real war. But death does not come ‘hybrid': every day we are losing our friends, young people are losing their lives.
The best path to peace is dialogue: Who understands this better than we do? But how to start it when we are the objects of daily aggression on the part of forces under the control of Russia? How to reconcile with an aggressor when, as a condition of peace, he demands the renunciation of our identity? Is it possible to maintain peace, submitting to values which threaten all human civilization?
“Certainly in our place Jesus today would ask: ‘What is peace?’” reads the letter.
The open letter is available on the Internet here (in Ukrainian and in English) so that people from all over Ukraine can sign it, regardless of where they live or their religious affiliation.
