On 8 April, the delegation of UGCC led by its Head, Patriarch Sviatoslav (Shevchuk) held two important meetings in the Holy Land, with the Apostolic Nuncio in Israel, Giuseppe Lazzarotto and Patriarch Fouad Twal of the Roman Catholic Church of Jerusalem.
On 8 April, the delegation of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) led by its Head, Patriarch Sviatoslav (Shevchuk) held two important meetings in the Holy Land, with the Apostolic Nuncio in Israel, Giuseppe Lazzarotto and Patriarch Fouad Twal of the Roman Catholic Church of Jerusalem.
According to the Information Department of UGCC, the meeting with Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarotto was held in the office of the Apostolic Nunciature in Jerusalem.
“First of all, we discussed with the Nuncio the question of assistance in the pastoral care for our emigrants in the Holy Land, as approximately a million emigrants from the former Soviet Union have come to Israel and become citizens here in the last twenty years since the collapse of the USSR. Most of them were elderly people who need to be cared for today. And these people are probably looked after exactly by our women,” noted Patriarch Sviatoslav.
The Apostolic Nuncio noted that the phenomenon of emigration to Israel requires constant monitoring and study. Most of the emigrants coming here have no work permit. Therefore, under the Israeli law, they are not always protected in their rights, especially, if they state that they are Christians.
“Therefore, I asked Apostolic Nuncio for necessary assistance to be able to receive sufficient information for our Church and then develop the necessary monitoring program and strategy of pastoral care for our faithful here, in the state of Israel,” said the Head of UGCC.
Another meeting was held with Patriarch Fouad Twal of the Roman Catholic Church of Jerusalem who is also the Head of the Conference of Bishops of Israel and provides pastoral care for the Christians of Jordan.
According to the Head of UGCC, Patriarch Fouad Twal welcomed the delegation of UGCC and said that it is probably the first time for a Catholic Church of the Eastern Rite to come to Jerusalem and visit the Jerusalem Patriarchate of the Latin Rite in particular.
“The trip of our delegation is primarily a pilgrimage conducted by us on occasion of the 1025th anniversary of Baptism of Rus-Ukraine. More than a century ago, Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytskyi organized a similar pilgrimage to the Holy Land for pilgrims from Galicia. We would like to repeat the way of Metropolitan Andrey in some way. In addition to our delegation, several groups of pilgrims are visiting the Holy Land,” said the Head of UGCC to Patriarch Fouad Twal.
“The Patriarch was very grateful that UGCC sends pilgrims to the Holy Land in such numbers and that we have renewed the pilgrimage conducted long ago by Metropolitan Andrey. For to give a chance to a modern Christian to touch the roots of the Church life here is one of the means to make his or her faith really living and active. I responded that we could not do without visiting the Church of Jerusalem as we celebrated our jubilee 1025th anniversary of Baptism,” said the Head of UGCC.