UGCC Synod hears main report themed “Catechism of UGCC ‘Christ Our Pascha’ in life of the Church"
Bishop Petro (Stasyuk), the ruling bishop of the Melbourne diocese (Australia), read the report “Catechism of UGCC ‘Christ Oour Pascha’ in life of the Church: the reception in our Church” on September 4, the second day of the Synod of Bishops of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church.
The main theme of the Synod: is “God's Word and Catechism.”
The main message of the report: “It is important that all leaders of the UGCC understand the importance of the place of the UGCC Catechism in the life of the Church.”
“The most important thing now is that all the leaders of our Church understand the importance of the place of our Catechism in the life of our Church. Our guidance must be entirely devoted to the teaching of God's Word, and especially – as it is laid out in the texts of the Scriptures ... The role of bishops in this process is decisive. Each of us must read and know the Scriptures and realize that the Word of God (Scripture) is addressed to each of us personally. This is the first priority!” said the speaker.
Bishop Petro (Stasyuk) reminded that the Catechism is divided into three parts: "The liturgical part, which describes the prayer and liturgical life, is very popular. It looks like it is paid the most attention. The third part, which is important, competes with the Roman Catholic sources. So far, few of our faithful fully understand the idea of our Eastern Catholic moral theology. It is necessary to have some theological formation to appreciate the Catechism. The first part, which is actually based on the Symbol of Faith, is the most theological; it is often referred to as difficult to understand,” he emphasized.
According to Bishop Petro, it seems that the Catechism "Christ Our Pascha” is well received by the UGCC, and even Roman Catholics across the world also welcome this edition.
“Today, many are asking about the second edition of our Catechism. In fact, our commission has already received suggestions on how to improve it. I realize that this should be done in the future. However, we still have not comprehended the treasure that is contained in our present Catechism,” said Bishop Petro.
According to the Department of Information of the UGCC, the Catechism "Christ Our Pascha" was issued in 2011. Since then, 120,000 copies have been issued in Ukrainian, 50,000 in Russian, about 12,000 in English, 5,000 in Portuguese.
Soon the Catechism will be published in Spanish, Polish, French and Italian.
