Ukrainian Pilgrims Start Out For Vatican

A group of pilgrims of the Odesa-Simferopol Eparchy of the Roman Catholic Church has started out for the Vatican to attend the celebratory events on occasion of the beatification of Pope John Paul II. The pilgrims from Odesa together with the believers of other Greek Catholic and Roman Catholic eparchies will participate in the beatification events on 1 May in the Vatican.  

The celebratory service will be attended by more than a million Catholics from all over the world. During the service in the Square of St. Peter in Rome, the Pope will serve in concelebration with Ukrainian bishops, reports most-odessa.info.

“We all await the special day of beatification with excitement. I knew Pope John Paul II personally.  I, as well as many people who met him, can testify the holiness of that unique person. But now, it is not my personal opinion or opinion of individual people, but it is the authoritative opinion of the Church that will testify this truth before the whole world,” said Bishop Bronislav Bernatskyi before the departure to Rome.

In addition to the Odesa pilgrims, representatives of virtually all regions of Ukraine, such as Khmelnytskyi, Vinnytsia, Crimea, Kyiv and others, has started out for the Vatican. According to the head of the Pilgrim Center “Rafail,” Andrii Delisandru, who organized the trip, it is interesting that the pilgrims mostly represent the central Ukraine.

As RISU reported earlier, the pilgrimage program includes deeper familiarization with the figure of John Paul II, his life, as well as with his predecessor Johh XXIII who paved the way for his outstanding successor. On their way to the Vatican, Ukrainians will be able to visit places connected with the life and ministry of Karol Wojtyla: Krakow where he attended a seminary and served as the Metropolitan of Krakow, and the heart of the Catholic Poland, Czestochowa, which was quite often visited by John Paul as the pope.