Ukrainian-Polish Reconciliation Prayer Event Held in Lviv

Joint reconciliation prayers in the Lychakiv Cemetery in Lviv at the burial places of the Ukrainian and Polish soldiers perished in the Polish-Ukrainian War of 1918-1920 have been conducted on 1 November for ten years. This year, the event is to begin at 1:30 p.m. at the Ukrainian and Polish Memorials in the Lychakiv Cemetery. The event is held with the support of the Ukrainian Catholic University and Independent Cultural Studies Magazine Ї.

The event shows the readiness for mutual forgiveness, interethnic reconciliation and building a Europe undivided by walls.

“We will continue to insist on the only correct wording which has allowed us to re-conceptualize and fill with new content the Ukrainian-Polish relations of the modern age. We forgive and ask for forgiveness,” stress the organizers.

The prayer event has been blessed and repeatedly attended by the hierarchs of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and Roman Catholic Church in Ukraine as well as such outstanding figures in promoting Polish-Ukrainian relations as Jacek Kuron, Myroslav Marynovych, and Yevhen Sverstiuk.

On November 1, 1918, Ukrainians took advantage of the disintegration of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire and proclaimed the Western Ukrainian People's Republic. The Poles did not accept that and a war broke out.

November 1, the Day of All Saints according to the Latin Rite, has become the traditional remembrance day in Lviv.