The head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church is visiting the United States of America during what many judge as a critical juncture in the more than two-year-long war, with his invaded country increasingly appearing on the back foot as the military advantage appears to swing in Russia’s favour.
In remarks at the start of his visit to the US, his Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, thanked Church leaders for their support and expressed his belief that continued solidarity can carry Ukraine to victory over Russia.
“Thank you very much for your tireless prayer and work for the good of Ukraine and our speedy victory in the Russian invasion,” Shevchuk said. “We will definitely win if we are together – together with God, together with each other, no matter where we live in the world, and together with Ukraine.”
Shevchuk, the archbishop of the Archeparchy of Kyiv-Galicia, made the remarks in a 3 March sermon he gave at the Ukrainian Catholic National Shrine of the Holy Family in Washington, D.C. A divine liturgy that Shevchuk celebrated kicked off his week-long visit, which will include meetings with Church leaders and lawmakers, and stops in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York.
He spoke of the importance of this Great Lent season in the context of facing struggle and finding meaning within it, and described the Great Lent as a period of spiritual pilgrimage where people will experience a period of struggle. It comes most noticeably, he says, in the form of a “burnt out” feeling that comes with fighting evil, both personally and in the context of the war, and the natural temptation to give up when that feeling hits.
“Many people in Ukraine told me: the wound itself does not hurt so much as the fact that I do not understand its meaning,” Shevchuk explained. “That is why Ukraine today needs so much to find the meaning of personal struggle, its crying, its suffering, and it is the honest and life-giving Cross of the Lord that gives us these meanings that make us an indomitable and invincible, albeit crucified, people.”
He added: “From now on, the Cross heals, not oppresses, wings, not scares – it is no longer an instrument that causes death, but a tree that revives.”
Those in attendance at the liturgy included Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Military Services and head of the U.S. Bishops’ Conference; Archbishop Borys Gudziak of the Archeparchy of Philadelphia and the Metropolitan of Ukrainian Catholics in the United States; Cardinal Wilton Gregory, archbishop of Washington; and Cardinal Donald Wuerl, archbishop emeritus of Washington.
Shevchuk thanked all of the American bishops in attendance. In particular, he responded to Broglio’s prior visit to Ukraine, saying the archbishop gave “special testimony of the solidarity of Catholics in America with the suffering people of Ukraine”.
He also mentioned the efforts of Gudziak and other Ukrainian bishops in the United States, and thanked Ukrainians in the United States for their support through the last two years.
Accompanying Shevchuk on his US visit are five bishops of the Permanent Synod of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. Their visit follows the two-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and comes at a critical juncture in which billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine is currently hung up in Congress as budget negotiations continue.
The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church is the largest Eastern Catholic Church in communion with the Holy See. Shevchuk has led the church since 2011.
“On behalf of those who are the weakest and most vulnerable in Ukraine today and whom our Church was able to serve for two years thanks to your sacrifice and generosity, I express my heartfelt gratitude,” Shevchuk said in a message to Ukrainians in the US. Photo: His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the major archbishop of Kyiv-Galicia in Ukraine, and head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, preaches in Washington, DC. (Photo credit: Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, via Crux.)
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