Ukraine

Interfaith prayer for the victims of totalitarianismTo mark the 70th anniversary of the Nazi invasion of Soviet territory, on the initiative of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church (UGCC), the secretariat of the Ukrainian Council of Churches and religious organizations (AUCCRU) proclaimed 22 June a “Day of interconfessional prayer for the victims of two totalitarian regimes – Nazism and Communism”. An interfaith prayer service for these victims was held in Kiev to mark this day of commemoration; several thousand people participated in it. News of the event is carried by the Ukrainian Religious Information Service (RISU), according to which representatives of various Churches gathered together in prayer to the side of the monastery of the Golden Dome of St. Michael on 22 June: the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Patriarchate of Kiev (COU-KP), the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Patriarchate of Moscow (UOC-MP), the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church (UGCC), the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC)), the Roman Catholic Church, the Pan-Ukrainian Congress of Jewish Communities, the Spiritual Authority of Muslims of Ukraine, the Apostolic Armenian Church, the Pan-Ukrainian Union of Evangelical Baptist Christians and the Ukrainian Evangelical Christian Church.The primate of the UCCC and Archbishop Major of Kyiv-Halyc, Sviatoslav Shevchuk, who had invited “the clergy, the faithful and all persons of good will to participate, on the 70th anniversary of the Nazi invasion of Soviet territory”, declared: “The 22 June was the day of the collision between two regimes hostile to man”, Nazism and Stalinism, which “revealed their true face”. “Tears have been shed – he added -; the weeping of those who have lost their loved ones has been heard. This date was marked by the terrible shedding of the blood of innocent victims, caused either by the one side or by the other”: bloodshed that “covered our land”. Nonetheless, today “is also a day of prayer, memory and reconciliation. We remember all those who were killed or tortured to death in Stalinist prisons, the boys who were conscripted in haste and thrown almost defenceless as prey to the enemy; we remember all the innocent victims”. “The voice of their bloodshed – continued Archbishop Shevchuk – calls us to ensure that the ghosts of the regimes hostile to man never be incarnated in obscure forces and actions. And it calls us never again to permit separations or hostilities between us”. Today, concluded the primate, we are praying to God for strength and courage, and ask Him to forgive the aggressors”. According to Patriarch Philarete (UOC-KP), “the war was the consequence of the invasion of the ‘godless’ that destroyed faith, churches, and everything holy. God permitted the war to convert people to Him. The result of the war was not just victory on the battlefield but the conversion of many people to the Lord”. “Let us pray for the dead!” was his final exhortation. Mefodiy, Metropolitan of the UAOC, in turn, warned of the dangers of political fanaticism, which, he said, “always ends in bloodshed”. A strong appeal for prayer “for the dead and for the survivors” was also made by a member of the Supreme Council of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Patriarchate of Moscow, Heorhiy Kovalenko. RISU also stressed that, apart from national flags black-edged as a sign of mourning, no symbols of any political party were used.The Catechism of the Greek-Catholic ChurchAn international conference dedicated to a long-awaited event in the life of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church: the presentation of the Catechism “Christ is our Pasch”, is being held in Lviv today and tomorrow (24-25 June). The Patriarchal Commission for Catechesis and the Catechetical-Pedagogical Institute of the Ukrainian Catholic University are the main organizers of the event, with the active support of the municipality of Lviv. The preparation of the Catechism took almost ten years and the volume consists of three parts: the credo of the Church, the prayer of the Church and the life of the Church. His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, Primate of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, author and editor of the third part, will personally present the volume today. The presentation is being held as part of commemorations to mark the 10th anniversary of the visit of the Blessed John Paul II to Ukraine and the beatification of 27 Greek-Catholic martyrs. The Catechism, and in future its Compendium, will be translated into five languages: Russian, English, Portuguese, Spanish and Polish. The translations will be made in the mother countries of the said languages, while the Commission of Catechesis will make the final revision.Youth recall John Paul IITomorrow (25 June) the flash mob “The Pope, the Ukraine and I”, dedicated to youth and to the tenth anniversary of John Paul II’s visit to the former Soviet republic, will be held in Kiev. The aim of the initiative, explains the Religious Information Service of Ukraine (RISU), is to “draw attention to the 10th anniversary” of the papal visit and “recall the spiritual values” supported by the Pontiff. Ukrainian youth will ask passers-by: “Who is the Pope for you?” and “What do you know about him?”, and to each of them they will distribute the Pope’s favourite sweet, a Korivka, with a quotation inside. They will then prepare a message to be sent to the Vatican with the Pope’s quotations and with an expression of their gratitude towards him.