Church and State united against abortion “The life of a person is not private property: it’s a gift from God, and this is true also for a child that is yet to be born. Conception and life’s natural termination are the will of God only. And everyone should bear in mind this principle”, said Msgr.Markian Trofymiak, Roman-Catholic bishop and president of the pan-Ukrainian Council of Churches and religious organizations, in the address delivered during the symposium “Moral and ethical aspects of voluntary pregnancy interruption”, held a few days ago in Kiev in the framework of the Fourth Bioethics National Congress. According to official findings, approximately 200 thousand abortions are carried out in Ukraine each year, almost twofold the European average. One every ten abortions are practiced on under-19-year-olds. Orthodox Archbishop Avhustyn Markevych of Lviv and Halych, said, “society is experiencing a serious moral crisis. But neither the Church nor the State can face it on their own”. It is therefore important “to join efforts” by bringing together not only doctors and priests, but also “teachers, parents, educators and psychologists”. The deputy-chairman of the Public Health Council, Greek-Catholic priest Andrii Nahirniak, proposed “to adopt a resolution that will serve as a guideline in the quest of solutions to this serious phenomenon that involves Ukrainian society as a whole”. The Third Ecumenical Social Week opens October 4 Next October 4 (ongoing until October 10) the third Ecumenical Social Week titled “Faith, responsibility, philanthropy” will open at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv. The event is promoted by the same University, by the Institute for Ecumenical Studies, by the Council of the City of Lviv, by the Regional Council and Administration and by the University Polytechnics. The meeting opens with a public forum for youth formation titled “Preventive extracurricular formation is a step towards Ukraine’s future parents”. According to the organizers, which include the Getsemani Evangelical Church and the social-formational organization “Future Parents”, the event aims at “discussing public bodies’ achievements as relates to preventive education” and “submit to local authorities the request to implement programs and tools for social and health formation in schools across the city”. School officers and headmasters, pedagogues, representatives of local authorities, students, seminarians along with Church and public bodies representatives will attend the meeting. The Forum’s standing committee includes, among others, the director of the Youth and Family Regional Department of Lviv Andrii Rozhniatkovskyi; the head of the Family Commission of the Archeparchy of the Greek-Catholic Church father Taras Fitio; the dean of the Roman-Catholic Seminary in Lviv father Oleh Salomon, and Valerii Marchenko, senior pastor of the Getsemani Christian Evangelical Church.The Chernivtsi Church returned to the Jesuits The neo-gothic Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Chernivtsi (Roman-Catholic archdiocese of Lviv) was returned to the Jesuits congregation. The Church, built at the end of the 19th century with the contribution of world Catholics, is amongst the city’s architectural jewels. All that remains today are 60-mt. tall spires, ruined walls and broken stained-glass windows. Nonetheless Jesuits and parishioners continue hoping it will come to new life. The church was consecrated on November 25 1894. After World War II it was handed over to the Orthodox priests of Moscow’s patriarchate, and later it was used as an archive, the major altar serving as the director’s desk. “Since 1996 – said the director of the Church parish committee Inna Keller – the order (of the Jesuits, ed.’s note) struggled to obtain its restitution, with the help of the director of the archive, Dmitro Zhmunduliak, which happened only now”. In the meantime another issue deserves clarification. During World War I the territories of Bucovina became tragic battlefields. “Now – Keller said – an ad hoc Committee will be tasked with establishing whether the corpses of Polish soldiers fallen during the conflict are buried in the subterranean. Most historians doubt it, since the Soviet regime never showed any particular respect for the deceased. If the corpses should be found they will be left in the crypts to rest in peace”. Approximately 4 million dollars are needed to restore and renovate the place of worship. “What’s important – concludes Keller – is that we were returned our church. We are still preparing property right documents, so it’s still early to speak of fund-raising or sponsors. For the time being we convene in the rooms that we rented inside the ex monastery”. Mrs. Keller also made known that five years ago the parish committee submitted a request at the Minister of Culture to obtain the restitution of vestments and church plate that were removed from the church and placed in the public museum.
