Pope urges greater coordination among Ukraine's Catholics

(Sept. 24, 2007) Pope Benedict XVI on Monday urged a more intense and closer collaboration between Catholics of Ukraine’s Byzantine and Latin rites for the good of the entire Church. He made the exhortation to the country’s Greek-Catholic and Latin rite bishops who met him at the papal summer residence of Castelgandolfo, as part of their so-called ‘ad limina’ visit to Rome, which heads of dioceses make every 5 years or so to report on the state of their jurisdiction.
Catholics of the Byzantine rite, known as Greek Catholics, owe allegiance to the Pope of Rome, and together with the Latin rite Catholics make up some 8.2 percent of the Ukraine’s some 46 million population. Most of the country’s Christians belong to Orthodox Churches, forming nearly 30% of the population.
The Pope said that a more intense coordination in the pastoral plans and apostolic activities of Ukraine’s Catholics will offer a witness of that ecclesial communion which is also an indispensable condition for dialogue with the Orthodox and other Christian Churches. In this regard, the Pope suggested that the Catholic bishops of both the rites meet at least once a year