Pope Addresses Ukrainian Greek Catholic Bishops

(02 Feb 08 - RV) Pope Benedict XVI met Friday with the bishops from the Greek Catholic Church in the Ukraine at the end of their Ad Limina visit.

70 years have passed since the last delegation of bishops from Ukraine’s Greek Catholic Church crossed the threshold of the Papal Apartments to meet and speak with a Pope. 70 years which have left their mark on the culture and society of eastern European nation and its Church.

Speaking to the group led by Card. Lubomyr Husar Arcbishop of Kyiv-Halyc, Pope Benedict expressed his “heartfelt thanks that the Christian faith in the former soviet state is now experiencing a period of rebirth after a dramatic period of persecution. He also told the bishops that the Pope “holds all of the faithful in his heart” and that they have his “full support as they face their difficult mission”.

The Holy Father noted the bishops concern for the decline in vocations that has followed and early surge in numbers choosing to enter religiou slife in the wake of communism. He also pressed the bishops for greater discernment in choosing candidates for the priesthood and for more emphasis on spiritual formation, because on priest with a solid grounding in the faith are capable of tackling the ills of modern culture.

There are about four million Catholics in the country. The faithful of Ukraine follow two principal rites — the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Rite and the Latin Rite. In his message to bishops from the Greek Catholic Church Pope Benedict emphasised the importance of theological and pastoral formation in collaboration with the Latin Episcopate. He said that it “cannot be denied that collaboration between the two rites would naturally result in greater communion between all those who serve the one church… helping ease eventual misunderstandings in the knowledge that both rites are part of the one Catholic Community”. To this ends the Pope suggested an annual meeting between bishops of the Latin and Greek-catholic rites.

Another issue on the Pope’s mind was relations with other Christian faiths, particularly the Orthodx Church. While the UGCC is the largest Eastern Rite in full communion with the Holy See, within Ukraine itself, it is a distant second to the majority Eastern Orthodox faith— counting for about 8% of the total population. Pope Benedict did not deny that in the ecumenical field there are “concrete and objective obstacles”. Yet he said, one must not loose heart in the face of difficulties, but follow an active path of prayer patience and charity.

Pope Benedict XVI concluded that failures in ecumenical dialogue cannot be ignored, but neither should they dampen enthusiasm for the Lord’s goal that one day we “may all be one”.
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