Synod: Archbishop Shevchuk focuses on family, spiritual fatherhood and motherhood
(Vatican Radio) Finding new ways to preach the Gospel, especially in lands that have
already received it, and to cultures that have been penetrated and formed by it, is
one of the central points of focus for the Fathers of the XIII Ordinary Assembly of
the Synod of Bishops. This is a special and particular concern for the Major Archbishop
of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv-Halyč, who, at 42 years
of age, is also the youngest of the Synod Fathers. He told Vatican Radio that the
concept of spiritual paternity and maternity is a key to the New Evangelization. “[W]e
can transmit our faith only in the context of interpersonal dialogue,” he said, “so,
we need somebody who can generate us in the faith of the Church.” Archbishop Shevchuk
went on to say, “[Such] are the persons we would call spiritual father [and] mother.”
The Archbishop also spoke of the role of the family in fostering a sense of faith.
“I received my Christian faith [during the time of the persecutions under Communism]
in my family, and actually, in the former Soviet Union, Christian families were real
Ecclesiae domesticae [domestic Churches].” He described the way the life of the larger
Church informed the life of the family from within. “This was the ‘home Church’,”
he said, “where a priest could come and celebrate Sacraments, where I learned a basic
notion of Christian faith from my grandmother, and even in those circumstances, I
learned how to pray, how to worship, how to live my life according to the Christian
moral principles.” Listen to Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk’s extended conversation
with Vatican Radio’s Philippa Hitchen: