March 05,2014: U.S. Catholics stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine as their
country struggles with political tensions, said a statement from the president of
the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Archbishop Joseph Kurtz said in the March
4 statement that the U.S. bishops, "together with tens of millions of U.S. Catholics
of Eastern European descent, join Pope Francis in solidarity and prayers for the people
of Ukraine for an end to the current tensions and troubling events which continue
to unfold there." He lauded the heroic witness of Ukrainian Greek and Latin Catholic
leaders "who stand firm for human rights and democracy," which gives hope that peaceful
means to rebuild civil society may prevail. Archbishop Kurtz noted that Catholics
in Ukraine have a history of being persecuted, and pleaded for religious liberty to
be protected there. He asked U.S. Catholic communities gathered for the Ash Wednesday
services to pray for a peaceful resolution of the crisis, "one that secures the just
and fundamental human rights of a long-suffering, oppressed people." Source: CNS