On 14-16 November, in the town of Baltimore in USA, the general session of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is held. On the first day of its activity, the American bishops were addressed by the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Patriarch Sviatoslav who is visiting USA. Over 300 bishops from all the eparchies of USA greeted the newly-appointed head of UGCC. So reported the Information Department of UGCC.
The head of UGCC on behalf of that Church expressed his profound gratitude and recognition to the American bishops for their substantial support in the development of the Church: “Approximately eight million of our faithful all over the world will always remember the support of the American bishops and lay people for the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church at the hardest times of the persecution thereof by the Soviet regime. In addition, since the coming out of our Church from the underground, USCCB through the National Collection to aid the Church in the eastern and central Europe has provided invaluable financial support for our physical and pastoral revival.”
According to the hierarch, the support has already yielded fruit as the Church is now in the middle of the period of revival and rise: “God is blessing us with vocations. In some of our seminaries, three candidates compete for a place. An average age of our priests is 35 years. It is wonderful to lead such a young and living Church.”
In conclusion of his address, Patriarch Sviatoslav expressed his support for the American Bishops: “I would like to express our solidarity with the American bishops who are just about to make a loud statement on the protection of religious freedom in the social life. I can say that our Church has special understanding of the importance of religious freedom and consequences of the lack thereof.”
The Head of UGCC wished the bishops to remain the moral authority not only at home but all over the world.
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On November 16, in Washington, the head of UGCC will meet with Ambassador Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to USA, Oleksandr Motsyk and visit the White House to meet senators and congressmen.
On November 19, Patriarch Sviatoslav will lead the annual memorial service for the victims of the genocidal Holodomor and make a speech in the Cathedral of St. Patrick in New York.
On Sunday, November 20, he will lead a liturgy in the Church of St. Yurii in New York. On the same day, the hierarch will be an honorary guest at the ceremony of honoring the leaders of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in the Fordham University, reported the Information Department of the UGCC.
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Fordham to Welcome Ukrainian Catholic Church Leaders (SOURCE)
Contact: Vice President for Mission and Ministry
718.817.3012.
Fordham University will pay tribute to the former prelate of the Ukrainian Catholic Church and his successor at a "Tribute to Ukrainian Catholic Church Leaders" on Sunday, Nov. 20, at the University Church.
Lubomyr Cardinal Husar, GSAS '66, patriarch emeritus of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, will be honored with an unveiling and blessing of the patriarch's coat of arms-a marble mosaic recently installed in the University Church sanctuary.
Cardinal Husar began serving as exarch of Kyiv and Vyshhorod in 1995. In December 2000, Pope John Paul II named Cardinal Husar to the post of apostolic administrator of the Ukrainian Greek Major-Archeparchy of Lviv. The following January, the Ukrainian Greek synod elected him major archbishop.
He stepped down this year due to ill health.
His successor, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, was enthroned as prelate on March 27. Archbishop Shevchuk will represent Cardinal Husar at Sunday's event and will receive an honorary doctorate from Fordham.
DATE: Sunday, Nov. 20
TIME: 4 p.m.
LOCATION: University Church, Rose Hill campus
Prelate Shevchuk, just 40 years old when he was elected, had previously served at the Eparchy of Santa Maria del Patrocinio in Buenos Aires. He is fluent in Ukrainian and Spanish and has a strong command of seven other languages.
This is first visit to New York.
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| Coat-of-arms of Lubomyr Cardinal Husar |
Among those in attendance will be Theodore Cardinal McCarrick, archbishop emeritus of Washington D.C.; Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York; Archbishop Francis Chullikatt, Vatican nuncio to the United Nations; Archbishop Demetrois, primate of the Greek Orthodox Church in America; and Archbishop Antony of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the United States of America.
With some 5 million faithful worldwide, the Ukrainian Catholic Church acts as a bridge between Eastern and Western Christianity. It is a minority church in Ukraine, where the Orthodox Church retains wide membership, but is the largest sui juris Eastern church in full communion with the Holy See.
It has been experiencing a resurgence in the Ukraine since the fall of Communism in 1989.
Fordham is co-sponsoring the event with the Ukrainian Catholic Education Foundation. For more information visit the website.
Founded in 1841, Fordham is the Jesuit University of New York, offering exceptional education distinguished by the Jesuit tradition to more than 15,100 students in its four undergraduate colleges and its six graduate and professional schools. It has residential campuses in the Bronx and Manhattan, a campus in West Harrison, N.Y., the Louis Calder Center Biological Field Station in Armonk, N.Y., and the London Centre at Heythrop College in the United Kingdom.
11/11
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