His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk speaks truth to secular powers

Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kiev-Halych, major archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, speaks Feb. 25 during a Rome news conference on the recent events in the Ukrainian capital. (CNS photo/Max Rossi, Reuters)

His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk speaks truth to secular powers | Michael J. Miller | CWR

The head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church is giving witness similar to that of Bl. John Paul II

In the midst of the unfolding societal, political and now international crisis in Ukraine, the Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church has been a constant and courageous witness to the moral law, human rights and Catholic social teaching. The world has not seen such a tutorial on how the Church should defend peace and justice since Blessed John Paul II supported the Solidarity movement in his pastoral visits to his native Poland while it labored under a Communist regime.

Just as the Polish Pope’s first Encyclical Redemptor hominis was addressed, not only to Catholics, but “to all men and women of good will”, His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk has made common cause with leaders of the three Orthodox Churches in Ukraine and of the Baptist, Lutheran and Jewish and Muslim communities, as a member of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations (AUCCRO), which has acted as a mediator between the Ukrainian civil authorities and the “EuroMaidan” protestors on Independence Square in Kyiv.

At the same time, the Head of the UGCC carefully instructed his priests about the fine line between ministering to demonstrators and leading a demonstration.

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