Vatican official says Ukrainians are example to world

Published: 2005-02-07

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Ukrainians have stood up for their rights and adhered to their principles despite decades of communism and a recent election scandal, proving themselves to be an example to the world, said a Vatican official. Ukrainians "have given a splendid example to the world of the defense of a principle -- the principle of the need for fair and honest elections in a democratic society," said U.S. Archbishop John P. Foley in a Feb. 7 address to staff and students of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv. Archbishop Foley, head of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, praised the country for what has been called "a miracle of peaceful protest and transition to a democratically elected government." The Vatican released the archbishop's written remarks Feb. 7. After Ukraine declared former Prime Minister Victor Yanukovych the winner of a Nov. 21 presidential election, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians protested peacefully. Opposition candidate Victor Yushchenko charged fraud and appealed to the Supreme Court, which ordered the Dec. 26 rerun. Yushchenko was declared the new president. The archbishop also praised Ukrainians who made many sacrifices under Soviet communist rule in order to profess their faith in God and their "desire to remain in union" with the pope. "The experience of your martyrs under communism and the experience of the recent peaceful transition here in Ukraine" stand out as "some of the most effective communication imaginable -- a communication of faith and a communication of freedom," he said.

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