Pope blesses Ukrainian Catholic Church, commemorates its survival

Published: 2006-03-16

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI prayed that Mary and the communist-era martyrs of the Ukrainian Catholic Church would strengthen Ukrainians in their faith and their commitment to Christian unity. The pope sent a letter to Cardinal Lubomyr Husar of Kiev-Halych, head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, who was leading commemorations of the 1946 "pseudo-synod" manipulated by the Soviet authorities to unite the Eastern-rite Catholic Church with the Russian Orthodox Church. Cardinal Husar read the pope's letter March 8 during a Divine Liturgy at St. George's Cathedral in Lviv, Ukraine, site of the March 8-10, 1946, meeting. The text of the pope's letter was released March 16 at the Vatican. Soviet authorities had arrested all the Ukrainian Catholic bishops before the synod began; after the vote to unite with the Orthodox, "violence against those who remained faithful to unity with the bishop of Rome intensified," Pope Benedict said. "But despite unspeakable trials and suffering, divine providence did not permit the disappearance of a community that for centuries was considered a legitimate and vivacious part of the identity of the Ukrainian people," the pope said.

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