Ukrainian bishops spoke up as international reaction continued over US President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance’s televised White House clash with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Source: Catholic Review.
In a message issued on Sunday, the primate of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, said the previous week had witnessed continued frontline fighting and “daily attacks from the sky” on Ukrainians cities, and would also “probably go down in history as a period of international diplomatic upheaval”.
“Despite various signals from Western capitals, for Ukraine to win, we must have a cool mind, hot heart and steely will,” Major Archbishop Shevchuk said.
“We testify to the whole world that a peace treaty cannot be signed without truth and justice. Many today are talking about territories in Ukraine, but our Church and our state protect people, their right to exist, their freedom,” he said.
The Vatican’s nuncio to Kyiv, Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas, told the Italian news agency Servizio Informazione Religiosa on Monday that the White House encounter had been a “pseudo-dialogue with great difficulty in truly listening to the other, instead imposing one’s own will and vision on the other.”
Catholic church leaders in Ukraine have warned against possible shift of the new US administration toward Russia and pledged support for their country’s continuing freedom struggle against the invader ruled by President Vladimir Putin.
“All healthy forces should be uniting against this evildoer, who remains unpunished after killing, destroying and inflicting poverty on our people,” said Bishop Stanislav Szyrokoradiuk of Odesa-Simferopol.
Mr Zelenskyy has returned to Kyiv after being received by Britain’s King Charles III following an emergency London summit of European heads of government on Sunday.
The summit came two days after the Ukrainian leader was ordered out of the White House without signing a planned deal facilitating US access to Ukrainian rare-earth minerals, and as Russian drones and missiles struck a hospital and residential areas in the northeastern city of Kharkiv.
Bishop Szyrokoradiuk said the London summit had provided new confidence that “there are still countries united in helping Ukraine endure this terrible war”.
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No peace treaty possible without truth, justice, Ukrainian bishops say after diplomatic dispute (By Jonathan Luxmoore, OSV News via Catholic Review)
