Several prominent American Catholics have launched a petition calling for the end of Russia’s religious persecution in occupied areas of Ukraine. Source: NCR Online.
The initiative was unveiled as part of a two-day scholarly conference in Washington examining Russia’s suppression of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) immediately after World War II.
“History and the present speak with one voice: the freedom of one is the freedom of all,” said Metropolitan Archbishop Borys Gudziak of Philadelphia; Fr. Mark Morozowich, director of the Centre for Ukrainian Church Studies at The Catholic University of America; and Catholic intellectual George Weigel, distinguished senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Centre.
The three had spearheaded a March 27-28 gathering organised by the Centre for Ukrainian Church Studies, Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, and the St Gabriel Institute, which provides education and formation for Church diplomats and communications professionals.
The conference, titled “The 1946 Pseudo-Sobor: 80 Years Later – The Persecution Continues,” explored the Soviet crackdown that saw the UGCC’s visible structures liquidated and its clergy expelled, imprisoned and killed.
In a video message to participants at the Washington conference, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the father and head of the UGCC – who was ordained in an underground seminary in Soviet Ukraine – said that Russia’s current war shows “nothing has changed.”
“Every time Russia occupies a part of Ukraine’s territory, our Church is banned and destroyed. Our priests, our nuns, and our monasteries are being closed. Our priests are being imprisoned, tortured, or deported,” he said.
“Therefore, this project to restore the Soviet Union, which the Russian president is attempting to implement, means a return to the catacombs for us.”
The archbishop added, “The very fact that I am speaking to you today from Kyiv is a strong sign and proof that they did not succeed.”
Since Russia’s war on Ukraine began in 2014, and after its acceleration with a 2022 full-scale invasion, close to 740 houses of worship have been damaged or destroyed.
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Catholic leaders appeal to end Russia’s religious persecution in Ukraine (By Gina Christian, OSV News via NCR Online)
