His Beatitude Sviatoslav Meets with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew at the Vatican
On October 24, a meeting took place at Casa Santa Marta in the Vatican between His Beatitude Sviatoslav, Father and Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
At the beginning of the meeting, His Beatitude Sviatoslav congratulated the Ecumenical Patriarch on the 35th anniversary of his patriarchal ministry, noting the importance of his spiritual leadership for universal Orthodoxy. To mark the occasion, the Head of the UGCC presented His All-Holiness with a panagia depicting the Mother of God of Vyshhorod. In return, Patriarch Bartholomew presented His Beatitude Sviatoslav with his book Speaking the Truth in Love, the book Bartholomew I: 30 Years of Patriarchal Ministry in the Context of Ukraine, and a commemorative medal marking the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea.
The Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church expressed his gratitude to the Ecumenical Patriarch for his constant support of Ukraine, especially for his spiritual denunciation of the ideology of the “Russian World.” According to His Beatitude Sviatoslav, this ideology poses a challenge not only to the Ukrainian people but also to all Christians, regardless of their denominational affiliation, and therefore requires a joint response grounded in ecumenical relations.
His Beatitude Sviatoslav also emphasized that replacing the Christian understanding of patriotism with the idea of loyalty to a “warring god” is a serious obstacle to ecumenical unity. Such a distortion of the Christian faith is reflected, in particular, in Patriarch Kirill’s latest book, War: Beyond the Visible Causes and Consequences, and calls into question the common foundations on which dialogue between the Churches should be built.
The Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church congratulated the Ecumenical Patriarch on being awarded an honorary doctorate in theology by the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome. “It is a particular honour for me to congratulate you on this distinction, since it was at this very university that I earned my doctorate in moral theology. This is an important recognition of Your All-Holiness’s theological thought by the highest academic circles of the Catholic Church,” noted His Beatitude Sviatoslav.
During the meeting, the Head of the UGCC announced that the Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations was preparing for a visit to the Phanar this December. He emphasized the importance of this visit for enhancing interchurch and interfaith dialogue, as well as for sharing the testimony of the Ukrainian Churches’ life amid the war.
“Today, the voice of universal Orthodoxy, of which Your All-Holiness is the bearer, is of extraordinary importance to all Christians in Ukraine. On behalf of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, I wish to thank our Mother Church not only for the gift of Baptism and the preaching of the Gospel, but also for its constant vigilance in ensuring that the seed of God’s Word takes root in the fertile Ukrainian soil,” emphasized His Beatitude Sviatoslav.
Patriarch Bartholomew assured the Head of the UGCC of his support and prayers for Ukraine’s victory.
Also present at the meeting were Metropolitan Emmanuel of Chalcedon, Grand Ecclesiarch Aetios, and Fr. Andriy Soletskyi, head of the Secretariat of the Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Rome.
Secretariat of the Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Rome
