“The voice of our Church is important to majority of Ukrainians,” His Beatitude Sviatoslav Thanks Knights of Columbus for Supporting UGCC Initiatives
On October 25, at the Patriarchal House in Lviv, His Beatitude Sviatoslav, Father and Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, met with former Supreme Knight of Columbus Carl Anderson, who came to Lviv with his wife. The meeting took place at the request of Mr. Anderson, who visited Ukraine for the first time in four years and will give a lecture at the Ukrainian Catholic University.
During the conversation, the Head of the UGCC thanked the Knights of Columbus for their support and cooperation, emphasizing the importance of their service in wartime. “During wartime, primarily men are the group that requires special attention from the Church. The burden of war falls largely on the shoulders of men. The Knights of Columbus provide the space and means through which the Church can serve its people today, especially men who are fighting on the front lines or are wounded,” said His Beatitude Sviatoslav.
During the conversation, the parties discussed the spiritual challenges of wartime. The Head of the Church shared the story of a wounded soldier who once told him: “It doesn’t hurt me as much that I don’t have a leg as it does not knowing why this happened.”
“The answer to this question—why? — is today a profound spiritual question that millions of Ukrainians are asking themselves, and it can only be answered through faith in God,” noted the Primate. Speaking about the Church’s influence on society, His Beatitude Sviatoslav noted: “Our Church is growing precisely because it finds ways to proclaim the Word of God with the help of modern means of communication, in particular our ‘Zhyve TV’, and we have a very important influence on society. We are a religious minority that is important to the majority. More than half of Ukrainians say that the voice of our Church is important to them.”
Among the topics of conversation were also issues of religious freedom, the situation in the occupied territories, where Bibles not printed by the Russian Orthodox Church are burned, and the tradition of prayer breakfasts. Carl Anderson suggested inviting influential Catholics, particularly from the US Republican Party, to a prayer breakfast organized by the Ukrainian government to testify their support for Ukraine.
At the end of the meeting, His Beatitude Sviatoslav conveyed his greetings to the current Supreme Knight of Columbus, Patrick Kelly, and presented Carl Anderson with an icon of St. James the Apostle, highlighting the significance of this saint, particularly for the Stryi Eparchy, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. The Head of the UGCC thanked the Knights of Columbus for their service in the parishes of the UGCC in Ukraine, assured them of his support, and thanked them for supporting the Church’s initiatives in the context of the war.
