Video-message of the Head of the UGCC on the 169th Week of Full-Scale War, May 11, 2025
Christ is risen!
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ!
We continue to count the weeks, days, and nights of this devastating war in Ukraine. It has now been 169 weeks of unrelenting bloodshed.
The past week was yet another marked by massive violence. Fighting on the front lines shows no signs of slowing down—in fact, it is intensifying and escalating. Once again, Russian forces selected their nightly targets among our towns and villages.
Kyiv, Odesa, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, and Sumy endured relentless assaults using various types of weaponry, including airstrikes. Civilians were killed and wounded. Even when the Russian aggressor announced a so-called ceasefire to coincide with what they call “days of victory,” it was anything but the truth. In reality, any such declaration only signals the opposite: a further escalation of killings and destruction.
This week, the world marked the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. But today, we understand that it is not enough to speak of victory in war. Humanity longs for victory over war itself. But we see that everything now driving humanity to seek peace for Ukraine is at the same time uniting the powerful of this world to wage new wars that are breaking out in various corners of the globe.
Despite all the sorrowful news we receive from people, God sends us powerful signs of hope—for Ukraine and from Ukraine. This week, Ukraine freed 205 of its defenders from Russian captivity. Their testimonies reveal what kind of life, what kind of existence, awaits Ukrainians in Russian torture chambers. And yet today, we once again proclaim to the whole world: Ukraine stands. Ukraine fights. Ukraine prays.
Undoubtedly, the news that captured the hearts and attention of millions around the world were the words spoken here, in the heart of the Eternal City — St. Peter’s Square. When we heard the well-known, long-awaited words “Habemus Papam,” we received the joyful announcement of the election of the Bishop of Rome, the one who will lead the Universal Catholic Church: His Holiness Pope Leo XIV.
Indeed, this news is like a glorious sound from heaven, speaking to a humanity drowning in despair. It was profoundly meaningful to hear, from the very heart of Rome, the first words of the newly elected Pope — words addressed not only to Catholics and Christians but to the entire world. He greeted us with the words of the Risen Christ: “Peace be with you.”
We have long awaited this peace. The newly elected Pope affirmed that this peace is nothing less than the breath of the Risen Christ. It is Christ who brings peace to humanity. Today, we truly rejoice together with the entire Universal Church.
On behalf of our local Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, I extend heartfelt congratulations to the newly elected Pope and to the whole Universal Church on this historic occasion.
For us Ukrainians, the words “Pope for peace” resonate deeply. We are a people who, perhaps more than any other today, pray fervently for a just and lasting peace — a peace that will allow us to live freely, to flourish, and to breathe the life-giving air of our Risen Savior.
It is significant that the new Pope chose the name Leo. We immediately recall the great Pope Leo the Great, who presided at the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon — a Pope who truly became a symbol of unity between the Byzantine East and the Latin West.
That convergence of East and West gave us the doctrine of the Incarnation: that the Son of God is one divine Person with two natures — divine and human. We also remember the last Pope Leo, Leo XIII, the Pope of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky — the one who, in the context of modernity, articulated the Church’s social teaching in his famous encyclical Rerum Novarum.
Today, in the current circumstances, we hope that under the leadership of Pope Leo XIV — who breathes the peace of Christ upon the world — the modern Church and modern humanity will not only renew the Church’s social doctrine on just peace, but also translate our faith into concrete actions that bring this peace into the lives of all people. It is the Holy Father’s desire that Christ’s peace reach all peoples and nations. We feel that Pope Leo XIV will be a true Pope of peace for Ukraine.
Today, according to our Byzantine tradition, we celebrate a special Sunday — the Sunday of the Paralytic. In the Gospel, we hear Christ ask the man, “Do you want to be healed?” And the man replies, “I have no one to put me into the water so that I may rise, come out of my infirmity, and walk.”
We believe that Pope Leo XIV, anointed by God today, is this man of God — a person raised up for a paralyzed humanity, bringing it hope for God’s blessed peace.
And so we pray: “Most Holy Father, bless Ukraine. Most Holy Father, be for us a herald of peace, the voice of our suffering people before the powerful of this world. Most Holy Father, be a good father to our Church and to our long-suffering people.”
Together with you, Holy Father, and together with the Universal Church, we pray today: God, bless the long-suffering Ukrainian land, our people, our army, our youth with Your righteous heavenly peace.
The blessing of the Lord be upon you, through His grace and love for mankind, always, now and forever, and for the ages of ages. Amen.
Christ is risen!
