We Have Submitted to the Vatican the Names of Modern Professors of Faith, Including Not Just Catholics: Head of the UGCC
The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church has submitted a list of modern confessors of the faith from Ukraine to the Commission of New Martyrs and Witnesses of the Faith, established by Pope Francis on the occasion of the 2025 Jubilee. This list includes not only the faithful of the UGCC but also Orthodox and Protestants. His Beatitude Sviatoslav, the Father and Head of the UGCC, discussed this in the program “Open Church” on Zhyve Television.
“We attempted to look more broadly at our contemporaries, not to be limited by confessional frameworks, to testify to the world that Ukraine has heroes of the Christian faith in the present,” the Primate emphasized.
According to His Beatitude Sviatoslav, Pope Francis had a very insightful idea when he established the Commission to search for heroes of the faith of the third millennium. We often refer to the witnesses of the faith of the past and miss the fact that there are many of them in our time. Pope Francis wanted us to recognize them.
The Head of the UGCC noted that the Vatican Commission for the New Martyrs, established in July 2023, asked each local Church to collect information about the heroes of our time, regardless of denomination. “We submitted to the Apostolic Capital a whole list of our contemporaries who gave a heroic testimony of the Christian faith in the third millennium. However, these are not only Catholics. We have submitted both Orthodox and Protestants, that is, those who, regardless of their denomination, lived their religious beliefs in accordance with the basic principles of Christianity,” said His Beatitude Sviatoslav.
The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, according to the Patriarch, also submitted to the Apostolic Capital the names of those who fell victim to Russian aggression. “We have submitted the names of the heroes of the Heavenly Hundred, as well as the priests of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine who died at the hands of the Russian occupiers,” added the Head of the UGCC.
Following this, the Vatican Commission, in accordance with its competence, should select from among the candidates from around the world contemporary confessors of the faith to be honored during the Jubilee Year. “We hope,” the Primate said, “that against the backdrop of the Jubilee Year, a day will be designated on which the examples of Christian heroism of the witnesses of the faith of our time will be proclaimed to the whole world.”
The Head of the UGCC called on all the faithful of Ukraine, regardless of denomination, to follow the events of the Jubilee year. “We hope that such cooperation between our Church and this commission established by the Pope will bring decent results for Ukrainian society,” concluded His Beatitude Sviatoslav.
As we reported, in July 2023, Pope Francis created a Commission for New Martyrs and Witnesses to the Faith at the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Recognition of Saints. Given the 2025 anniversary, to be held under the slogan “Pilgrims of Hope,” it is called to develop a catalog of “all those who shed blood for their faith in Christ and the witness of His Gospel.” The Father and Head of the UGCC, His Beatitude Sviatoslav, named Fr. Taras Bublyk as a delegate from the UGCC to cooperate with this Vatican Commission.
The UGCC Department for Information
