Christians around the World Pray for Peace in Ukraine

30.01.2014, 13:37
Christians around the World Pray for Peace in Ukraine - фото 1
Christians around the world pray for peace in Ukraine.

Світ_молиться_за_Україну.JPGOn Sunday, February 2, 2014, on the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, the Romanian Greek Catholic Church will unite in prayer for Ukraine and Ukrainians who are experiencing a difficult period, the head of this church, Archbishop Lucian Muresan, announced. He also expressed his solidarity with Patriarch Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC).

“We are concerned about the threats against the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, which, like us, was persecuted in the past,” reads the message, which also encourages believers to express solidarity and join calls for an end to violence.

On behalf of the Slovak Greek Catholic Church, Metropolitan Jan Babiak issued a letter to Patriarch Sviatoslav, in which he encouraged his clergy and faithful to pray “for the peaceful resolution of the tense situation, to keep the Commandments God and the principles of solidarity and democracy,” and for priests “to celebrate the Divine Liturgy or to include in the Liturgy the request for peace and a just resolution to the situation in Ukraine.”

Earlier, the UGCC Information Department reported that the UGCC received a letter with words of support from the President of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, which read: “I ask you to assure the people of Ukraine that Canadian Catholics and their Bishops are united with you in prayer and solidarity. We plead for the guarantee of all rights and liberties in Ukraine, particularly the right to life and dignity, freedom of conscience and religion, and liberty of expression and self-government.”

Pastoral Coordinator of Ukrainian Greek Catholics in Italy Fr. Marko Yaroslav Semehen sent a letter to the director general of the Migrantes Foundation of the Italian Bishops' Conference and 17 national coordinators on behalf of the Ukrainian community, priests, and chaplains in Italy, in which he calls on other ethnic communities and their chaplains to pray for the peaceful resolution of the situation in Ukraine.

When blood was shed in Ukraine, the Polish Episcopal Conference expressed its solidarity with Ukrainians. “With great concern we watch the struggle of the fraternal Ukrainian people,” reads the letter, which was signed by Archbishop Józef Michalik, head of the Polish Episcopal Conference. In the letter the hierarchy expressed its “sincere condolences to the parents of those who were tragically killed.”