Ukrainian Hierarchs Pray for Victims of Holodomor

KYIV – A campaign called "Don't Let the Candle of Memory Go Out" dedicated to the 1932-1933 Holodomor tragedy and organized by the Ukrainian World Congress and the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance began at the memorial to the victims of the famine in Kyiv on June 19, 2010.

According to UNIAN, about a thousand and five hundred people including the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), Patriarch Lubomyr; the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate, Patriarch Filaret; hierarchs of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC); numerous bishops and priests; public figures; and politicians gathered near the Holodomor Memorial to pray and remember the victims of the man-made famine.

"It is a campaign that should make us act and draw attention in Ukraine and beyond to the fact that the issue of Holodomor has not been closed and the job has not been completed," said General Secretary of the World Congress of Ukrainians Stefan Romaniv.

After the event the candles of memory will be sent to every region of Ukraine and to 20 countries with large Ukrainian communities, such as Great Britain, Australia, the United States, Canada, Russia, Spain, Argentina, Brazil, and Greece. Candles will also be taken to the European Parliament and the U.N. headquarters.

The general secretary also added that the campaign will end on the last Saturday of November when tribute to the victims of the famine will be paid in Kyiv.

The coordinator of the campaign Volodymyr Viatrovych told Interfax-Ukraine that in September and November several information events dedicated to Holodomor will be conducted as part of the campaign. “Ukrainians and citizens of other countries will not allow the crime of the Holodomor-genocide of 1932-1933 to be silenced and will respect the memory of the innocent victims and remind the world of the events which are not to be repeated,” said Mr. Viatrovych.

The head of the UGCC noted that the event is very important as it reminds again about the terrible crimes, “which we cannot allow ever [again].”

The head of the UGCC stressed that the event should not be viewed as a protest against the words of President Yanukovych in Strasburg that the “Holodomor is not a genocide of Ukrainians.” According to him, even though Yanukovych is Ukraine’s president he “is not the absolute spokesperson of the nation as any other president of any country, therefore one should not view it as a protest.”

The memorial service was served by Patriarch Filaret, Patriarch Lubomyr, and hierarchs of the UAOC.

The head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory, Ihor Yukhnovskyi, expressed regret that representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate did not take part in the joint memorial event.