Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (2nd largest church in Catholic Church) Rejects Francis’ Gay Declaration as Inapplicable to Eastern Catholic Churches: "A blessing can in no way contradict Church teaching on family as faithful, indissoluble, and fruitful union of love between a man and a woman."

 COMMUNIQUÉ
regarding the reception 
by the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church 
of the declaration of the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith "Fiducia Supplicans" 
on the pastoral significance of blessings, 
signed by the Father and Head of the UGCC, His Beatitude Sviatoslav.

Kyiv 

On December 22, 2023

In response to numerous appeals from bishops, clergy, monastics, church movements, and individual laity of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church regarding the Declaration of the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith "Fiducia Supplicans" (December 18, 2023) on the pastoral meaning of blessings, after consulting with relevant experts and competent institutions, I would like to inform you of the following:

Head of Ukrainian Catholics: "It is with great pain that we learned of Pope Francis' words" praising Russian despotism

Pope Francis spoke with the Catholic youth of Russia online on August 25, 2023, as part of the 10th All-Russian Meeting of Catholic Youth held in St. Petersburg.

 Statement of the Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church on the discussion around some of the statements of Pope Francis at a meeting with Catholic youth in Russia

It was with great pain and concern that we learned of the words attributed to His Holiness Pope Francis at an online meeting with Russian Catholic youth on August 25, 2023 in St. Petersburg.

Russia and the invasion of Ukraine: why are so many "Conservatives" agreeing with Extreme Marxists and Communists?

by John Lamont

At the outset of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, opinions in the West were virtually unanimous in condemning the Russian attack and supporting aid to Ukraine. As the war continues, however, dissonant voices have emerged on the conservative side. They have alleged that Russia’s attack was not a pure act of unprovoked aggression but was motivated by legitimate security concerns, and that the military aid to the Ukrainians should cease. This position of some conservatives is a further burden and risk for the suffering Ukrainian nation which is fighting for its life.  It is also – a much lesser consideration – a problem for conservatives and for many Catholics, who have given ear to this anti-Ukrainian stance or have even accepted and promoted it. The problem is a problem of moral integrity and moral credibility. Those Catholics who have bought in to the anti-Ukrainian line have lost both. It is for this reason that this anti-Ukrainian line needs to be addressed in a Catholic forum.    

The case for this line depends on not addressing or mentioning essential facts. The best way to respond to it is to describe the main features of Russia’s goals and actions in Ukraine.  

Lenin's Back

 The greatest hater of Christianity in the 20th century, whose pernicious anti-Christian influence is strong to this day worldwide; the man solely responsible for the first law liberating abortion in the modern era (Russia, 1920), unleashing the massacre of over one billion babies in the intervening century; the monster who spawned death, destruction and hell for billions: this man is now being celebrated once again in the southern Ukrainian city of Henichesk (Kherson), occupied by Russian forces.

In the Kherson region of Ukraine, Russian soldiers have installed the Lenin monument. pic.twitter.com/o1GAPLpTN7

— Franak Viačorka (@franakviacorka) April 18, 2022

 

Whatever this horrible invasion is, it isn't a promotion of Christian values... Don't let yourself be fooled by the same Cheka/NKVD/KGB/FSB that has worked incessantly since 1917 to destroy Christian civilization, also through infiltration of all our institutions. This same KGB whose agents now promote the heresy of "Moscow Third Rome" as some kind of "conservative idea" in the highest echelons of our College of Bishops.

Bucha and Veiled Crucifixes: A Meditation for Monday in Holy Week

Father Richard Gennaro Cipolla

The images from Bucha and now from other villages outside of Kyiv that show the terrible slaughter of Ukrainian civilians of all ages by the departing Russian army are indeed difficult to look upon.  I suspect that there were similar images to be seen after the Russian destruction of parts of Syria, but we did not pay attention to those atrocities because that area of the world does not resonate very much with us. But Ukraine is part of Europe, and for all of our ambivalent feelings towards Europe, that is where most Americans come from. For most Americans today, Europe is a place to go to see beautiful things and to eat wonderful food.  There are few left today with the memory of World War II and what Europe looked like after the terrible devastation of that war.  Even the memory of the Cold War has faded—but perhaps that memory has been jolted by the war in Ukraine.

The bodies of the men, women and children lying dead in the streets of the villages north of Kyiv are shown in the news footage, some with their hands tied behind their backs, some facing upward with bullet-ridden bodies.  But in all these photos, the victims’ faces are blurred out.  This is out of respect, for the face and the eyes of a person are the signs of the identity of a person, the sign of what it means to be a man or woman in the image of God, and the eyes are a window to the soul. Even in an age in which social violence is accepted as part of the contemporary scene, these images strike deeply the cords of human compassion. 

What Ukrainian Catholics Think: "At this point, it is impossible to continue not noticing the satanic nature of the Kremlin regime," and "the blatant paganism of the statements of the Moscow patriarch." (Open Letter)

 The Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church is the largest individual Eastern Church -- that is, the largest after our own Latin Church. And it is truly a Martyr-Church: Russia has tried to destroy it once and again, under Tsarism and under Communism, but it has remained truthful to Catholicity.

For Ukrainian Greek-Catholics, it would be "easy" to become "Orthodox": there is no difference of rite. But what they do have is an indissoluble loyalty to the Roman See: each martyr of the bloody history of the Church, millions of them, had the same spine as Saint Thomas More or Saint John Fisher -- loyalty to the Catholic Faith and to idea and reality of Rome, Mother of all Churches.

This Wednesday, the University founded and supported by the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) released a formal document of its Senate and Rectorate explaining to Christians all over the world what is going on. And they do represent faithfully the view of all Ukrainian Catholics, at home and in the diaspora.

***

To Reject The Deeds Of Darkness

Open letter of the Senate and the Rectorate of Ukrainian Catholic University to the Christian Communities of the World

WEDNESDAY, 23 MARCH, 2022 

With the beginning of a new phase of the latest Russian-Ukrainian war, Ukrainians invariably recognize themselves in the pages of Scripture in the twists and turns of biblical history. Under the Putin regime, they recognize: “for they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty” (Revelation 16:14), and they find hope in David’s victory over Goliath. (1 Samuel 17: 1–52).

"Putin's Attack on Ukraine" - by Dr. John Lamont

St. Andrew's ("Bernardine Monastery"), Lviv, Ukraine

Although wars are a temporal phenomenon, they often have religious repercussions or arouse religious passions and disputes. The Russian attack on Ukraine is no exception. One of its religious effects has been to provoke divisions among Catholics. Most of them have backed the Ukrainians in their self-defence against invasion. Some vocal Catholic traditionalists have however taken the Russian side to a greater or lesser extent – certainly to the extent of arguing that the Ukrainians should not be given assistance by other countries in their fight against the Russians, a step that would doom them to defeat. This argument is not framed in purely political terms. The pro-Russian side sees the Ukrainians as aligned with the anti-Christian order that dominates the West, and the Russians as defenders of Christianity and traditional values. This makes it important to get at the truth of the nature of this conflict, in its temporal aspects as well as in its inevitable religious dimensions. This essay will attempt to do so.

The Next Aims of Putin’s War: The roots of Christian Europe and the threat to the Baltic countries (by Roberto de Mattei)

Do the plans of Vladimir Putin include an operation to separate the three Baltic republics (Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia) from the European Union? 

Ukrainian Priest: ‘Why Do We Have to Suffer So Much?’

[Letter of Cardinal Pell to the
Major Archbishop of the
Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church]

 

Rorate: How many Catholics will have to die in Ukraine before many Catholics in the West stop parroting Russian lines? We are embarrassed by so many misguided brethren who've fallen for the façade of "conservatism" built up by the KGB/FSB and the Kremlin. Don't be fooled: this is the same KGB, the same Cheka, the same NKVD as ever.

 

This Lent, please offer up your personal sacrifices for our Catholic brothers and sisters in the Martyr-Church of Ukraine -- few churches have suffered and bled for the Faith as much as her, especially under Stalin -- as well as for all Ukrainians, and for peace in Europe.

 *** 

 Andreas Thonhauser 

 National Catholic Register/EWTN Vatican 

March 1, 2022 

 Why? This is the one question our friends and affiliates in Ukraine confronted me with today. In EWTN News’ Vatican Bureau, we have been in touch with our colleagues in Kyiv since the Russian attack began. 

But an email our Ukraine office sent over the weekend touched me especially deeply: “People who want and love to live, enjoy, do art, play sports, grow their careers,” says Father Roman Syrotych, the director of Caritas Kyiv. “Why do they have to suffer so much today?”