NEWS AND VIEWS: Patriarchal Council slated for August (07/12/98)

NEWS AND VIEWS

Patriarchal Council slated for August

Press Service of the Patriarchal Curia Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church

LVIV - The second session of the Patriarchal Council (Sobor) of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church will be held on August 23-30 on the campus of the Polytechnical University of Lviv. The council will open and close with a pontifical divine liturgy at the Cathedral of St. George, and will include a pilgrimage to the Studite Monastery in the village of Univ on the feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God, August 28.

The theme of this session - which will be attended by representatives of the entire Ukrainian Church from around the world - is "The Role and Place of the Laity in the Life of the Church." This topic has been discussed at many forums and in documents of the Universal Catholic Church from the Second Vatican Council in the early 1960s to the recent Catechism of the Catholic Church. The purpose of this session of the Patriarchal Council is to apply this understanding of lay participation in the mission of Christ's Church to the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic situation in its various contexts in Ukraine and throughout the diaspora.

The provincial superior of the Basilian Order in Ukraine, the Rev. Theodosius Yankiv, is secretary of the council and thus is responsible for all preparation and organization.

The Patriarchal Council, provided for in ecclesiastical law by the Code of Canons for the Eastern Churches is now in its second session. The first took place two years ago, also in Lviv.

Another session, which will likely deal with the theme of "family life" and all its related aspects, is slated to take place before the jubilee celebrations of the year 2000.

Various Church leaders and other experts have been invited to speak on various aspects of the principal theme of "the laity" during the council session. However, it is the participants themselves - bishops, laity, religious men and women, youth - who will issue their proposals for consideration and possible ratification by the patriarch together with the Synod of Bishops of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, which has been scheduled for early September.