At Kyiv liturgy: a call for all Christians to once again be "one" (07/01/01)

THE PAPAL VISIT TO UKRAINE, JUNE 23-27, 2001

At Kyiv liturgy: a call for all Christians to once again be "one"

Excerpts of pope's address on Monday, June 25, during the Byzantine-Rite divine liturgy at Kyiv's Chaika Airport.

... "That they may all be one." This is the mystery of the Church willed by Christ. Unity founded on revealed Truth and on Love does not nullify man, his culture or his history; rather it makes him part of the communion of the Trinity, in which everything authentically human is enriched and strengthened.

This is a mystery that is well represented also in this liturgy, concelebrated by Catholic bishops and priests of the Eastern and Latin traditions. In the new humanity, born from the Father's heart, and having Christ as its head, and living through the gift of the Spirit, there is a plurality of traditions, rites, canonical disciplines which, far from undermining the unity of the Body of Christ, on the contrary enrich it with the gifts brought by each one. In this, the miracle of Pentecost is continuously repeated: people of different languages, traditions and cultures feel united in the profession of the one faith within the one communion that is born from on high.

With these sentiments, I greet all here present. I greet especially Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, major archbishop of Lviv of the Ukrainians, and Archbishop Marian Jaworski, metropolitan of Lviv of the Latins, and the bishops of the respective rites, the priests and the faithful. I greet every representative of the ecclesial community which shows forth its array of riches in a unique way in this land, where the traditions of East and West meet. Your living side by side in charity should become a model of a unity that exists within a legitimate pluralism and has its guarantee in the bishop of Rome, the successor of Peter.

Since the beginning, in effect, your Church has benefited from different cultural relationships and from a Christian witness coming from various sources. According to tradition, at the dawn of Christianity it was the Apostle Andrew himself who, visiting the places where we are gathered today, spoke of the holiness found here. In fact, it is told that, as he contemplated the cliffs of the Dnipro, he blessed the land of Kyiv and said: "On these mountains will shine the glory of God." Thus he foretold the conversion to the Christian faith of the great prince of Kyiv, the holy baptizer Volodymyr, thanks to whom the Dnipro became as it were the "Jordan of Ukraine," and the capital Kyiv a "new Jerusalem," the mother of Slav Christianity in Eastern Europe.

What testimonies to holiness have followed one upon another in your land since the day of its baptism! Standing out at the beginning are the martyrs of Kyiv, Prince Borys and Prince Hlib, whom you call "bearers of passion," who accepted martyrdom at the hand of their brother without taking arms against him. It is they who formed the spiritual features of the Church of Kyiv, where martyrdom in the name of brotherly love, in the name of Christian unity, showed itself to be a truly universal charism. The history of the recent past has also amply confirmed this. ...

Your re-won independence has opened a new and promising period which commits your country's citizens, as Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytskyi liked to recall, to the goal of "rebuilding their own home," Ukraine. For 10 years your country has been a free and independent State. These 10 years have shown that, despite the temptations linked to crime and corruption, its spiritual roots are strong. My heartfelt hope is that Ukraine will continue to draw strength from the ideals of personal, social and ecclesial morality, of service of the common good, of honesty and sacrifice, not forgetting the gift of the Ten Commandments. The dynamic quality of your country's faith and its Church's capacity for rebirth are surprising: the roots of its past have become a pledge of hope for the future.

"Ut unum sint!" We wish to join in the prayer of the Lord for the unity of his disciples. It is a heartfelt appeal for the unity of Christians. It is an unceasing prayer, which rises from hearts that are humble and ready to feel, think and work generously so that Christ's desire may be fulfilled. From this land, sanctified by the blood of whole hosts of martyrs, I raise with you my prayer to the Lord that all Christians may once again be "one" ...

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