Turning the pages back... July 10, 1988 (07/08/01)

Turning the pages back...

July 10, 1988

Although last week Pope John Paul ll visited Ukraine for the first time, this was not the first time Ukrainians celebrated liturgy with him. Thirteen years ago, on July 10, 1988, Pope John Paul ll bestowed his apostolic blessing on more than 7,000 Ukrainian pilgrims gathered at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome for a pontifical divine liturgy celebrating the Millennium of Christianity in Kyivan Rus'-Ukraine.

"... With all my heart I embrace all of you and, together with you, the entire Ukrainian nation; and I embrace all of you with the kiss of peace as your brother and the first pope of Slavic descent in the history of our Church," the pontiff told the faithful.

"Together with you, in spirit I travel to the Kyivan hill overlooking the broad-banked Dnipro River, where St. Volodymyr stands. I fall on my knees, before the icon of the Mother of God, Oranta, in the St. Sophia Sobor in Kyiv, and in her care I place the entire fate of the Ukrainian Catholic community. O, Mother of God, cover us with all of your protection and safeguard us from all evil."

These were the words delivered by the holy father to Ukrainian Catholics gathered in Rome from all parts of the world, including Poland, Yugoslavia, Germany, England, France, Belgium, Austria, Canada, the United States, Brazil, Argentina and Australia, as they celebrated a 1,000-year-old heritage and mourned the continuing religious persecution of their brothers and sisters in Ukraine.

The pope also spoke of martyrs of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, among them Patriarch Joseph, whose crypt the pontiff visited, offering a prayer after the devotional service.

The pope also addressed the faithful: "The Millennium of Christianity is not only the pinnacle of one event, but it also begins the next act. We wish to begin the next 1,000 years of your Church and your people with a new spirit of hope."

Source: "Pope joins thousands of Ukrainian pilgrims at Millennium events," by Marta Kolomayets, The Ukrainian Weekly, Sunday, July 17, 1988.

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