Cardinal Husar calls on faithful in U.S. to feel unity with Ukraine

Religious Information Service of Ukraine

WASHINGTON - Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, head of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church (UGCC), visited Ukrainian communities in the United States. He called on the Ukrainian Catholic faithful of the United States to feel unity with the Greek-Catholics of Ukraine and the world, reported voanews.com on March 7.

"It is important to feel that we are one Church, regardless of whether people speak Ukrainian and how well. To feel that they are part of a church that is centered in Ukraine but has faithful in the United States, in Canada, in Australia. To feel, that is, that we are one," Patriarch Lubomyr said.

The patriarch expressed his certainty that this unity is possible only when the faithful are aware of their ethnicity, that everybody should ask themselves who they are and where they come from, what they bring and represent. He mentioned the recent Orange Revolution in Ukraine as a process that will doubtless strengthen Ukrainian identity, both in and outside of Ukraine. "The Orange Revolution made Ukraine the focus of attention. This means, I have something to identify with," he said.

Patriarch Lubomyr said that, because Greek-Catholics were persecuted during the Soviet period of Ukrainian history, Ukrainian Catholics of the diaspora aimed at the revival and support of the UGCC in Ukraine. Now the time has come to concentrate on the faith itself and on strengthening the spiritual values of the faithful of the Ukrainian diaspora, he added.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, March 27, 2005, No. 13, Vol. LXXIII

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