{"id":13723,"date":"2016-03-17T09:34:44","date_gmt":"2016-03-17T09:34:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/?p=13723"},"modified":"2016-03-17T09:34:44","modified_gmt":"2016-03-17T09:34:44","slug":"ukraine-pope-francis-praises-ukrainian-greek-catholics-for-keeping-the-faith-in-difficult-circumstances-acn-malta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/03\/17\/ukraine-pope-francis-praises-ukrainian-greek-catholics-for-keeping-the-faith-in-difficult-circumstances-acn-malta\/","title":{"rendered":"UKRAINE &#8211; Pope Francis praises Ukrainian Greek-Catholics for keeping the faith in difficult circumstances &#8211; ACN Malta"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><h2><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>UKRAINE &#8211; Pope Francis <\/strong><strong>praises<\/strong><strong> Ukrainian Greek-Catholics<\/strong><strong> for keeping the faith in difficult circumstances<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<h2>\u00a0<\/h2>\n<p>In a meeting with leaders of the Permanent Synod of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church (UGCC) Pope Francis praised their people, saying they were \u201ctireless witnesses of hope\u201d in Christ amid decades of hardships. The UGCC is the largest of the Eastern Catholic Churches, with around 4.42 million faithful, mainly in in Ukraine, though it has large expatriate communities in Argentina, the United States, \u00a0Canada, Poland and Brazil.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn some circumstances, our human condition is made even more fragile due to difficult historical situations, which mark the life of the People of God, of the Community that Jesus Christ our Lord purchased with his blood,\u201d Pope Francis told Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv-Halych, head of the UGCC.<\/p>\n<p>Francis remarked on the 70th anniversary of the 1946 pseudo-synod of Lviv, a council orchestrated by Josef Stalin&#8217;s regime as part of the forcible absorption of the UGCC into the Russian Orthodox Church event: \u201cA particular ideological and political context, as well as the existence of ideas that were contrary to the very existence of your Church, led to the organization of a pseudo-synod in Lviv, and caused decades of suffering for the pastors and the faithful\u201d. All UGCC bishops, hundreds of clergy and tens of thousands of Catholics were imprisoned, while all the Church&#8217;s property was either transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church or confiscated for non-religious use.<\/p>\n<p>The Pope expressed his deep gratitude: \u201cIn sad memory of these events we bow our heads in deep gratitude before those, who at the cost of suffering and even martyrdom, continued to witness the faith\u201d and encouraged Ukranians to be \u201ctireless witnesses of that hope which makes our existence and the existence of all of our brothers and sisters more luminous\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Francis expressed solidarity with the clergy and faithful for all they do in &#8220;this difficult time marked by the hardships of war, to alleviate the suffering of the population and to seek the ways of peace for the beloved Ukrainian land.\u201d He ended by offering his apostolic blessing to Archbishop Shevchuk and to the bishops, priests, consecrated and laity of the UGCC, as a sign of his &#8220;constant affection and prayers&#8221; .<\/p>\n<p>In a statement issued by the Permanent Synod of the UGCC afterwards, Archbishop Shevchuk said \u201cWe came to reaffirm our communion with the Holy Father and to ask for his help for the suffering people of Ukraine during the Jubilee Year of Mercy&#8230;.. And the Holy Father heard us.\u201d \u00a0Shevchuk stressed Pope Francis&#8217; \u201cmoral authority\u201d over the people of Ukraine, adding: \u00a0\u201cWe reaffirm what no totalitarian regime could break: our communion with Rome and the Universal Church.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The statement went on to condemn the violence, kidnappings, imprisonment, torture and atrocities against the human dignity of citizens of Ukraine, especially against religious communities and ethnic groups. It concluded by calling on the Pope and the global community to \u201chelp stop the war and stem the humanitarian crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Archbishop Shevchuk said the UGCC is \u201cready to provide responsible, transparent, ecumenically sound administration of international aid,\u201d to the Ukrainian population, regardless of \u201cethnicity, political or linguistic preferences or religious affiliation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEnough of this suffering. It can be prevented. It can be healed. Let us make the &#8216;Year of Mercy&#8217; a reality for the people of Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The hostilities\u00a0 have taken their toll on Ukraine&#8217;s infrastructure and its citizens, leaving 10,000 people dead, tens of thousands injured and over 2 million homeless.The country\u2019s currency has also dropped to two-thirds of its previous value, which in turn has impoverished the country.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>ACN Malta<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UKRAINE &#8211; Pope Francis praises Ukrainian Greek-Catholics for keeping the faith in difficult circumstances \u00a0 In a meeting with leaders of the Permanent Synod of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church (UGCC) Pope Francis praised their people, saying they were \u201ctireless witnesses of hope\u201d in Christ amid decades of hardships. The UGCC is the largest of the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13725,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>UKRAINE - Pope Francis praises Ukrainian Greek-Catholics for keeping the faith in difficult circumstances - ACN Malta - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/03\/17\/ukraine-pope-francis-praises-ukrainian-greek-catholics-for-keeping-the-faith-in-difficult-circumstances-acn-malta\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UKRAINE - Pope Francis praises Ukrainian Greek-Catholics for keeping the faith in difficult circumstances - ACN Malta - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"UKRAINE &#8211; Pope Francis praises Ukrainian Greek-Catholics for keeping the faith in difficult circumstances \u00a0 In a meeting with leaders of the Permanent Synod of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church (UGCC) Pope Francis praised their people, saying they were \u201ctireless witnesses of hope\u201d in Christ amid decades of hardships. The UGCC is the largest of the...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/03\/17\/ukraine-pope-francis-praises-ukrainian-greek-catholics-for-keeping-the-faith-in-difficult-circumstances-acn-malta\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-03-17T09:34:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/photov3.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"519\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"389\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"ACN Malta\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"ACN Malta\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/03\/17\/ukraine-pope-francis-praises-ukrainian-greek-catholics-for-keeping-the-faith-in-difficult-circumstances-acn-malta\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/03\/17\/ukraine-pope-francis-praises-ukrainian-greek-catholics-for-keeping-the-faith-in-difficult-circumstances-acn-malta\/\",\"name\":\"UKRAINE - Pope Francis praises Ukrainian Greek-Catholics for keeping the faith in difficult circumstances - ACN Malta - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/03\/17\/ukraine-pope-francis-praises-ukrainian-greek-catholics-for-keeping-the-faith-in-difficult-circumstances-acn-malta\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/03\/17\/ukraine-pope-francis-praises-ukrainian-greek-catholics-for-keeping-the-faith-in-difficult-circumstances-acn-malta\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/photov3.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-03-17T09:34:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-03-17T09:34:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/f770d78fd03dbb385e4841f5fd9b386c\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/03\/17\/ukraine-pope-francis-praises-ukrainian-greek-catholics-for-keeping-the-faith-in-difficult-circumstances-acn-malta\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/03\/17\/ukraine-pope-francis-praises-ukrainian-greek-catholics-for-keeping-the-faith-in-difficult-circumstances-acn-malta\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/03\/17\/ukraine-pope-francis-praises-ukrainian-greek-catholics-for-keeping-the-faith-in-difficult-circumstances-acn-malta\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/photov3.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/photov3.jpg\",\"width\":519,\"height\":389},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/03\/17\/ukraine-pope-francis-praises-ukrainian-greek-catholics-for-keeping-the-faith-in-difficult-circumstances-acn-malta\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"UKRAINE &#8211; Pope Francis praises Ukrainian Greek-Catholics for keeping the faith in difficult circumstances &#8211; ACN Malta\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/\",\"name\":\"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\",\"description\":\"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/f770d78fd03dbb385e4841f5fd9b386c\",\"name\":\"ACN Malta\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/351b2c48a78ee3d96b1cb926245cadb3?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/351b2c48a78ee3d96b1cb926245cadb3?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"ACN Malta\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/author\/admin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"UKRAINE - Pope Francis praises Ukrainian Greek-Catholics for keeping the faith in difficult circumstances - ACN Malta - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/03\/17\/ukraine-pope-francis-praises-ukrainian-greek-catholics-for-keeping-the-faith-in-difficult-circumstances-acn-malta\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"UKRAINE - Pope Francis praises Ukrainian Greek-Catholics for keeping the faith in difficult circumstances - ACN Malta - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","og_description":"UKRAINE &#8211; Pope Francis praises Ukrainian Greek-Catholics for keeping the faith in difficult circumstances \u00a0 In a meeting with leaders of the Permanent Synod of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church (UGCC) Pope Francis praised their people, saying they were \u201ctireless witnesses of hope\u201d in Christ amid decades of hardships. The UGCC is the largest of the...","og_url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/03\/17\/ukraine-pope-francis-praises-ukrainian-greek-catholics-for-keeping-the-faith-in-difficult-circumstances-acn-malta\/","og_site_name":"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","article_published_time":"2016-03-17T09:34:44+00:00","og_image":[{"width":519,"height":389,"url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/photov3.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"ACN Malta","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"ACN Malta","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/03\/17\/ukraine-pope-francis-praises-ukrainian-greek-catholics-for-keeping-the-faith-in-difficult-circumstances-acn-malta\/","url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/03\/17\/ukraine-pope-francis-praises-ukrainian-greek-catholics-for-keeping-the-faith-in-difficult-circumstances-acn-malta\/","name":"UKRAINE - Pope Francis praises Ukrainian Greek-Catholics for keeping the faith in difficult circumstances - ACN Malta - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/03\/17\/ukraine-pope-francis-praises-ukrainian-greek-catholics-for-keeping-the-faith-in-difficult-circumstances-acn-malta\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/03\/17\/ukraine-pope-francis-praises-ukrainian-greek-catholics-for-keeping-the-faith-in-difficult-circumstances-acn-malta\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/photov3.jpg","datePublished":"2016-03-17T09:34:44+00:00","dateModified":"2016-03-17T09:34:44+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/f770d78fd03dbb385e4841f5fd9b386c"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/03\/17\/ukraine-pope-francis-praises-ukrainian-greek-catholics-for-keeping-the-faith-in-difficult-circumstances-acn-malta\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/03\/17\/ukraine-pope-francis-praises-ukrainian-greek-catholics-for-keeping-the-faith-in-difficult-circumstances-acn-malta\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/03\/17\/ukraine-pope-francis-praises-ukrainian-greek-catholics-for-keeping-the-faith-in-difficult-circumstances-acn-malta\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/photov3.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/photov3.jpg","width":519,"height":389},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/03\/17\/ukraine-pope-francis-praises-ukrainian-greek-catholics-for-keeping-the-faith-in-difficult-circumstances-acn-malta\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"UKRAINE &#8211; Pope Francis praises Ukrainian Greek-Catholics for keeping the faith in difficult circumstances &#8211; ACN Malta"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#website","url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/","name":"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","description":"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/f770d78fd03dbb385e4841f5fd9b386c","name":"ACN Malta","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/351b2c48a78ee3d96b1cb926245cadb3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/351b2c48a78ee3d96b1cb926245cadb3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"ACN Malta"},"url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}