• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • HOME
  • ABOUT CHINA
    • NEWS
    • TESTIMONIES
    • OP-EDS
    • FEATURED
    • GLOSSARY
    • CHINA PERSECUTION MAP
  • FROM THE WORLD
    • NEWS
    • OP-EDS
    • FEATURED
    • TESTIMONIES
  • INTERVIEWS
  • DOCUMENTS AND TRANSLATIONS
    • DOCUMENTS
    • THE TAI JI MEN CASE
    • TRANSLATIONS
  • EVENTS
  • ABOUT
  • EDITORIAL BOARD
  • TOPICS

Bitter Winter

A magazine on religious liberty and human rights

three friends of winter
Home / International / News Global

Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church: Putin Is “Destroying the Basic Principles of Peace”

02/24/2022Massimo Introvigne |

Patriarch Sviatoslav Shevchuk calls the Russian actions “a new wave of armed aggression.”

by Massimo Introvigne

Patriarch Sviatoslav Shevchuk from the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. Credits.
Patriarch Sviatoslav Shevchuk. Credits.

Yes, there are Roman Catholics in Ukraine. Quite a few of them. The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church has some 5 million members in a country of 44 million, and may have more than eight million parishioners if one adds the Ukrainian diaspora throughout the world. It is in full communion with the Pope but follows a different rite (Byzantine). In fact, after the Latin Church, the Ukrainian Church is the second largest within the global Catholic communion. While there is a small percentage of Latin Catholics (around 400,000) in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church has traditionally been the voice of Catholicism in the country.

The message of Patriarch Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, released on February 22, 2022, accordingly, is the most authorized and official comment by the Ukrainian Roman Catholic authorities on the current events. Although released before the invasion, the statement already predicts it and spells out the Catholic answer to the aggression.

The Patriarch writes that “The recognition of the self-proclaimed Luhansk and Donetsk ‘People’s Republics’ as ‘independent and sovereign’ by the President of the Russian Federation seriously challenges and threatens the international community and international law. It inflicts irreparable damage to the very logic of interstate relations, which are designed to ensure peace and a just society, the rule of law, accountability, protection of human beings, their lives, and natural rights.” The problem, Shevchuk says, does not concern Ukraine only. “Today, all humanity is in danger that the right of the strong will impose itself on everyone, ignoring the rule of law.”

The Cathedral of St. George in Lviv, Ukraine, the mother church of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
The Cathedral of St. George in Lviv, Ukraine, the mother church of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. Credits.

The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church does not believe that both parties are to blame for what happened. There is a party that aggressed and one that was aggressed. “By their decision, the Patriarch writes, the authorities of the Russian Federation unilaterally withdrew from the long peace process.” Instead, a “Russian armed aggression” continued. Indeed, the war started with the occupation of Crimea in 2014. “The war against our people, Shevchuk notes, in 2014 left deep wounds on the lives of many of our compatriots: thousands were killed, or left wounded and lonely.”

But now, according to the Patriarch, something even worse happened. “Yesterday’s step by the President of the Russian Federation destroyed the basic principles of the long process of restoring peace in Ukraine, created opportunities for a new wave of armed aggression against our state, and opened the door to a full-scale military operation against the Ukrainian people.”

Christianity is a religion of peace, the Patriarch explains, and the Church always tries to “prevent war,” but on the other hand Catholic moral theology allows for resistance against an unjust aggression. “Today, he writes, we consider the protection of our native land, our memory and hope, our God-given right to exist, to be a personal responsibility and a sacred duty of the citizens of Ukraine. 

Defending the Motherland is our natural right and our civic duty. We are strong when we are together. Now is the time to unite our efforts to defend the independence, territorial integrity, and sovereignty of the Ukrainian State.” “We are a people who love peace. And that is why we are ready to defend it and fight for it strenuously.”

The crisis, the Patriarch believes, is international. “We are convinced, he writes, that the world cannot evolve and find answers to the challenges of our time by resorting to force and violence, neglecting universal values ​​and Gospel truth. We call on all people of good will not to stand aside from the suffering of the Ukrainian people caused by the Russian military aggression.”

The Church wants peace, Shevchuk writes, but it should be a “just peace.” When injustice is vested on the country, the Catholic Church is with the “defenders of Ukraine, who these days are an example of sacrificial love and devotional service to our people. May the merciful Lord protect them from all dangers and endow their efforts with the ultimate victory of truth and goodness,” the Patriarch prays.

Tagged With: Catholic Church, Ukraine

Massimo Introvigne
Massimo Introvigne

Massimo Introvigne (born June 14, 1955 in Rome) is an Italian sociologist of religions. He is the founder and managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), an international network of scholars who study new religious movements. Introvigne is the author of some 70 books and more than 100 articles in the field of sociology of religion. He was the main author of the Enciclopedia delle religioni in Italia (Encyclopedia of Religions in Italy). He is a member of the editorial board for the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion and of the executive board of University of California Press’ Nova Religio.  From January 5 to December 31, 2011, he has served as the “Representative on combating racism, xenophobia and discrimination, with a special focus on discrimination against Christians and members of other religions” of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). From 2012 to 2015 he served as chairperson of the Observatory of Religious Liberty, instituted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to monitor problems of religious liberty on a worldwide scale.

www.cesnur.org/

Related articles

  • Vatican: China Breached the Agreement—But We Will Continue with It

    Vatican: China Breached the Agreement—But We Will Continue with It

  • Restoration Christian Center: Russia Discovers Another Ukrainian “Cult” Conspiracy

    Restoration Christian Center: Russia Discovers Another Ukrainian “Cult” Conspiracy

  • Russian Orthodox Leader: Ukraine is a Catholic Conspiracy, the Pope is a Monster and a Thief

    Russian Orthodox Leader: Ukraine is a Catholic Conspiracy, the Pope is a Monster and a Thief

  • Benedict XVI’s “Non-Negotiable Principles” for a Dialogue with China

    Benedict XVI’s “Non-Negotiable Principles” for a Dialogue with China

Keep Reading

  • Benedict XVI and Religious Liberty. 2. “Reform in the Continuity”
    Benedict XVI and Religious Liberty. 2. “Reform in the Continuity”

    The German Pope never claimed that between the old and the new Catholic teachings on religious liberty there was perfect continuity. But he said the reform was not a “rupture.”

  • Anti-Cultist Recruits Muslim Collaborators in Occupied Ukraine
    Anti-Cultist Recruits Muslim Collaborators in Occupied Ukraine

    Roman Silantyev helped creating a “Muftiate of Little Russia,” headquartered in Henichesk and supporting the Russian occupation.

  • Benedict XVI and Religious Liberty. 3. The French vs. the American Model of Freedom of Religion
    Benedict XVI and Religious Liberty. 3. The French vs. the American Model of Freedom of Religion

    The German Pope recognized that there were two different notions of freedom of religion, and only the “American” one was compatible with Catholicism.

  • Korelov Insists: Jehovah’s Witnesses and Other “Cults” Ready to Overthrow the Putin Regime
    Korelov Insists: Jehovah’s Witnesses and Other “Cults” Ready to Overthrow the Putin Regime

    The Russian anti-cult lawyer claims that Islamic terrorists, Scientologists, and “Indian Satanists” all work together with the Witnesses and prepare a coup.

Primary Sidebar

Support Bitter Winter

Learn More

Follow us

Newsletter

Most Read

  • Pro-Chinese Propaganda by The World Muslim Communities Council: Uyghurs Strike Back by Gulfiye Y
  • Zhanargul Zhumatai: “Help Me, I Just Want to Leave China” by Ruth Ingram
  • L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and the Visual Arts. 1. The Aesthetic Mind by Massimo Introvigne
  • Stricter Rules on Private Tutoring Protect Ideology Rather than Parents by Wang Zhipeng
  • Japan Religious Donations Law. 4. The Return of Brainwashing by Massimo Introvigne
  • Hong Kong: Christian Scholar Peng Manyuan Released but Not Rehabilitated by Gladys Kwok
  • The Weaponization of the CCP’s “Zero COVID” Against Tibet by Marco Respinti
  • L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and the Visual Arts. 3. Art as Communication by Massimo Introvigne
  • L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and the Visual Arts. 4. Art and Illustration by Massimo Introvigne
  • L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and the Visual Arts. 5. Professionals vs. Amateurs by Massimo Introvigne

CHINA PERSECUTION MAP -SEARCH NEWS BY REGION

clickable geographical map of china, with regions

Footer

Instant Exclusive News
Instant Exclusive News

EDITORIAL BOARD

Editor-in-Chief

MASSIMO INTROVIGNE

Director-in-Charge

MARCO RESPINTI

ADDRESS

CESNUR

Via Confienza 19,

10121 Turin, Italy,

Phone: 39-011-541950

E-MAIL

We welcome submission of unpublished contributions, news, and photographs. Each submission implies the authorization for us to edit and publish texts and photographs. We reserve the right to decide which submissions are suitable for publication. Please, write to INFO@BITTERWINTER.ORG Thank you.

Newsletter

Follow us

LINKS

orlir-logo hrwf-logo cesnur-logo

Copyright © 2023 · Bitter Winter · PRIVACY POLICY· COOKIE POLICY