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Head of new Ukrainian church expresses hope for papal intervention

EPIFANY COMMENTS ON POSSIBLE ARRIVIAL OF ROMAN POPE IN UKRAINE

Religiina Pravda, 18 December 2021

 

A visit by Roman Pope Francis to Ukraine may take some time, but Metropolitan of Kiev and all-Ukraine Epifany believes that it will occur. He said this in an interview with Radio Liberty.

 

Epifany expressed the opinion that the preparation of a visit may be facilitated by the appointment of the religious scholar Andrei Yurash as the Ukrainian ambassador to the Vatican.

 

"Of course, relations between Ukraine and the Vatican may be imperfect if there is no ambassador. Therefore now a really responsible person has been appointed who was a part of those processes that occurred in 2018, so that the historic unification council occurred, whose third anniversary we celebrated yesterday. Therefore I am confident that Andrei Vasilevich will be a worthy representative of Ukraine in the Vatican and will do many useful things so that a visit to Ukraine by the pope will occur, about which much is being said nowadays, but there still are no specifics," he said.

 

Epifany noted that the Orthodox Church of Ukraine has still not received any information about an agreement on the pontiff's visit.

 

"There is a tradition: if the pope visits an Orthodox country, then he certainly will get the consent of that church that is dominant in that country. The Orthodox Church of Ukraine (PTsU) is dominant in the Ukrainian state; that is its canonical territory. Therefore we expect that if the pope really decides. . . . Although we had been talking for three years also about a visit by the ecumenical patriarch; that did not happen right away. There was originally a declaration. The patriarch said that he will come, he is ready, but it takes time. That time came and, I think, the time will come when the pope also visits Ukraine," the head of the PTsU added.

 

He also commented on the suggestion that a visit by the Roman pope might have an impact on the conclusion of the war in the Donbass, about which the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Sviatoslav Shevchuk, spoke.

 

"May God grant that this happens. But it depends on many factors, and not only on the visit by a certain individual, even a famous individual. We know where the key to the resolution of this matter lies—in Moscow, with Putin. The pope declared that he is ready to be a mediator and that may be the key. But for now we see that the situation is rather complex, difficult, and there is on Russia's part a certain blackmail, intimidation, and amassing of troops on the Ukrainian border. But I think that with God's help a continuation of this escalation in the Donbass should not happen," Epifany hopes. (tr. by PDS, posted 18 December 2021)

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