Card. Sandri visits Ukraine in sign of Vatican
solidarity
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| Cardinal Leonardo Sandri blesses the children of the Ukrainian Greek catholic priest during his visit to Ukrain.- RV |
(Vatican Radio) Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, Prefect of
the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, wraps up a week-long visit to
Ukraine on Monday.
He made the trip as a sign of solidarity with the faithful
of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in the wake of continued conflict in the
eastern regions of the country.
Cardinal Leonardo Sandri agreed to the week-long visit to
Ukraine at the invitation of Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the head of the
Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
The first stop of Cardinal Sandri’s visit was to Maidan
Square in the capital Kiev. There he prayed silently at the cross erected to
mark the Euromaidan Protests of 2014. He placed a floral homage and lit a
candle for the victims.
The Prefect for the Congregation for the Oriental Churches
was accompanied by Archbishop Shevchuk and the Apostolic Nuncio to Ukraine,
Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti.
While in Kiev, he prayed at the tomb of the late Cardinal
Lubomyr Husar, who died just over a month ago.
Cardinal Sandri also blessed and celebrated the Divine
Liturgy at the Cathedral of the Exarchate of Kharkiv, currently under
construction.
During the homily, Cardinal Sandri said, “On both human and
Christian levels, love for truth with which the apostles entrusted us prohibits
us from accepting the silence which has fallen on the conflict in Ukraine and
on the suffering which has befallen tens of thousands of people.”
The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church visited by Cardinal
Sandri is an Eastern rite church that is in communion with the Pope.
Heading into the eastern regions of the country later in the
week, Cardinal Sandri visited Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, areas which were
recaptured after the occupation of 2014 and are near the 'grey zones' of
Donbass.
There he prayed before the hollowed out shells of buildings
and cracked pavement, through which grass had grown as a testament to the
world’s neglect of the region.
Yet hope and a helping hand had the last word, as Cardinal
Sandri visited a Caritas shelter offering food and accompaniment for the
hundreds of children whose lives have been forever changed by the shock and
trauma of war.
(Devin Sean Watkins)
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