The Pope urges Ukrainian seminarians to sow culture of
peace
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| Pope Francis receives member of the community of the Pontifical Ukrainian College in Rome. |
(Vatican Radio) Celebrating 85 years since the foundation
of Saint Josaphat's Ukrainian Pontifical College in Rome, Pope
Francis encouraged Ukrainian seminarians to become shepherds of
communities in which love and respect for others will flourish.
The Saint Josaphat College was founded upon the wish of Pope
Pius XI and is currently run by the Basilian monastic order.
In his message to future Ukrainian priests, Pope Francis
recalled that the institution was built with the intent of conveying a message
of love and closeness to those faithful “who live in areas of suffering and
persecution”.
He invited them to prepare for their apostolic mission as
deacons and priests studying the Church's Social Doctrine and recalling the
example of Pope Pius XI whom, he said, “always and firmly raised his voice in
defending the faith, the freedom of the Church and the transcendent dignity of
every human person” while condemning the atheistic and inhumane ideologies that
bloodied the 20th century.
“Also today the world is world is wounded by wars and
violence” the Pope said with a particular reference to the beloved Ukrainian
nation “from which you came and to where you will return” after having
completed your studies in Rome.
Backing his encouragement to spread a culture of peace and
acceptance with words from the Gospel, the Pope said “to you, seminarians and
priests of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, these challenges may seem out
of your reach; but let us remember the words of the Apostle John: I have
written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the Word of God abideth
in you, and you have overcome the wicked one.”
The Pope said that by loving and proclaiming the Word they
will become true shepherds of the communities that will be entrusted to them.
“It [the Word] will be the lamp that illuminates your heart
and your home, whether you prepare for celibacy or for married priesthood,
according to tradition of your Church” he said.
Francis invited them to love and to guard their traditions
avoiding all forms of sectarianism and he urged them to ask their flocks “to
learn to love and respect each other, to abandon their weapons, to reject war
and all kinds of abuse”.
“Never forget the Covenant between God and mankind” he said.
The Pope invoked the intercession of the Holy Mother of God
who is venerated in the Ukrainian National Shrine of Zarvanytsya.
“She wants the priests of her Son to be like the torches lit
at night in front of her Shrine reminding everyone, especially the poor and the
suffering, and even those who perpetrate evil and sow violence and destruction,
that the people who walked in the darkness saw a great light; that a light
shone upon those who lived in a land of shadows” he said.
Pope Francis concluded revealing a personal devotion to the
Ukrainian icon of Our Lady of Tenderness, a gift of the Major Archbishop from
when they were together in Buenos Aires, and sharing his memory of a Ukrainian
priest, Father Stepan Chmil, whom he knew when he was a young boy back in 1949
and from whom he learnt how to be an altar boy for the Ukrainian Mass: “He
spoke of the persecutions, of the suffering, of the ideologies that persecuted
Christians. And he taught me to be open to a different liturgy, something I
always keep in my heart”.
The Pope also said that last time he was in Buenos Aires,
Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church had
asked him for testimonies with which to open the canonization process of Father
Chmil who was ordained bishop in secrecy: “I wanted to remember him today
because it is an act of justice to thank him before you for the good that he
did to me”.
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