ukrainian-greek-catholic-bishops

"Given the dramatic situation in Ukraine, with this war that has brought pain and death to the Ukrainian people, we are touched here in Brazil, especially in Paraná. The pain of the Ukrainian people is our pain. This is the time when we must reach out, offering, in addition our precious prayers, the humanitarian aid they need."

"Spiritual care should be provided by priests with appropriate training and who serve professionally. In our theological educational institutions, we want to educate a pleiad of chaplains who would serve alongside those defending us. That is why the slogan "to be there for them" is not trite, as it reflects the essence of chaplaincy itself."

"For the church of Christ, a hospital has always been a place where not only the body but also the soul is helped and treated. For us, as a church, it has always been a priority to be in a hospital, to be near the poor, the hurt, the wounded, the weak and the sick."

"A good bishop must be a leader, a father, and a servant – all in one person. Therefore, it is not an easy ministry. People have different needs. In my opinion, a bishop can be compared to a juggler who throws many balls in the air at the same time. A bishop also has to do many different things and achieve a delicate balance in his ministry."

"What is impossible for a human person is possible for the Lord. The conditions we lived in the concentration camps were pitiless, worse than the German concentration camps. The Gospel kept us human, kept us Christian."

"The world order itself is at stake. There is no going back, as this would be to choose slavery. Man was created in the image of God. All human beings have the fundamental right to live in freedom on their land and to the benefits of being children of God."

"It has been the most dreadful and difficult thing for me to cope with in my life as a priest. It is very difficult to give answers to the questions people put to you as a bishop."

"The adding of saints' names from other Churches of the Catholic communion to our Menologion underscores our openness and respect for the traditions of sanctity in both the Western Church and other Eastern Catholic Churches."

"Listen not to human fears, but look at it from God's perspective."

"Perhaps the Holy Father chose me because he knows that the Salesians are good with the most difficult boys, and there is work there."

"On an analog clock face, you can see where time has been a minute ago and where it is going. What really matters when our time is up are not the things we have acquired but the love that we have given away."

"It is important not to stop praying now: this is the moment when prayer is our strongest weapon. We must believe in peace, invoke it in all possible ways and teach our young people who are experiencing the horror of war, the value of life."

"Everything we possess and have here, which we consider to be wealth, is not valuable because everything can be lost overnight and that it has its value and meaning for us only when there is true God's peace."

"We ask for solidarity. Do not forget us because if we are forgotten and abandoned, this earthquake that we are experiencing in Ukraine today will shake the entire world. We have hope that true solidarity saves lives; solidarity can help us find solutions that perhaps we have not yet identified today. Do not forget Ukraine; do not abandon us in our mourning and pain."

"The beatification and the canonisation of Fr. Stefano Czmil would be an enrichment for the Ukrainian Church. A small piece in the mosaic of the holiness of our people, because through Fr. Stepan we shall be enriching ourselves with the holiness of Don Bosco, who with his inspirational holiness opened the doors of holiness not only to religious, martyrs and to the faithful but especially to the young, following the example of fourteen year old Saint Dominic Savio, his pupil."

"While we speak of two Church – Catholic and Orthodox – we pray the same Creed, expressing joint faith in the one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. We trust that God will guide both Churches to a "communio" of Divine Mercy- a meeting of hands and hearts."

"During the 20th century, the Ukrainian Catholic Church, has experienced much pain and distress in the U.S. from these wounds of division, from both the Latin Church, often through misunderstanding, and from the Orthodox Churches, because of our fidelity to the See of Peter, which they view as a betrayal of our authentic spiritual patrimony. Despite numerous obstacles, through Divine Providence and the grace of the Holy Spirit, we have managed to survive."

"Even today we do not fully understand what a great man God gave the Ukrainian people and the church. We are still learning about the metropolitan today."

"The Church is always calling us. We are people of one nation. We believe in the one same Christ, and we should be working toward the fulfillment of Christ's prayer that all be one. And Jesus, when he speaks through the Church says that he has one flock, one sheep-fold, using the imagery of the shepherd. And yet I have other sheep that are not of this fold, and I must reach out of them. This is the mandate that Christ gave to us."

"Although I have the mentality of Western Ukrainians, I love these people. I asked to be sent to eastern Ukraine, because I am a missionary; I am a Redemptorist, and our charism is to go to the people who are most abandoned. These people have very good and open hearts."

"A new evangelization is needed that takes into account our post-immigrant, post-seminary situation. It will necessarily be focused on creating a faith that is based more on a personal encounter with the living Jesus Christ than upon any ethnic or social factors. Given the powerful experience of the Catholicism of our youth, we, the Church in Canada, approach this task with much hope."

"We live in the world of total individualisms, which begets egocentrism. We tend to think that our omnipotence can defeat everything in this world. From the Scriptures we know a man a sociable person created by God. Christ was accompanied in His ministering by the disciples. We, on the contrary, are trying to set boundaries among us all."

"If we look at the Church as a community, we will be able to grow, if we look ourselves as Church of physical buildings it will be hard for us to see Christ and grow."

"Anyone who creates a society, including the church and all its members – the hierarchy, clergy, laity – shares the responsibility for our social and political ills. The fact that the church now enjoys almost the greatest level of trust in the Ukrainian society makes us genuinely wonder why the doctrine of the church, its teachings and calls, have such a hard time finding their way into the daily lives of the faithful and our society in general. No matter how loud the preaching of the church, however, the last word will always be from the people, from their free choice: to be on the side of good and truth, or continue to walk in the darkness of sin and iniquity."

"If I think about my life, I realize that it’s been always on the road and in constant motion. You always have to check whether you have the right amount of luggage, what things you have to leave behind and which ones to buy. This way of living is exciting as you don’t get attached to a place – you're free. The church is calling me to work far away. By living in a monastery, I've learnt to be mobile. We are often asked to relocate from one place of serving to another."

"When we talk about the church, we are not just talking about the academic or professional level. Here we are dealing with souls, and the souls of priests are included. The methodology of this work, though drawing upon human knowledge, should originate with the Gospel. And in everything it should follow the Teacher, who came to serve and sacrifice his life for the people, teaching them and calling them to conversion. You cannot achieve this by a system of commands. The person should change his behavior and open his heart to the grace of God. When those responsible for human souls on earth serve others in accord with the Gospel and positively influence the person's good will, they will fulfill their mission to be pastors and then their authority will be effortlessly confirmed."

"I hope that, whenever anybody celebrates Easter, what is the most important is that we do not celebrate this as a historical event only, that happened two thousand years ago, but rather as an event that includes us today. Because not only will we also resurrect thanks to the Resurrection of Christ; but also, the power of the resurrection works in our lives even today, as Christ always raises us up from our sins, from our problems – and we need to be more aware of that."

"This is not new. During Soviet times, we were always accused of being "agents" of the Vatican. Of course not all people in Crimea think we are spies, but there is a very active pro-Russian group there that does."

"We are grateful to God for His large grace and mercy to the people. At the same time we ask all people of good will to pray for the successful building of the church, because we know very well that when the Lord does not build a house, builders work in vain."

"It's big, it's the biggest country, but Russia, especially the Russian government, they are afraid of this change that has happened in Ukraine. They think this change is coming to Russia, (so) they are afraid of this situation and they have that aggression now...we need to pray and we need this peace for Ukraine and for Russia too."

"We like to do all the talking, but it's so important to listen."

"This experience of the 20th century, in which people of faith and other people of good will stood up to the greatest human challenge, the challenge of totalitarianism, this school of faith has much to offer to western Europe and to the broader international and ecclesial community. I think Ukraine and the Church in Ukraine has a great responsibility to share this story. Today, this Church is growing and I am convinced that it has a vocation to help the universal Church."

"The catacombs are not romantic – the underground is real. Fear and distrust entered into the DNA of the population. We know that all relationships, particularly marriage and family relationships, are based on trust. And over the last century, the trust of the people of Ukraine has been tried in ways we cannot even imagine."

"One of the missions of the underground priests was to encourage these people and to tell them that yes, we're suffering, but we're doing this for Christ. That's why the Church survived; people were humans, in all the best sense of the word."

"Next time you feel alone or think that no one really understands your secret thoughts, take heart. Someone does know how you feel. He is waiting for you in the calm lonely eye of the stormy crowd. He went through his Palm Sunday experience alone, so that you will not have to go through yours the same way. Even when those around you will not, or cannot understand you, God does!"

"The Church is richer for it; we have something to offer one another in our spirituality, our prayer and our journey to come closer to our Lord. It's important for Eastern Catholics to take on our duty to inform the Latin Church more, and for the Latin Church to become more aware of this other "lung" of the Church. This would also then help us ecumenically with the Orthodox world."

"The ancient roots of the Church of Kyiv here, on the shores of the gray Dnieper, produce a new sprout. We have been killed and crucified many times, but our roots are alive."

"It is a part of our Christian matrix, I believe this is who we are."

"Our cultural practices now have Christian significance, and they are embedding faith into our daily lives. And that’s important for us as Ukrainian Catholics. Today in Canada, if we want to evangelize one another, in this case, if I'm speaking to an indigenous group, I need to understand their culture. I need to understand their language, their ways of expressing things, their ways of understanding nature, their relationship with it, and then I can celebrate with them the presence of God in all of those things."

"In becoming a priest, you were agreeing to be a martyr."

"I have hope that people who are interested in helping the development of our communities will come forward. Besides, I hope warm connections between parishes in Eastern Ukraine and in the Toronto Eparchy will form, which will lead to permanent cooperation."

"The hopes and dreams of our faith community are to further engage our young people in our mission as a Church. Our young people often have expressed their desire to know and understand the unique spirituality of our 1000-year-old Kyivan tradition. The question remains: how do we live our lives as modern day Christians in a modern day Australia, and at the same time preserving our unique spirituality?"

"To make peace requires courage, much more so than to make war. Courage to say yes to encounter and no to conflict; yes to dialogue and no to violence; yes to negotiation and no to hostility, yes to the observance of pacts and no to provocations; yes to sincerity and no to duplicity"

"Bishop John is a kind and noble man who has served God, the Church and the community-at-large with dedication, both as a priest and as a bishop. Throughout a life that began in great danger and hardship he remained faithful. In my first months of service Bishop John has been for me a most valuable and reliable guide for understanding the pastoral history and current issues of our archeparchy."

"Closing the parish is the last thing I want to do, it's sad. I would rather be opening a parish."

"The ancient roots of the Church of Kyiv here, on the shores of the gray Dnieper, produce a new sprout. We have been killed and crucified many times, but our roots are alive."

"Both marriage and the vocation to the priesthood and celibacy are charisms and vocations, and we need to be open to the Holy Spirit. As a result, over the centuries, our Church has had to understand how we have both celibate priests, some of whom are diocesan, plus those who belong to religious orders, as well as married ones. In my eparchy, where our parishes are so far apart from each other, I think that having a wife and a family is a very good thing for support of that man, who most of the time are not from British Columbia, so they have no family there."

"It is the responsibility of all to stand up against any systemic discrimination by the government in a democratic society; this is a principle which Ukrainians certainly understand intimately."

"Time, talent, and treasure. If people give their time to God’s work, that’s very important, and use the talents that God gives you, not for yourself, it’s for the greater glory of God, but you use your talents. Everybody's got different kind of talents, but you use some of your talents for the greater glory of building up the Kingdom of God on Earth."

"This massive explosion of theological formation is like a baby being nurtured by the benefactors of Aid to the Church in Need."