His Beatitude Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, writes ‘on the very difficult situation in Ukraine.’

An Open Letter From 

Ukraine’s Catholic Primate 

by ARCHBISHOP SVIATOSLAV SHEVCHUK

To the Catholic Episcopal Conferences

То the World’s Religious and Political Leaders

To All People of Good Will

For nine months, Ukrainians have been on an arduous pilgrimage from post-Soviet fear to freedom and God-given dignity. Traumatized by the 20th-century world wars, brown and red totalitarianism and genocide, they seek a just society and a democratic European future. With patience, endurance, and great human sacrifice they overcame in February the brutal regime of Victor Yanukovych. This moral triumph was answered in March by Russia’s territorial annexation of Crimea. Now, for months, the country endures foreign supported destabilization, separatism, and terrorist activity in the Donetsk and Luhansk Regions, in one word: war. Tragically, as became manifest in the criminal shutdown of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17, the Ukrainian trial affects the global community.

All of the churches and religious organizations of Ukraine stood together against the violence of the Yanukovych regime, the annexation of Crimea and the division of the country. On the Maidan-Square for months, every day, and hourly in the night, in common prayer they insisted on respect of civil rights, non-violence, unity of the country and dialogue. This civic, ecumenical and inter-religious harmony and cooperation has been an important source of moral inspiration and social cohesion in Ukraine.

In the annexed Crimea and in the eastern war zone, some of the churches and religious communities have been targeted for discrimination, enduring outright violence. In Crimea, the most exposed have been the Muslim Tatars. The Tatar community as a whole is in daily danger. Some of its leadership has been exiled, barred from their homeland. The existence of the Greek and Roman Catholics ministries, Orthodox parishes of the Kiev Patriarchate and the Jewish community in Crimea has been variously menaced.

In April, violence was instigated in Eastern Ukraine. According to the Ukrainian authorities, some 1,000 people, including international journalists and peace monitors, were kidnapped or detained; dozens were tortured or killed. The anti-terrorist operation, launched by the Ukrainian government, faces a foreign aggression that co-opts local rebels and local and international criminal delinquents. As a result, today there are over a thousand civilian casualties in the densely populated cities, with the numbers rising by 50 deaths or more daily, not to mention the 298 victims of Flight MH17. The infrastructure of the cities, including roads and bridges, electric substations, coal mines and industrial installations are being destroyed to cripple the economy and future reconstruction that will become the responsibility of the Ukrainian state. Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee the warfare that has been brought into the heart of the cities by the so-called separatists.

Amidst the horrors of war, the tiny Ukrainian Greek and Roman Catholic minorities experience oppression on the territories controlled by the “separatists.” Three Catholic priests were kidnapped: Pawel Witek and Wiktor Wąsowicz (Roman Catholic) and Tykhon Kulbaka (Greek Catholic). The later was kept in captivity for 10 days and deprived of medicine he needed. The episcopal residence of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic bishop in Donetsk was robbed and sealed, depriving him of his chancery and all documentation. The cathedral yard was hit by “separatist” rocket fire, damaging the building and windows with shrapnel. The bishop and almost all Ukrainian Greek Catholic priests were forced to leave the environs of Donetsk. Armed representatives of separatist regime entered the church and desecrated the sanctuary. They “allowed” priests to stay and conduct services but put them on travel restrictions. Terrorists blackmail the clergy by threatening to harm their parishioners.


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