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UKRAINE
Homage for endurancePope praises a steadfast Eastern Church
At his regular weekly public audience on May 31, Pope John Paul II paid special attention to a large group of pilgrims from Ukraine.
About 40,000 pilgrims had gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the papal audience. Among them were about 150 Latin-rite Catholics from Ukraine, led by Bishop Marian Jaworski of Leopoli. The Pontiff told that group, “for dozens of years, you have paid for your fidelity to God with suffering and humiliations of all kinds; you have been subject to discrimination and sad persecutions.” He praised “the many laymen and priests who had the courage and strength to persevere to the end at the side of Christ and his Church.”
“The Church today thanks you—you and your brothers of the Eastern rite,” the Pope concluded. The Eastern-rite Catholics of the Ukraine have been a particular focus of hostility; their churches were confiscated by the Stalin regime, and even today there are disputes between Catholics and Ukrainian Orthodox over the ownership of parish properties.