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Last Updated: 19 February 2013

Kyiv - March 10, 2010, marked the 64th anniversary of the end of the pseudo-synod of 1946 where by decree the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church was liquidated in the USSR.  The director of the Institute of Church History of the Ukrainian Catholic University Fr. Andrii Mykhaleiko, reports that the fact that the synod of 1946 was held by joint efforts of the Communist party leadership, state structures, and state security services in cooperation with the Russian Orthodox Church is proved by documents found by church history study experts in the archives of the Security Service of Ukraine and the Central State Archive of Public Organizations of Ukraine.

One of these documents is a telegram No. 82 of the People’s Commissar of the State Security of USSR Merkulov to the People’s Commissar of the State Security of Ukrainian SSR Savchenko of January 25, 1946, containing clear instructions on the organization of the council in Lviv: “Be informed that the permission to hold the synod of the Greek Catholic Church in Lviv is obtained. In view thereof, 400 thousand rubles will be transferred to the Council of People’s Commissars of Ukrainian SSR to be passed to the initiative group through agent ‘Ptitsyn.’”

“…To ensure the successful organization of the synod, agents should make up at least 60-70% of the composition of the delegates. Also ensure agents make up a sufficient percentage of the invited lay representatives of the intelligentsia.  Check all the other delegates and guests beforehand in order not to admit hostile or unreliable elements,” read the instructions.

According to NKVD instructions, a series of arrests of representatives of the leadership of UGCC and “active uniates” was to be made and the press was to be informed of the arrest and the legally defined crimes of the arrested within 10-15 days. Also this document permits the ordination of two priests of the UGCC as Orthodox bishops: “There is no contention against the ordination of the bishops ‘Ivanov’ and ‘Shevchuk.’” And in fact, on February 24-25, 1946, in Volodymyr’s Cathedral of Kyiv took place the ordination of two participants of the “initiative group” on the conduction of the council – Fr. Mykhail Melnyk and Fr. Joseph Pelvetsky.

It is important that at the same time the authority of the NKVD wished as carefully as possible to hide their involvement in the alleged church meeting: “We especially turn your attention to the necessity to observe the terms of the strictest conspiracy as to our participation in the preparation and conduction of the council.”

According to the information of the Institute of Church History of the UCU, before the beginning of World War II the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church counted 2,387 parishes with 3.6 million faithful, had 2,352 eparchial priests, 31 men’s and 121 women’s monasteries and monastic houses. Under the care of the Church operated the Theological Academy and 3 spiritual seminaries, where 480 students studied.

According to the letter, written on September 24, 1949, to first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine M. Khrushchev by the head of the Council on Matters of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Council of Ministers of the USSR G. Karpov, between March 1946 and August 1949 to the ROC were passed “3,001 Uniate parish churches, 1,242 priests, 463 deacons, and 1,018 psalmists in the Zakarpattya, Drohobych, Lviv, and Stanislaviv regions.”

Information Department of the UGCC

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Last Updated: 19 February 2013

Rabweh 10 March 2010

Violence, fanaticism, terrorism, enmity, dislocation, or rather persecution, continue incessantly to decimate our beloved brothers, the few Christians especially, in that dear country Iraq, which has descended into chaos, rout, licentiousness, tribalism, laxity, massacre, destruction and terrorism in all its ugliness.

This is the confirmed state of affairs borne out by the following facts:

1.       From 2003 to 2010, about two thousand Christians have been killed in different districts, following successive waves of violence.

2.       Between 17 February and 1 March, eight hundred and seventy Christian families, numbering some four thousand four hundred persons, have left Mosul because of confessional violence.

3.       During the month of October 2008, twelve thousand Christians left Mosul, fleeing violence.

4.       Forty per cent of Iraqi refugees are Christian. In all, there are one million six hundred thousand Iraqi refugees.

5.       Forty-four per cent of Iraqi refugees in Syria are Christian. Our Churches in Syria receive them and offer them help as best they can.

6.       The number of Christians is declining and diminishing in a tragic way. In 1987, they numbered one million four hundred thousand: in 2003, they were fewer than one million two hundred thousand. Now, in 2009, they are just six hundred thousand, representing three per cent of the twenty-seven and a half million total population of Iraq.

The drop in the numbers of Iraqi Christians, their expulsion and massacre is a tragedy for Iraq's Christians and Muslims alike.

That is why we are making an appeal to foreign governments and to that great spiritual leader, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, to make every effort to speak up in defence of Christians and of all victims of violence. We call upon all Iraq's sons, especially Sunni and Shi'a Muslims, who make up the majority of the population and appeal to their noble - for so it is! - Iraqi nature, beseeching and imploring them to protect Christians.  He who murders a Christian is no Muslim, but a renegade to his Islamic faith.

We call everyone to solidarity, harmony and national unity in lovely Iraq. Christians are an integral part of that national unity and of the rich, pluralist Iraqi social fabric. We call upon them: all you Christians and Sunni and Shi'a Muslims, you are equally responsible for the unity of your country. We entreat them: let us Muslims and Christians stay together and God be with us. He wants us to stay together, as we have always done throughout history, with our common culture, heritage, faith and values. For our future and the future of the faith values of our Muslim and Christian Iraqi citizens are one and the same, and there is a single, common future for all Iraq's children.

Let us not forget those specialists in terrorism who love to create schemes and disturbances and are the enemies of Christianity and Islam alike: they are the ones behind most of the attacks and acts of terror in more than one Arab country.

In conclusion, we invite all our sons and daughters, the faithful of our Melkite Greek Catholic Church, pastors, priests, monastics, deputies, ministers, members of institutes and confraternities from all walks of public life, to take part in great numbers in the Day of Solidarity with Iraq's Christians on March 13 2010, at Our Lady of Rihan in Harissa. There we shall pray together to our Lord God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, Prince of Peace, imploring the intercession of our Holy Mother, the Mother of God and ever-Virgin Mary, for security, peace, compassion, solidarity and stability for all our brothers and sisters of Iraq.

On that day, I shall be on a brotherly visit to India, staying with our dear brother St. Thomas Christians in Kerala.

We shall be meeting in great numbers for prayer, forgiveness and peace in Harissa.

And may the God of Peace fill us to the brim with his Peace, his security and his Love.

+ Gregorios III

Patriarch of Antioch and All the East,

Of Alexandria and of Jerusalem

Translation from the French: V. Chamberlain

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Last Updated: 19 February 2013

Speech of H. B. Patriarch Gregorios III on the occasion of his visit to his brother,

H. B. Moran Mor Baselios Cleemis Catholicos, Major Archbishop of the Syro-Malankara Church,

and attendance at the consecration on 13 March 2010

of four new bishops at the Mar Ivanios Stadium, Nalanchira, India

Dear brother in Christ,

Your Beatitude, Moran Mor Baselios Cleemis,

Dear new brother bishops,

Dear bishops, priests, sisters,

Dear faithful of the venerable Syro-Malankara Apostolic Church of Saint Thomas,

Let us thank the Lord for having brought us together through the grace of the Holy Spirit. Christ said,

"For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." (Matthew 18: 20) That promise is realised today in this holy assembly, filling our hearts with joy at meeting with Your beloved Beatitude, on the occasion of the consecration of four bishops for your venerable Apostolic Church of Saint Thomas. To you and to our brothers, the new bishops, congratulations!

We are glad to bring greetings from the Mother Church, Jerusalem, and from the Apostolic Church of Christ in the Middle East to your Holy, Apostolic Church founded by the Holy Apostle Thomas.

Cordial, joyful greetings to you, dear Beatitude, and to you bishops of this Church, to you newly consecrated bishops, and to all the members of the Holy Synod, from our Patriarchal Church of Antioch and All the East, of Alexandria and of Jerusalem, represented here by Rt. Rev. Archbishop Joseph Absi, Patriarchal Vicar in Damascus and by Rt. Rev. Archbishop Joseph-Jules Zerey, Patriarchal Vicar in Jerusalem, formerly Patriarchal Vicar in Cairo and a great friend to your and our Indian sisters who are so devoted to our Church in Cairo.

With me are my Chancellor, Rev. Father Tony Dib and the Patriarchal Economos, Rev. Father Elie Chatawi. All our Melkite faithful are with us in prayer.

What courage! The Holy Apostle Thomas realised the prophecy which says, "Their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world, the oikoumene." (Psalm 18: 4 LXX; Romans 10: 18) Moreover, your Christian presence of Saint Thomas in India, in Kerala, is the revelation of the command of our Lord, Jesus Christ, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." (Mark 16: 15) This beautiful message of Christ reached Kerala in about the year 50 of our era.

Your and our Churches are proud to have taken the step of bringing about perfect, definitive unity with their sister Church of Rome which "presides in charity." (Saint Ignatius, Romans, Prologue)

We continually proclaim this unity, while both remaining faithful to our Eastern tradition and ecclesial heritage which are common to us and to our Orthodox brethren and to our brotherly relations with them.

We both affirm our commitment to continuing intense, vital and practical dialogue with our Muslim brethren and, for you, with Hindus as well.

We had a very happy meeting with you, dear brother, at Castel Gandolfo near Rome, when all we Eastern Catholic Patriarchs and Major Archbishops gathered around the Holy Father on Saturday, 19 September, 2009. That meeting was a most eloquent expression of our perfect communion with the Holy Father and with the Church of Rome.

We were also able to express our role and mission, and that of our Eastern Catholic Churches in the ecumenical movement in relation to our Orthodox brethren; and to articulate our role and mission in the dialogue with Islam in the Arab world with its Muslim majority and for you with Hinduism.

No-one else can take our role or place in that regard. That is why it is imperative to remain where we are, and not emigrate, but rather fulfil our role.

Furthermore, we hope that this meeting of Patriarchs and Major Archbishops with the Holy Father will not be a unique event! Rather, we hope for regular, annual or other periodic meetings, so that we may constitute a sort of Eastern Catholic Assembly around His Holiness in a very discreet, brotherly, evangelical way, in all simplicity and humility, far from the mass media. The purpose of that would be to reaffirm our communion with Rome and to strengthen our role in the ecumenical movement and in religious and humane dialogue at all levels.

In fact you and we believe, in all humility, that the courage of our ancestors in taking the bold step of effecting union with Rome was a blessed, holy move and one worthy of profound esteem, since it fulfils the prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ before his sacred passion, "That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe ..." (John 17: 21)

Indeed, with the Blessed Pope John XXIII, we have understood that "what unites us is much greater than what divides us." And with the Servant of God John Paul II and the Holy Father Benedict XVI, "we express the joy we feel as brothers [with the Orthodox] and renew our commitment to move towards full communion. [1]" We Melkite Greek Catholics and Syro-Malankaran Catholics, thank the Lord, enjoy full communion with Rome.

We pray daily in our Liturgy for the unity of faith and the communion of the Holy Spirit, while we entrust ourselves to Christ our God.

Catholic-Orthodox dialogue is moving forward. Now, since Ravenna, it has been concentrating on the problem and concept of the service of Primacy in the Church. We shall reach the day when we can pray together our ecclesial Creed, "We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church."

Next October (10-24 October) we shall be celebrating the special Synod for the Catholic Churches in the Middle East, entitled, The Catholic Church in the Middle East: Communion and Witness. Preparation in our eparchies and parishes for this synod and its celebration in Rome will be a great opportunity for developing awareness among our faithful about their vital role in remaining where they are, in the land called by the President of the Syrian Arab Republic Bashar Al Assad, "Syria, the cradle of Christianity."

Dearly beloved brother,

Dear brothers in the episcopate,

Dear priests and pastors,

Dear monks and nuns,

Dear faithful of Saint Thomas,

The motto of the special Synod for the Middle East is Jesus' saying to his disciples, "Fear not, little flock." (Luke 12: 32)

Take heart, little flock! Don't be afraid, in the Middle East and here in Kerala, of being light, salt and leaven in the lump of this world! (Matthew 5: 13-16; 13: 33)

We repeat this in a form which includes us all, and which is a profession of faith, full of trust, confidence and courage: we Christians in the Middle East and in Kerala wish to be light, salt and leaven in the lump for our Orthodox brethren, our Muslim and Hindu brethren and for every human being.

It is the role of Christianity and of the Christian, as the Servant of God, John Paul II affirmed, in his last Message for the World Day of Peace, January, 2005, "Can an individual find complete fulfilment without taking account of his social nature, that is, his being ‛with' and ‛for' others?... Each person, in some way, is called to work for the common good, constantly looking out for the good of others as if it were his own."

May the Holy Virgin intercede for us! May Saint Thomas pray for us! May our holy patrons pray for us and may Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, bless and confirm us in our holy Christian faith. Amen.

Translation from the French: V. Chamberlain

---

[1] Common Declaration of Pope Benedict XVI and Patriarch Bartholomew from the Phanar 30 November 2006

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Last Updated: 19 February 2013

Express News Service

First Published : 10 Mar 2010 07:02:44 AM IST

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Gregorios III Laham, the Patriarch of Greek Melkite Rite, arrived in India on a five-day visit on Wednesday, 10 March. A linguist, the Patriarch is the author of several works and founder of charitable institutions in Jerusalem.

He is visiting in connection with the ordaining of four new bishops of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church.

Vincent Kulappuravilai, Samuel Kattukallil, Stephanos Thottathil and Antony Valiyavilayil will be ordained bishops at the Mar Ivanios Vidya Nagar near here on Saturday, Catholicos Moran Mor Baselios Cleemis of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church said.

Patriarch Gregorios III will call on Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil of the Syro-Malabar Church at Ernakulam on his arrival there on Wednesday.

Later, the Patriarch will attend the installation of the new bishop at Marthandam.

On Saturday, the public function that follows the ordaining of the new bishops will be attended by Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor, Opposition Leader Oommen Chandy, Thrissur Archbishop Mar Andrews Thazhath and Mayor C Jayan Babu.

Source http://www.expressbuzz.com

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Last Updated: 19 February 2013

March 9, 2010, the delegation of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of the USA headed by Cardinal Theodore E. C, Archbishop Emeritus of Washington, visited the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ of the UGCC.

“Kyiv is the center of Ukraine and I am glad that Greek Catholics are here because you should be in the center of the country. I hope that this very large and uniquely designed church will soon open its doors to the faithful and Masses will be celebrated here,” noted the hierarch.

The auxiliary bishop Yosyf (Milian) of the Kyivan Archeparchy told the visitors that stained-glass windows are now being installed in the church and by the end of the year the external building work will be completed. In the near future efforts will be concentrated on finishing work in the basement of the cathedral.

“We still have to produce a conception for painting the cathedral, because both Byzantium tradition and modern trends are present in the church’s building,” said the bishop. “In January of this year we held a large artistic council, in which participated art schools from Lviv, Kyiv, and Kharkiv, and also public institutions which work in church restoration and painting.”

The delegation also met with representatives of the Greek and Roman Catholic clergy of Ukraine.  In particular, there was a meeting of the US guests with the leaders of structural departments of the Patriarchal Curia of the UGCC. The representatives of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of the USA attentively listened to the authorized representatives of the curia as they described their service. It is important that the workers of the curia serve the church not only administratively but also in social and informational areas.

 

Information Departments of the UGCC

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Last Updated: 19 February 2013

Omsk, Russia - (ugcc.org.ua) - On March 9, 2010, in the Russian city of Omsk, the Greek Catholic community of the Veil of the Holy Mother of God, together with the Siberian center of Ukrainian culture Siryj Klyn honored the memory of Taras Shevchenko. A flower-laying ceremony took place at the stone where a monument to the poet is to be erected. Afterward, the parochial priest Fr. Theodore Matsapula, IW, celebrated a requiem for the soul of the Kobzar, and also for the souls of those who perished for the Ukrainian state. The priest also said a sermon.

Following the sermon, the poems of Shevchenko were read and songs sang to his words. Despite the Siberian frosts and old age of many of the faithful, many people took part in the joint prayer.

We ask for your prayers for the growth and strengthening of our Greek Catholic community in Russia.

Informed Fr. Theodore Matsapula, IW