On Sunday, May 25 His Beatitude Metropolitan
Volodymyr of Kyiv and All Ukraine met at his residence in Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra
with Vatican's Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio
Bertone who stayed on official
visit in Ukraine. The high guest from Vatican was accompanied by the Roman-Catholic
Archbishop of Lviv Cardinal Marian Yavorskyi, Apostolic Nuncio in Ukraine Archbishop Ivan Yurkovych,
archbishop-coadjutor of Lviv
Mieczyslaw Mokszycki
and other persons.
On behalf of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church taking part in the meeting were: Archbishop
of Bila Tserkva and Bohuslav Mytrofan, Rector of the Kyiv Theological Academy and Seminary Bishop
Anthony of Boryspil, Secretary to the Primate of the UOC Bishop Alexander of
Pereyaslav-Khmelnytskyi, Chairman of the Department for External Church
Relations archimandrite Cyril (Hovorun), Chairman of the Synodal Department
"Mission of the Social Assistance to Children" archimandrite Philaret
(Kucherov) and the co-worker of the Department for External Church Relations
priest Valeriy Kravets.
First of all the guest from Vatican
gave a kiss of veneration to the head of the Holy Great Martyr Clement of Rome
in the home church at the residence of the Primate of the UOC. Thereafter the discussion took place, in the
course of which the parties exchanged their assessments of the religious
situation in Ukraine
and of the problems of the church-state relations. The Primate of the Ukrainian
Orthodox Church told of the problems the UOC will face while carrying out its
mission in the Ukrainian society. Among those problems mentioned he singled out
the fact that the Church still lacked the status of legal entity, it could not get
back the confiscated property, and it had no full access to schools and higher
educational institutions. In response Cardinal Bertoni noted that these problems presented significant obstacle for the spiritual
mission of the Church. According to him, this mission is especially important
today, when the Ukrainian society returns to its spiritual roots, and it is the
Church that plays the key part in this process.
Upon completion of the event the parties exchanged presents. After the meeting with the Primate of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church the Vatican's
Secretary of State left for the meeting with the President of Ukraine. | |
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