Beloved children of the Church, dear Ukrainians!
By God's
Providence, we have another occasion for a paternal address to you. The
Mother Church, the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, hereby
again addresses you to share with you not only joy, but also the grief
caused by the Holodomor.
The few sons and daughters of the
Ukrainian nation whom the Lord helped to survive at the time of the
Ukrainian tragedy, the Holodomor of 1932-1933, increasingly often are
leaving forever their homes, children, grandchildren and great
grandchildren. Therefore, our address is first of all to young people
representing the future of the Ukrainian state.
Together with
you, we seek to comprehend not only the number of Ukrainians killed by
the famine, but, above all, the causes which led to the tragedy. Let us
leave the study of the political and social causes to secular scholars.
We will try to look at the Holodomor from the Church's viewpoint. Why
did Ukraine, which from ancient times supplied bread to countries which
lacked it, begin at a peaceful time to starve more severely than any
European nation did in times of war?
The power of the
newly-established state on the territory of the collapsed empire
replaced the star of Bethlehem with one of human blood, and in place of
Christ's purple, which absorbed the holy blood of the Savior of the
world and which has been its holy banner, leading to eternal life and
always followed by believing people, the red flag began flying, which
made the innocent blood of the best sons and daughters of your nation
invisible.
As soon as an oppressor comes to power, he does not
care about the good of the governed native nation or respect its
spiritual, cultural and material values. He knows well that sooner or
later the people will begin to see and get rid of the yoke. Therefore,
to ensure a long rule, it is necessary to terrorize the titular nation.
The preserved historic documents of the Soviet Union are rich in
information about the nationality of the repressed. The overwhelming
majority of the destroyed, imprisoned or exiled people were Ukrainians
who were nationally conscious or good managers. The inspirers,
organizers, managers and chief executors of the extermination of the
Ukrainians were people who can be described with the words of Jesus
Christ: "You belong to your father, the devil... He was a murderer from
the beginning..." (Jn. 8:44)
Three holodomors, repressions, and
war should have become for you, the Ukrainian nation, a stimulus to
spiritual purification, moral improvement, return to your forefathers`
Christian tradition with its own Church and internal Christian
spirituality and not an imported external, formal Christianity verging
on the worship of ritual. And our visit to Kyiv for the celebration of
the 1020th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus-Ukraine showed us the real
sons and daughters of the Ukrainian Church, who pray to God and not to
man, even if he holds a high post. We saw that even the terrors of the
20th century did not break the backbone of the nation, did not make the
Ukrainian a slave and obedient executer of other people's intentions.
We
call all to turn their faces to Kyiv, to Ukrainian spiritual shrines,
religious and cultural, to the Ukrainian nation: all people born in
Ukraine have one and the same mother, Ukraine, which should be served
by everyone, without exception, both those vested with power and
"small" citizens. Remember the Savior's words: "Every kingdom divided
against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided
against itself will not stand." (Matt. 12:25)
Dear Ukrainians!
Your past, whether joyful and victorious or sad and tragic, especially
the Holodomor, will always remain with you, even when you try to
forget, diminish or distort it to please your neighbors. The following
words of the Apostle Paul apply to you: "Brothers, each man, as
responsible to God, should remain in the situation God called him to."
(1st Cor. 7:24) Your calling is to be good Christians within the
ancient Ukrainian Church tradition and citizens of Ukraine, as well as
to witness unanimously to the tragedies of the Ukrainian nation in the
20th century, especially the Great Holodomor of 1932-1933, to the
world. It is your duty to the memory of your great grandparents,
grandparents and parents, for there was no tragedy in human history
when more representatives of a single nation were destroyed in one
peaceful year than during the several years of a war. And no matter
what anyone says or if they try to belittle the evil, this is the clear
sign of genocide.
Children of Christ's Church, dear Ukrainians!
In the days of remembrance of the victims of the Great Holodomor of
1932-1933, especially on its 75th anniversary, your Mother-Church, the
Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, grieves together with you
and expresses its deep and sincere sympathies to all of you and
Ukraine's President, Viktor Yushchenko, who represents Ukraine before
the world and through whose persistent efforts the world learns
increasingly more information about the terrible tragedy of Ukrainians
in the 20th century. We bring our prayers to our Lord Jesus Christ and
ask the Most Gracious Savior to give rest in holy dwellings to the
souls of all those killed by the Famine and admit them to the assembly
of His Martyrs as those innocently killed. May their memory live
forever and may the heavenly blessing of the Most High be on you who
are alive!
At the Phanar, 20 November 2008
+ Bartholomew
Archbishop of Constantinople and Ecumenical Patriarch
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