It was reported last week that the Pope would arrive in Ukraine on a pastoral visit on June 21-24, 2001. He will visit at the invitation of the bishops of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic (UGCC) and Roman Catholic (URCC) Churches and President Leonid Kuchma, Archbishop Nikola Eterovic, the Apostolic Nuncio in Ukraine, announced.
The Pope’s itinerary and schedule of engagements in this country have not yet been worked out. This will be done by the newly -formed Supreme Church Committee which, together with the Apostolic Nunciature and the State Committee for Religious Affairs, are to plan the schedule of the visit. The committee, headed by Bishop Yulian Hbur (UGCC) and Bishop Markiyan Trofymiak (URCC), invites all religious and the relevant governmental organizations in Ukraine and the diaspora to cooperate.
The Nuncio, Archbishop Eterovic, foresees that in June 2001 Ukraine could become a place of pilgrimage, receiving Roman and Greek Catholics from many countries, especially those of the former USSR and the Ukrainian diaspora. This means the Kyiv administration will have to face a host of difficulties. But this might not concern only the capital, for the Pontiff might also visit Lviv.
As mentioned, Pope John Paul II is paying a pastoral visit, that he is going to see the Catholic faithful. However, the Pope’s ecumenical meeting with the leaders of other, not only Christian, religions is not ruled out. As Bishop Stanislav Shyrokoriaduk (URCC) said, this kind of meeting could occur as part of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches which comprises representatives of the most numerous — Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, Judaic, and Muslim — Ukrainian confessions and religious jurisdictions. All will be invited.
All this proves that the long and hotly debated visit to Ukraine by the head of the world’s largest Christian church (over one billion believers in all) will eventually materialize. We, as a civilized and hospitable people, can in this case say only the following simple and good words: “Laskavo prosymo!” (welcome).
