Aren’t doctors going to become only temporary heroes for us?

This is what His Beatitude Sviatoslav, the Head of the UGCC, said in his interview with the Ukrainska Pravda, answering the question of whether doctors would be only temporary heroes for us.

 "I'm sorry to say, but we see that our heroes who gave up their lives and health at the front are forgotten today. We do not mention the fact that this pandemic is happening during the war, a real war, where almost every day our soldiers are killed and wounded,” said the Head of the UGCC.

He said that the UGCC at one time developed a whole program of pastoral care in the conditions of war and the assistance to soldiers and those who return home for their rehabilitation.  Its motto is: "Be close."

 "I would very much like our doctors to feel that our Church will always be close to them, because we do not often understand how courageous it is to sacrifice our health," said His Beatitude Sviatoslav.

"Are there many heroes among the UGCC priests?"  - asked the journalist of the Ukrainska Pravda.  "Let's talk about heroes when the quarantine is over, when the virus goes away, and then we can see the whole picture.  And there are really a lot of such heroes in history,” explained the Head of the UGCC.

 He recalled one story: in 1941, in Lviv, a large prisoner-of-war camp was located in the citadel, and typhoid fever broke out there.  Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky's request was that someone be in that camp near people who are dying.

 Two young monks responded, who, in the current terminology, self-isolated with the infected.  Both contracted typhoid fever, one recovered, the other died.  The deceased was only 27 years old.

"It's easier for me to talk about those heroic times than ours.  Although I know that many of our priests and medical chaplains actually have the same zeal today,” stated His Beatitude Sviatoslav, Head of the UGCC.

The UGCC Department for Information