“Choice of civilization for Ukraine was already made by Prince Volodymyr – it is the European choice,” His Beatitude Sviatoslav

“In his time, Prince Volodymyr, when he decided to become a Christian and when he proposed the Christian faith to the Kyivans, he chose the civilization on the side of Christian Europe.  This was a European choice of the Equal to the Apostles Volodymyr. And the first result of this choice was the fact that Prince Yaroslav Mudryi became the father-in- law of Europe. Therefore, not only the princes, but also the culture of Kyiv-Rus began to develop as a European Christian culture.”

This was stated by the Head of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church His Beatitude Sviatoslav (Shevchuk) in an Easter interview on Channel 5, in answer to the question of how does the Greek-Catholic Church determine the direction of Ukraine’s movement of civilization: towards the East – into the Orthodox-ecumenic one under the name of “Trade Zone” or into the European Protestant-Catholic West?

The Church Primate noted, “Especially in this year, perhaps, through a strange configuration of circumstances, which I perceive as God’s will, we will celebrate the 1025^th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus-Ukraine and it is exactly in this year that the deadline of making the historic decision is due on the new entry of Ukraine into the European family of nations.”  He believes that if someone today is driven to contemplate which way to go, - that it is “an artificial, tempting voice.”

“Today, let us repeat in our country the same choice on the side of Europe, which was made by Prince Volodymyr.  If someone wants to utilize the Orthodox Church as a means of some sort of geo-political strife, then he will always ignore the original roots.  I believe that all Churches of the Kyiv tradition should discover for themselves that their Mother Church is the Constantinople Church.  In doing so, we will realize in which direction Prince Volodymyr directed the vector of  the  Christian search choice and from where the light of the Gospel came to our lands,” emphasized His Beatitude Sviatoslav.

UGCC Department of Information