Head of UGCC takes part in 600th anniversary celebration of transfer of Lviv Archdiocese of Roman Catholic Church

“Allow me from the entire Greek Catholic Church to sincerely congratulate our brethren, bishops, clergy, monastics of the Lviv archdiocese on the beginning of the jubilee year,” said Patriarch Sviatoslav, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, at the celebratory mass on the occasion of the 600th anniversary of the transfer of capital of the Lviv archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church from Halych to Lviv, which was held on February 1, 2012, in the Latin Cathedral in Lviv. The service was led by the Apostolic Nuncio in Ukraine, Archbishop Thomas Edward Gullickson. The mass was celebrated jointly by the head of the Roman Catholic Church of Ukraine, Archbishop Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki and the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk. The service was attended by bishops and clergymen of RCC from Ukraine and Poland and Auxiliary Bishop of the Lviv Metropolitanate of UGCC, Bishop Venedykt, representatives of the Orthodox Church, General Consul of the Polish Republic in Lviv and representatives of the authorities of the Lviv Oblast. “Today we celebrated with a special event the life of the church in our land,” the head of the UGCC said in his welcoming remarks. “For all of us it is clear that this event has given new meaning and nature to the community of Lviv. History is the teacher of life, and I want to wish all of us to learn from this history how to learn to build the kingdom of God on earth, to build unity in our Ukrainian land.” During the jubilee year, which the faithful of the Roman Catholic Church in Ukraine will complete on December 30, special attention will be given to the Divine Eucharist, since May 26, 2012, in Kyiv will began the first Ukrainian National Eucharistic Congress. The congress will end on June 3, 2012, in Lviv.  

Fr. Pavlo Drozdiak
Press secretary of the Lviv Archeparchy