On Friday, Eastern Catholic Bishops of Europe discussed topic of this year’s gathering

On Friday, November 4, bishops of Eastern Rite Catholic Churches of Europe gathered in Oradea, Romania, to consider the main topic of this year's gathering: “You shall be my witnesses: Evangelization in the Eastern Catholic Churches,” said Bishop Bohdan (Dziurakh), Secretary of the Synod of Bishops. The working day began with the Divine Liturgy, which was celebrated in the Greek Catholic Cathedral of Oradea, headed by Patriarch Sviatoslav. The Liturgy was celebrated in different languages​​, “showing the same unity in diversity of local traditions of the Eastern Catholic Churches of Europe." In his sermon, the primate of the UGCC stressed the “special relation of Christ to his disciples, whom the Lord in the Gospel calls friends. This means that God wants to share with his pupils his life and give them the greatest gift – the Holy Spirit. With the power of the Holy Spirit they can be His witnesses in the world, not even hesitate to give theuir lives to Christ. The same Holy Spirit will allow Christ's disciples to be free from fear and fill their hearts with true love.” Bishop Salvatore Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization, gave a report in which he cited the words of Benedict XVI from the Apostolic Letter Ubicumque et semper: “Making my own the concerns of my venerable Predecessors, I consider it opportune to offer appropriate responses so that the entire Church, allowing herself to be regenerated by the power of the Holy Spirit, may present herself to the contemporary world with a missionary impulse in order to promote the new evangelization. Above all, this pertains to Churches of ancient origin, which live in different situations and have different needs, and therefore require different types of motivation for evangelization.” Analyzing the pope’s words, the speaker drew attention to the need to give “appropriate responses” to new challenges, one of which is secularism, which provoked a deep crisis of identity in the modern person. This crisis manifests itself in a very low level of awareness of the fundamental truths of Christian faith, which leads to the inability to defend oneself as belonging to the Christian community. As a result, many Christians have distanced from the Church. Speaking of the “missionary impulse,” which must be regenerated in the Church under the influence of the Holy Spirit, Bishop Fisichella said that in the not so distant past, some people mistakenly believed that it was enough to give witness of life, and not have a clear preaching of the Gospel, and so today the Church must preach Christ with a new impulse. At the end, explaining the “different situations” that require “different types of motivation for evangelization,” the speaker presented the role that Eastern Catholic Church could play in the evangelization of the European continent. Particularly valuable in this context would be the Liturgy, diakonia and beauty, through which the Eastern Catholic Churches will give a clear witness to Christ in our times. Fr. Borys Gudziak, Ph.D., rector of UCU, gave a report “Eastern Catholic Churches: 20 Years after the Fall of Totalitarian Regimes and the New Evangelization.” As an example of new approaches to preaching Christ to the modern person, Fr. Gudziak presented the project of building a student center in Lviv, which is currently being carried out. In particular, the basis upon which the life of the center will be built is evidence of new martyrs of the twentieth century. For their part, residents of the community Arch, which will be housed in the center along with students, will be able ask existential questions about the meaning of life and the ability to open up to another person, to love him or her unconditionally. Thus they can become “professors of human relations.” During the lunch session, Fr. Marko Rupnik spoke on “Byzantine Sacred Art in the Context of the New Evangelization.” The renowned artist and theologian said that evangelism will succeed only if the evangelizers themselves are people reborn in the Holy Spirit. That is why he believes that evangelism is primarily directed toward members. In the evening, the participants visited several Greek Catholic parishes in the city of Oradea and its outskirts, and, at the invitation of the local bishop of the Roman Catholic Church, they prayed at a Vespers in the Latin cathedral in Oradea.  

UGCC Information Department