The Pope came as a pilgrim to bow to the martyr-Church, the Head of the UGCC about the visit of John Paul II to Ukraine

Tuesday, 22 June 2021, 22:13

June 23, 2001 exactly twenty years ago, His Holiness John Paul II arrived to Kyiv, Ukrainian land, soaked with blood of millions of victims of World War II and martyrs for the faith in Christ. The first church where Pope was praying became the church of St. Nicholas on Askold’s Grave.

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The Father and Head of the UGCC assumes that this visit was important not just for our Church, but for the Pope personally too. “He came to Ukraine as a pilgrim to bow to the martyr-Church which triumphantly resurrected from the dead”, says he in an interview on the occasion of 20th Anniversary of Pope's Visit to Ukraine.

John Paul II had an intention to expose our Church to the world, beatify holy martyrs of our Church, the ones who paid for the faithfulness to Kyiv Church with their blood, which now the UGCC holds in its identity, states His Beatitude Sviatoslav.

As for him, such visits in the first decade of restoring the structures of the UGCC belonged to Pope’s act of kindness expressed to Ukraine and Ukrainians, as well as to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church for its faithful testimony, sealed with blood of martyrs.

The UGCC Department for Information