UGCC Head in Vatican led the Divine Liturgy on St. Josaphat’s gravesite

On Monday, November 12, 2012, when the New Calendar commemorates the memory of         St. Josaphat, Archbishop of Polotsk and a martyr for Christian unity, the Ukrainian community gathered for a Eucharistic prayer by his relics that rest in the world’s main Catholic Basilica.    The Pontifical Liturgy was led by His Beatitude Sviatoslav.  Co-celebrants were: Father Superior of the Basilian Order of St. Josaphat, Rev. Geneziy Viomar; Coordinator of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic clergy in Italy, Rev. Marko Yaroslav Semehen; rectors of the Papal Ukrainian Colleges and more than fifty priests who serve or study in Italy as well as representatives of various orders of other Catholic Churches.  The joint prayer led by the seminary choir of the Papal Colleges in Rome was joined by seminarians, religious people and numerous laity.

In turning to those gathered, UGCC Head noted that St. Josaphat was on the one side a real saint, “which means to be totally filled in his heart and soul with God’s life and His holiness,” and on the other side, being a martyr for the unity of Christ’s Church, “he was one with this Church.”

“If today we want to ask ourselves about the identity of our Church, or in general, the Eastern Catholic Churches,” continued His Beatitude Sviatoslav, “and about that mission which we have today in the Christian world, again St. Josaphat can serve as an example and as a road that we should follow.”  This saint, primarily invites us to discover “that we are an Eastern Church which is called upon to discover its eastern traditions and to deeply live them,” because if we break the spiritual roots, we cease to be ourselves.  “But, on the other hand, this Church, which I am called to represent,”  explained the speaker,  “is a Catholic Church cum Petro e sub Petro [with Saint  Peter and subjugated to Him].  This is the identity to which today we should bear witness,” he stressed, adding that the Eastern Catholic Churches should show that they are the movers of the ecumenical dialogue and that it is their special calling.

The commemoration and veneration of the memory of this Saint Bishop Martyr, according to the words of UGCC Head, is a celebration of “a particular truth, which belongs to one of the significant truths of the Christian faith.  It means, he explained, “the truth about Christ’s Church, and especially, the Church’s teaching about the communion of the saints.”  The preacher explained that Christ’s Church, as the Body of Christ, encompasses not only the  “traveling Church” that through historical events is heading towards the heavenly fatherland,  but it also includes the brothers and sisters “who have gone into eternity but are also heading towards eternal bliss.”  “However, especially today, we relive the truth that together with you as an integral part of Christ’s Church, there is also the Church glorified, the one with the endless number of saints in heaven, that today is right now together with us in this holy cathedral, during this Divine Liturgy,” said  His Beatitude Sviatoslav, adding that the saints are not just a reminder of the past, about long past famous and tragic events, since “saints are the eternal  God’s ‘now’ in the Body of Christ’s Church.”

UGCC Head stated that his presence in the Vatican today is connected with the fact that recently Pope Benedict XVI named him a member of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, which exactly on this day, one of remembrance of St. Josaphat, begins its annual plenary session. He also mentioned that today in Ukraine, there begin the joint recollections of the bishops of  the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic and the Roman Catholic Churches in Ukraine. He noted that “among people there are chances, but Almighty God speaks to us through circumstances.”  “I think that right here, by the grave of St. Josaphat, I today accept from God that I have to bear witness during the deliberations of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity,” stated his Beatitude Sviatoslav emphasizing that St. Josaphat is exactly a martyr for this unity.

“I would like to wish all of you to be saints, to be as deeply united with god as was St. Josaphat, and to also be united with the Church, to feel that church body,” ended his sermon UGCC, acknowledging the participation in the Liturgy of religious and faithful from all countries of the world.   Furthermore, the Church is searching today for new ways of evangelization, whose basic movers, as was noted during the recent Synod of Bishops in the Vatican, are saints.

UGCC Department of Information

Based on materials from Radio Vatican