UGCC Head meets with EU deputies in Brussels

The manager of the delegation of European Parliament on contacts with Ukraine, Pavel Koval, together with EU deputee Maria Zaborska and other Parliament members discussed the current

During the meeting, His Beatitude Sviatoslav underlined the openness of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church “to be an active voice and the tool of Ukrainian civil society in the European integration aspirations of Ukrainian citizens.”  UGCC Head stated that “for the first time since the years of independence there are marked signs of a crisis in the relationship between the state and the Church, as well as a decline in the dialogue between the state and civil society, which cannot be of non-concerning to the Church.”

Additionally, His Beatitude Sviatoslav urged the EU deputies to continue remaining not indifferent to the European union and to the continuation of an effective process of readying a full agreement about an Association which would become “a new symbol of hope for Ukrainians as to their natural aspiration towards feeling fully valued residents of a common home and the building of a united European family.”

At the end of the meeting, the UGCC Primate stated the initiative of a visit to the European Parliament of a delegation of the All-Ukrainian Council on Churches and Religious Organizations and called for future collaboration in “joint mutually beneficial and constructive  relationships.”

Reported by Rev. Andriy Maksymovych, Secretary for Apostolic Nunciature in Belgium and Luxemburg