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Cardinal Husar Summarizes Recent Greek Catholic Synod

16.09.2004, [00:58] // UGCC //

The 24th session of the Synod of Bishops of the Kyiv-Halych Metropolitanate of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) was held on 2 and 3 September 2004 at the Marian Retreat Center in the western Ukrainian village of Zarvanytsia (Ternopil region). Parish life and priestly formation were two focuses of the meeting, and these issues will also be discussed at the UGCC Synod to be held in Kyiv on 5-12 October. Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, head of the UGCC, stated this at a press conference held on 6 September.

“We want to describe the figure of the kind of priest that we need and want to see in our Greek Catholic Church,” said the cardinal. “And not only on Ukrainian territory but everywhere our people live.” A priest should be “a person of culture and learning,” said the cardinal… Most importantly, that this be a person already spiritually developed, and this does not come easily or quickly. This requires much work.”

“We want to emphasize that the people of the church should feel themselves to be more of a community,” said Cardinal Husar. The church wants the families that belong to a parish to develop a many-sided Christian life, with common prayer, common knowledge of the faith, mutual assistance, and so on, said the cardinal.

The cardinal also spoke of other matters discussed at the synod. In particular, he mentioned a letter that he received from Cardinal Josef Glemp, primate of the Roman Catholic Church in Poland, as a summary of seven joint pilgrimages to Ukraine and Poland that have occurred. “We need to live together in a more neighborly and humane way,” Cardinal Husar said.

Responding to questions from journalists, the cardinal did not praise incidents in which signatures in support of candidates for president of Ukraine were being collected near churches. “It is not good for the church to interfere in essentially political matters,” he said, saying this might bring division to the church.

• http://www.ugcc.org.ua/ukr/press-releases/article;946/