The meeting was held on March 20, 2013, in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace. Greeting the representatives of other Christian churches that participated in the inaugural Mass, the pope said that he will further pray for unity among believers.
The new pope, Jorge Mario Bergoglio will be called Francis, the 266th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church. He is also the first non-European pope in more than 1,200 years and the first member of the Jesuit order to lead the church.
The Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), Patriarch Sviatoslav (Shevchuk) is praying for the victims of the Genocidal Holodomor together with the Catholic bishops of the Eastern Rite in Zagreb where they are having an annual meeting.
During a meeting with graduate students in the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) master’s program in journalism, Archbishop Lubomyr (Husar) discussed the threat of secularism, the consumerist mindset of Ukrainians, and problems with the church’s involvement in politics in the context of globalization of modern Ukraine.
In presenting this gift, His Beatitude Sviatoslav noted that this lamp symbolizes the Church which is “the light of nations” as is mentioned in the Constitution «Lumen gentium», ratified by the Second Vatican Council fifty years ago. The UGCC Head added that the restored Cathedral of St. Sophia in Rome signifies for UGCC, a new evangelization in the commencement by the Pope of the “Year of Faith” in the Catholic Church.
In response to the initiative of Pope Benedict XVI, the Synod of Bishops of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church held in Winnipeg proclaimed 2013 the Year of the Faith in the UGCC and set up an organizing committee to plan spiritual events in the context of the 1025th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus-Ukraine, the Communicate of the Synod says.
On August 19, 2012, in the town of Kolomyia of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, the main shrine of the Kolomyia-Chernivtsi Eparchy of Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), the Cathedral of Transfiguration of Christ was consecrated.
According to Cardinal Lubomyr (Husar), politics should be put aside from religion. “Talking about the one Church of the Kyivan tradition which unfortunately split in 4 in the course of history, we should restore it not on the basis of politics but on the basis of religion, our attitude to God,” said the hierarch on the TV show Shuster Live.