The Student Council of the Ukrainian Catholic University (the highest body of student self-government) has made the decision to address the Pope of Rome with an OPEN LETTER and to invite him to visit Ukraine.
The signed common Declaration of Pope Francis and Patriarch Cyril of the Russian Orthodox Church has generated a chain of negative comments, emotions, and reviews. As related by Mykhailo Shelemba, the Head of UCU Student Council, «There came the idea that it would be good to break this chain and prompt each other and, as far as possible, the Holy Father with the Vatican towards thinking about Ukraine in another way. The idea is simple: the best way to get convinced that the picture presented by Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church, particularly regarding the events in Ukraine, is distorted and erroneous is to become a participant of these events and visit Ukraine and meet Ukrainian youth.»
Читай українською: Студенти УКУ звернулися до Папи Римського
According to the address, «….We are not professional theologians that can give a specialized evaluation of the Declaration signed by You jointly with the Patriarch of Moscow in Havana. We have felt, however, that You should get better acquainted with Ukraine. Thus, we have developed a simple solution: to invite You to visit our country. The best «Wikipedia» is the human heart, and we are disposed to open them for You. Our generation, having dreamed of a happy life in peace and welfare, all of a sudden found itself amidst a war initiated by the Russian Federation. Military analysts can call this war a hybrid one – as if it doesn’t exist. But death cannot be hybrid: we daily lose our friends, we lose young lives…»
The address is posted online so that it could be signed by people from all over Ukraine, regardless of their residence or religious denomination; and, in this way, to induce people in the Vatican, who are committed to a certain vision of Ukraine, to consider the voice of young people.
Press service of the UCU
Photo: ipetitions.com
