ΣΥΝΑΝΤΗΣΗ ΧΘΕΣ ΤΟΥ ΟΙΚΟΥΜΕΝΙΚΟΥ ΠΑΤΡΙΑΡΧΟΥ ΜΕ ΤΟΝ ΠΡΟΚΑΘΗΜΕΝΟ ΤΩΝ ΕΛΛΗΝΟΡΡΥΘΜΩΝ ΚΑΘΟΛΙΚΩΝ ΤΗΣ ΟΥΚΡΑΝΙΑΣ (UGCC) ΑΡΧΙΕΠΙΣΚΟΠΟ ΣΒΙΑΤΙΣΛΑΒ
Το ρεπορτάζ σε αγγλική μετάφραση έχει ως εξής:
His Beatitude Sviatoslav met with His All-Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew
Monday, September 16, 2019, 9:03 pm
On September 16, at 12:30, in the Holy See, His Beatitude and Head of the UGCC, met with the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in the Vatican. The meeting was held at the home of Santa Marta, where the Holy Father Pope Francis lives.
On his official visit to the Vatican, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew met with His Beatitude Sviatoslav the next day to discuss the situation in Ukraine and the ecumenical relations between the UGCC and the OCU. The meeting began with an exchange of gifts: the Head of the UGCC presented to the His All-Holiness Patriarch a facsimile edition of the Halych Gospel of 1144, the most ancient Slavic handwritten Gospel. And Patriarch Bartholomew presented to His Beatitude Svyatoslav the edition of the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the historical mark issued in honor of the visit of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI to Constantinople in 2006.
During his conversation with His All-Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew, His Beatitude Sviatoslav expressed his hopes and wishes that “with the granting of autocephaly, the ecumenical dialogue with the Orthodox Church of Ukraine will be raised to a qualitatively higher level. It is from this historic moment that the proclamation of autocephaly to the OCU as the main interlocutor in the ecumenical dialogue for the UGCC is no longer the Russian Orthodox Church, but the local Orthodox Church in Ukraine. ”
His Beatitude Svyatoslav, summing up the Meeting of Eastern Catholic Hierarchs of Europe, held September 12-14 in Rome, emphasized: "The Eastern Catholic Churches make their theological contribution to the tradition of the Catholic Church itself, helping it to express itself more fully. The Catholicity of the Church cannot be limited only by its Latin tradition."
Concerning the ecumenical dialogue with the Orthodox Church, "the Eastern Catholic Churches offer new elements in understanding the primacy of the Bishop of Rome and synodality." "At the same time, the Eastern Catholic Churches," said His Beatitude Svyatoslav during a conversation with Patriarch Bartholomew, "are proposing to the Roman Catholic Church new forms of St. Peter's ministry."
The head of the UGCC also suggested that Patriarch Bartholomew set up a mixed commission of the Orthodox Church and the Eastern Catholic Churches to "give a new impetus to the ecumenical dialogue".
The Patriarch of Constantinople explained to His Holiness Svyatoslav his steps towards giving autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and praised the openness of the UGCC in ecumenical communication. The head of the UGCC recalled that this was their second meeting and expressed his joy over the fact that the children of the Kyiv Church remember that their Mother Church is the Church of ancient Constantinople.
We would like to add that the meeting took place on the initiative of the Head of the UGCC in the framework of the official visit of His All-Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew to the Vatican, organized by the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the Unity of Christians