This afternoon, at 3:45pm local time (9:45am EST), the Holy Father, Pope Francis paid a visit to the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Community located at the Minor Basilica of Saint Sofia in Rome.
Upon his arrival, before entering the Basilica, the Pope briefly greeted the faithful who were waiting outside.
Following a few introductory remarks offered by His Beatitude, Svjatoslav Shevchuk, Major Archbishop of Kyiv-Halyč, the Pope shared his speech.
At the conclusion of the meeting, after the Blessing, the Holy Father went to the Crypt of Saint Sofia, accompanied by His Beatitude. There, His Holiness paused in prayer in front of the tomb of Stepan Chmil, Bishop of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church.
Before returning to the Vatican, the Pope wished once again to greet and to thank the faithful who were gathered outside the Basilica.
Your Beatitude, dear Brother Svjatoslav,
Dear Bishops, priests, brothers and sisters,
I cordially greet you, and I am happy to be with you. I thank you for your welcome and for the faith that you have always had, faith in God and in the successor of Peter, for which you have often paid a hefty price.
Entering into the sacred place I had the joy of looking upon your faces, of hearing your songs. If we are here, gathered in fraternal communion, we should give thanks also for the many faces that we no longer see, but which have been a reflection of God's loving gaze upon us. In particular, I think of three figures: the first is that of Cardinal Slipyj, whose 125th anniversary of birth was celebrated just this past year. He desired and built this luminous Basilica so that it would shine as a prophetic sign of freedom during the years when access to many places of worship were impeded. However with the sufferings endured and offered to the Lord, he helped to build another temple, even larger and more beautiful, the edifice of living stones that you are today (cf 1 Peter 2:5).
A second figure is that of Bishop Chmil, who died forty years ago and who is buried here: a person who has done me a lot of good. Engraved within me is the memory of a time when I was a young man - I was twelve years old - and I was attending his Mass; he taught me to serve the Mass, and how to read your alphabet, to respond to various parts ...; as I served at that Mass, I learned from him - I served his Mass three times a week - the beauty of your liturgy; from his stories, the living testimony of how much your faith has been tested and forged in the midst of the terrible persecutions by atheists during the last century. I am very grateful to him and to your numerous heroes of the faith: those who, like Jesus, sowed seeds along the way of the cross and brought forth a fruitful harvest. The true Christian victory is always in the sign of the cross, our banner of hope.
And the third person that I want to remember is Cardinal Husar. We were created Cardinals the same day. He was not only father and head of your Church, but leader and elder brother to many; You, dear Beatitude, carry him in your heart, and many will always preserve the memory of his affection, his gentleness, his vigilant and prayerful presence right up until the end. He was blind, but he looked beyond.
These witnesses from the past were open to the future of God and for this reason, they give hope to the present. Several among you may have had the grace to know them. When you cross the threshold of this temple, remember, keep alive the memory of your fathers and mothers in faith, for they are the foundations that support us: those who taught us the gospel in this life still guide us and accompany us on the journey. The Metropolitan Archbishop spoke about mothers, Ukrainian grandmothers, who pass on the faith, who have passed on the faith, with courage; who baptized their children, their nephews and nieces with courage. And even today, it is great to see the good - and I say this because I know it to be true - the good that these women do here in Rome, in Italy, taking care of children, or in their careers: they pass on the faith within their families, sometimes they/you are tepid in your faith ... but you have courageous faith. I remember the reading from last Friday, when Paul said to Timothy: Your mother and your grandmother. Behind everyone of you there is a mother, a grandmother who has passed on the faith. The Ukrainian women are heroic, truly. Let us thank the Lord for them!
Along the journey of your Roman community, the stable point of reference is this rectory. Together with the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic community throughout the world, you have explained your pastoral plan very well in just one sentence: The living parish is the place where we encounter the living Christ. I want to focus on two words. The first is encounter. The Church is a place of encounter, a place where loneliness can be healed, where the temptation to isolate ourselves and to close ourselves off can be overcome, where we can find the strength to overcome the temptation to withdraw within ourselves. Thus the community is a place where we can share our joys and trials, where we can carry the burdens in one another's hearts, where we can help one another to face the dissatisfactions of life and the nostalgia of homesickness. Here, God is waiting for you to make your hope even more secure, for when you meet the Lord, everything intersects with his hope. My wish is that you will always be able to find bread here for your every-day journey, consolation for your hearts, healing for your wounds.
The second word is living. Jesus is the living one, the risen ad living one and so we encounter him in the Church, in the Liturgy, in the Word. Therefore, every one of his communities cannot help but smell of life. A parish is not a museum filled with memories from the past or merely a symbol of some presence on the territory, rather it is the heart of the mission of the Church, where we receive and share new life, the life that triumphs over sin, death, sadness, every sadness, and keeps us young at heart. If faith is born of an encounter and speaks to life, the treasure that you have received from your fathers will be well cared for. You will know how to offer the priceless treasures of your traditions even to younger generations, who welcome the faith especially when they perceive the Church as being close to them and filled with life. Young people need to see this: that the Church is not a museum, that the Church is not a tomb, that God is not something over there ... no, that the Church is alive, that the Church gives life and that God and Jesus Christ are in the midst of the Church, that it is the living presence of Christ.
I also want to offer a thought of thanks to the many women - I spoke a bit already about this, so I'm repeating myself - who in your community are apostles of charity and faith. You are precious and you carry the proclamation of God to many Italian families in the best of ways, when in your service you care for people through a considerate and unobtrusive presence. This is very important: you do not invade ... you provide a witness ... And then people say: This woman is good ... and faith comes, faith is passed on. I invite you to consider your work, which is tiring and at times a bit unsatisfactory, not only as a job but as a mission: you are the point of reference for many of the elderly, you are the sisters who help them to know that they are not alone. Bring the comfort and tenderness of God to those in life who are open to and ready for an encounter with Him. This is a great ministry of proximity, closeness, one which is pleasing to God and one for which I wish to thank you. And you, who carry out this ministry of being close to the elderly, see to it that they are capable of going beyond, perhaps some of them are forgotten, because there is always someone else, and another one to care for ... Yes, remember their names ... but they will be the ones who will open the doors, up there, for you, that's their job.
I understand that, while you are here, your heart beats for your country, it beats not only with affection, but also with concern, especially for the scourge of war and economic difficulties. I am here to tell you that I am close to you: close with my heart, close with my prayer, close to you when I celebrate the Eucharist. There, I am begging the Prince of Peace to silence the weapons. I am also asking that there will no longer be any need for you to make huge sacrifices in order to keep your loved ones. I am praying that in the hearts of each one of you, hope may never be lost, but that you will be renewed with courage to continue, to always start again. I thank you, in the name of the entire Church, while to all of you and to the people you hold in your hearts, I impart my Blessing. And I ask you please, don't forget to pray for me.
And I also want to tell you something else, to tell you a secret. At night, before I go to bed, and in the morning, when I wake up, I always have a meeting with the Ukrainians. Why? Because when your Major Archbishop came to Argentina, when I saw him, I thought that he was the altar boy at the Ukrainian Church, but he was the Archbishop! He did good work in Argentina. We would meet together, quite often. Then, one day he went to the Synod and he returned as the Major Archbishop: he came to say good-bye. The day on which he left, he presented me with a beautiful icon - this size, half (he folded the sheets in his hands in half in order to show them the dimensions) - of the Madonna of tenderness. And in Buenos Aires, I placed it in my bedroom, and every night, I would greet her, and in the morning too, it is a habit. Then it was my turn to make the trip to Rome and not to be able to return - he could return, but I couldn't - And I had the three volumes of the breviary sent to me along with some other essential things, one of which was the Madonna of tenderness. And every night, before I go to bed, I kiss the Madonna of tenderness that your Major Archbishop presented to me as a gift, and also in the morning, I say hello. So I can say that I begin and finish my day in Ukrainian.
Now, I invite you to pray to Our Lady and I will give you my blessing, which I want to ask your Archbishop to join me in doing.
Hail Mary ...
(Blessing)
(Original text in Italian)
Unscripted remarks offered by His Holiness, Pope Francis
Greetings upon his arrival
in front of the Minor Basilica of Saint Sophia
Ісус Христо чув
(Praise be to Jesus Christ)
Thank you very much for your invitation, for your presence, for your welcome, for your joy. I have come to pray with you and to visit with you. I invite you, before we enter, to pray for peace in Ukraine.
Hail Mary ...
See you later.
Final greetings to the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Community
gathered outside the Basilica of Saint Sophia
Dear brothers and sisters,
I thank you very much for your warm welcome. My heart is filled with the joy of this encounter. Thank you for your perseverance in the faith. Be steadfast in the faith! Care for the faith that you received from your ancestors and pass it on to your children. It is the most beautiful gift that a people can give to their children: the faith, the faith that you have received.
May the Lord bless you. And pray for me (they all say: Yes!). For me or against me? ... (they respond: For you!) Keep praying for me. I will continue to pray for you, and to begin and end each day in Ukrainian in front of the Madonna that was gifted to me by Archbishop Shevchuk in Buenos Aires.
I give you my blessing. Let us pray together and ask Our Lady to bless us.
Hail Mary ...
(Blessing)
Take courage ... keep up the good work!
Upon his arrival, before entering the Basilica, the Pope briefly greeted the faithful who were waiting outside.
Following a few introductory remarks offered by His Beatitude, Svjatoslav Shevchuk, Major Archbishop of Kyiv-Halyč, the Pope shared his speech.
At the conclusion of the meeting, after the Blessing, the Holy Father went to the Crypt of Saint Sofia, accompanied by His Beatitude. There, His Holiness paused in prayer in front of the tomb of Stepan Chmil, Bishop of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church.
Before returning to the Vatican, the Pope wished once again to greet and to thank the faithful who were gathered outside the Basilica.
Greetings of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
offered during the visit to the
Minor Basilica of Saint Sofia in Rome
Your Beatitude, dear Brother Svjatoslav,
Dear Bishops, priests, brothers and sisters,
I cordially greet you, and I am happy to be with you. I thank you for your welcome and for the faith that you have always had, faith in God and in the successor of Peter, for which you have often paid a hefty price.
Entering into the sacred place I had the joy of looking upon your faces, of hearing your songs. If we are here, gathered in fraternal communion, we should give thanks also for the many faces that we no longer see, but which have been a reflection of God's loving gaze upon us. In particular, I think of three figures: the first is that of Cardinal Slipyj, whose 125th anniversary of birth was celebrated just this past year. He desired and built this luminous Basilica so that it would shine as a prophetic sign of freedom during the years when access to many places of worship were impeded. However with the sufferings endured and offered to the Lord, he helped to build another temple, even larger and more beautiful, the edifice of living stones that you are today (cf 1 Peter 2:5).
A second figure is that of Bishop Chmil, who died forty years ago and who is buried here: a person who has done me a lot of good. Engraved within me is the memory of a time when I was a young man - I was twelve years old - and I was attending his Mass; he taught me to serve the Mass, and how to read your alphabet, to respond to various parts ...; as I served at that Mass, I learned from him - I served his Mass three times a week - the beauty of your liturgy; from his stories, the living testimony of how much your faith has been tested and forged in the midst of the terrible persecutions by atheists during the last century. I am very grateful to him and to your numerous heroes of the faith: those who, like Jesus, sowed seeds along the way of the cross and brought forth a fruitful harvest. The true Christian victory is always in the sign of the cross, our banner of hope.
And the third person that I want to remember is Cardinal Husar. We were created Cardinals the same day. He was not only father and head of your Church, but leader and elder brother to many; You, dear Beatitude, carry him in your heart, and many will always preserve the memory of his affection, his gentleness, his vigilant and prayerful presence right up until the end. He was blind, but he looked beyond.
These witnesses from the past were open to the future of God and for this reason, they give hope to the present. Several among you may have had the grace to know them. When you cross the threshold of this temple, remember, keep alive the memory of your fathers and mothers in faith, for they are the foundations that support us: those who taught us the gospel in this life still guide us and accompany us on the journey. The Metropolitan Archbishop spoke about mothers, Ukrainian grandmothers, who pass on the faith, who have passed on the faith, with courage; who baptized their children, their nephews and nieces with courage. And even today, it is great to see the good - and I say this because I know it to be true - the good that these women do here in Rome, in Italy, taking care of children, or in their careers: they pass on the faith within their families, sometimes they/you are tepid in your faith ... but you have courageous faith. I remember the reading from last Friday, when Paul said to Timothy: Your mother and your grandmother. Behind everyone of you there is a mother, a grandmother who has passed on the faith. The Ukrainian women are heroic, truly. Let us thank the Lord for them!
Along the journey of your Roman community, the stable point of reference is this rectory. Together with the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic community throughout the world, you have explained your pastoral plan very well in just one sentence: The living parish is the place where we encounter the living Christ. I want to focus on two words. The first is encounter. The Church is a place of encounter, a place where loneliness can be healed, where the temptation to isolate ourselves and to close ourselves off can be overcome, where we can find the strength to overcome the temptation to withdraw within ourselves. Thus the community is a place where we can share our joys and trials, where we can carry the burdens in one another's hearts, where we can help one another to face the dissatisfactions of life and the nostalgia of homesickness. Here, God is waiting for you to make your hope even more secure, for when you meet the Lord, everything intersects with his hope. My wish is that you will always be able to find bread here for your every-day journey, consolation for your hearts, healing for your wounds.
The second word is living. Jesus is the living one, the risen ad living one and so we encounter him in the Church, in the Liturgy, in the Word. Therefore, every one of his communities cannot help but smell of life. A parish is not a museum filled with memories from the past or merely a symbol of some presence on the territory, rather it is the heart of the mission of the Church, where we receive and share new life, the life that triumphs over sin, death, sadness, every sadness, and keeps us young at heart. If faith is born of an encounter and speaks to life, the treasure that you have received from your fathers will be well cared for. You will know how to offer the priceless treasures of your traditions even to younger generations, who welcome the faith especially when they perceive the Church as being close to them and filled with life. Young people need to see this: that the Church is not a museum, that the Church is not a tomb, that God is not something over there ... no, that the Church is alive, that the Church gives life and that God and Jesus Christ are in the midst of the Church, that it is the living presence of Christ.
I also want to offer a thought of thanks to the many women - I spoke a bit already about this, so I'm repeating myself - who in your community are apostles of charity and faith. You are precious and you carry the proclamation of God to many Italian families in the best of ways, when in your service you care for people through a considerate and unobtrusive presence. This is very important: you do not invade ... you provide a witness ... And then people say: This woman is good ... and faith comes, faith is passed on. I invite you to consider your work, which is tiring and at times a bit unsatisfactory, not only as a job but as a mission: you are the point of reference for many of the elderly, you are the sisters who help them to know that they are not alone. Bring the comfort and tenderness of God to those in life who are open to and ready for an encounter with Him. This is a great ministry of proximity, closeness, one which is pleasing to God and one for which I wish to thank you. And you, who carry out this ministry of being close to the elderly, see to it that they are capable of going beyond, perhaps some of them are forgotten, because there is always someone else, and another one to care for ... Yes, remember their names ... but they will be the ones who will open the doors, up there, for you, that's their job.
I understand that, while you are here, your heart beats for your country, it beats not only with affection, but also with concern, especially for the scourge of war and economic difficulties. I am here to tell you that I am close to you: close with my heart, close with my prayer, close to you when I celebrate the Eucharist. There, I am begging the Prince of Peace to silence the weapons. I am also asking that there will no longer be any need for you to make huge sacrifices in order to keep your loved ones. I am praying that in the hearts of each one of you, hope may never be lost, but that you will be renewed with courage to continue, to always start again. I thank you, in the name of the entire Church, while to all of you and to the people you hold in your hearts, I impart my Blessing. And I ask you please, don't forget to pray for me.
And I also want to tell you something else, to tell you a secret. At night, before I go to bed, and in the morning, when I wake up, I always have a meeting with the Ukrainians. Why? Because when your Major Archbishop came to Argentina, when I saw him, I thought that he was the altar boy at the Ukrainian Church, but he was the Archbishop! He did good work in Argentina. We would meet together, quite often. Then, one day he went to the Synod and he returned as the Major Archbishop: he came to say good-bye. The day on which he left, he presented me with a beautiful icon - this size, half (he folded the sheets in his hands in half in order to show them the dimensions) - of the Madonna of tenderness. And in Buenos Aires, I placed it in my bedroom, and every night, I would greet her, and in the morning too, it is a habit. Then it was my turn to make the trip to Rome and not to be able to return - he could return, but I couldn't - And I had the three volumes of the breviary sent to me along with some other essential things, one of which was the Madonna of tenderness. And every night, before I go to bed, I kiss the Madonna of tenderness that your Major Archbishop presented to me as a gift, and also in the morning, I say hello. So I can say that I begin and finish my day in Ukrainian.
Now, I invite you to pray to Our Lady and I will give you my blessing, which I want to ask your Archbishop to join me in doing.
Hail Mary ...
(Blessing)
(Original text in Italian)
Unscripted remarks offered by His Holiness, Pope Francis
Greetings upon his arrival
in front of the Minor Basilica of Saint Sophia
Ісус Христо чув
(Praise be to Jesus Christ)
Thank you very much for your invitation, for your presence, for your welcome, for your joy. I have come to pray with you and to visit with you. I invite you, before we enter, to pray for peace in Ukraine.
Hail Mary ...
See you later.
Final greetings to the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Community
gathered outside the Basilica of Saint Sophia
Dear brothers and sisters,
I thank you very much for your warm welcome. My heart is filled with the joy of this encounter. Thank you for your perseverance in the faith. Be steadfast in the faith! Care for the faith that you received from your ancestors and pass it on to your children. It is the most beautiful gift that a people can give to their children: the faith, the faith that you have received.
May the Lord bless you. And pray for me (they all say: Yes!). For me or against me? ... (they respond: For you!) Keep praying for me. I will continue to pray for you, and to begin and end each day in Ukrainian in front of the Madonna that was gifted to me by Archbishop Shevchuk in Buenos Aires.
I give you my blessing. Let us pray together and ask Our Lady to bless us.
Hail Mary ...
(Blessing)
Take courage ... keep up the good work!
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