Head of Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church says almost no priests remain in occupied territories

The head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGKK) says there is currently almost no Catholic priest in Ukraine’s occupied territories. In an interview, Major Archbishop Svyatoslav Shevchuk said that “virtually no Catholic priest” remains there, whether Greek Catholic or Roman Catholic. The UGKK reported the interview on its website at the beginning of July.

Shevchuk said the church had been “liquidated” in the occupied territories “by so-called state decrees,” citing the occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region as an example. He said the church’s social service institutions, including Caritas Ukraine and the Catholic men’s group the Knights of Columbus, are forbidden in those areas. He added that the UGKK had not ceased to exist there, since believers remained, but that the faithful had been “deprived of spiritual care.” He also said that clergy were being suppressed in territories that Russia is taking over, and that “Stalinist times” were returning.

Shevchuk described damage to church buildings in several cities. He said the UGKK’s churches in Mariupol, Maryinka, Volnovakha, Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk were completely destroyed, and that its churches in Melitopol and Berdiansk were closed. He said the church had recently learned that its cathedral in Donetsk had been confiscated. According to his account, the priests had been expelled, but believers continued to gather and pray there until the church was closed to them. He said that when people returned, they found the locks had been changed, meaning they had been shut out of their church.

Shevchuk said a similar situation had occurred in Luhansk. He also reported news he had recently received about the village of Oleksandrivka in the Skadovsk district, where, he said, a Russian church took over the UGKK church. He alleged that before Easter the Russian church carried out a “Weiheritus,” a consecration rite, in the building. These are Shevchuk’s statements, and the source does not include independent confirmation of them.

The UGKK has more than four million members worldwide, most of them in Ukraine. The church also has numerous congregations in other countries, including Germany, Austria and the United States. Shevchuk’s account of believers deprived of spiritual care and of parishes lost or closed reflects a call to protect the vulnerable (Psalm 82:3). The latest account in the source concerns the Oleksandrivka church, which Shevchuk said had been taken over and used for a rite before Easter.

Source: Read the original report (translated from German)