Reconciliation held in Warsaw today will resonate with Ukrainians and Poles: The Head of the UGCC
July 7, on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Volhynia tragedy, the Father and Head of the UGCC, His Beatitude Sviatoslav, and the Head of the Polish Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Stanislaw Gądecki, signed a Statement of Forgiveness and Reconciliation between the Ukrainian and Polish peoples. During the briefing, the Head of the UGCC said that we, Ukrainians and Poles, cannot tolerate the constant aggravation of our historical wounds and the increasing depth of our pain.
“This way of reconciliation, which we have adopted, is not an imposition, but an invitation,” said His Beatitude Sviatoslav, “We invite our peoples to the act of reconciliation and ask them to say: ‘Amen, let it be so.’ At the request for repentance of the heart, we must say together: ‘Lord, have mercy on us.’”
The Head of the Church noted that heroism and human cruelty can be seen in the most difficult times of war. Therefore, from a spiritual point of view, it is vital to be able to overcome hatred and pain: “If someone comes to my house and kills my loved ones, I have a feeling of hatred, which is a cry: ‘I disagree with this, I can’t accept this, I reject the way I am treated.’ From the point of view of Christian spirituality, this feeling is not good and destructive. It needs to be transformed through prayer, with the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit, into the virtue of resilience and endurance.”
His Beatitude Sviatoslav emphasized that there is no true reconciliation without knowledge of the truth, so it is necessary to study the past and history of the nation, as well as to seek the truth. For Christians, the knowledge of truth is a process of healing, cleansing, and conversion.
“My predecessors have already said that even when one Ukrainian has committed a crime against a Pole, we must repent before God. And the same is true on the Polish side: when only one Pole has offended a Ukrainian, he must also feel that he has to stand before the Lord and ask for forgiveness. It is normal. This is our way of life, the Christian life. We are not angels, but human beings, flesh, and blood, and this must be accepted,” said the Head of the UGCC during a briefing in Warsaw.
The Primate warned against the constant aggravation of common historical wounds and the intensified pain of Ukrainians and Poles. “Wise citizens understand that where tension arises, friendship should be fostered. If we realize this, both on the Ukrainian and Polish sides, we will not allow our historical pains to be instrumentalized. It is necessary to build social relations on the principles that make us all better and to build a state with a solid foundation,” he said.
The commemoration of the anniversary of the Volhynia tragedy will continue in Ukraine on July 8–9. “In a symbolic way, we will travel from Warsaw to Lutsk together with Archbishop Gądecki. In doing so, we will connect Poland and Ukraine. We will create a bridge between Warsaw and Lutsk, Mazowieck and Volyn, where the commemoration will eventually take place on the Ukrainian side,” concluded His Beatitude Sviatoslav.
The UGCC Department for Information
