The Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Week 237 of the War: The Moment Students Sit Down at Their Desks Signifies Ukraine’s Victory and Its Future
Destroying schools, kindergartens, and educational institutions, Russia aims to steal our future. This was stated by His Beatitude Sviatoslav, Father and Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, in his traditional video address marking the 237th week of the terrible war that the Russian Federation is waging against Ukraine.
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The Primate noted that this week will likely go down in history as a time when sorrow and joy intermingled in Ukraine—we celebrated the 35th anniversary of Ukraine’s restoration of independence, but at the same time, the Russians continued to systematically kill people in Ukraine…
The Head of the Church thanked Pope Leo XIV and the Holy See for their extraordinary diplomatic efforts this week: “On August 25–27, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the head of papal diplomacy and Secretary for Relations with States, paid a visit to Moscow. This visit can be compared to a descent into Hades, when a sermon on the resurrection of the dead is heard from the depths of Hades.”
The archbishop stated clearly and unequivocally that Russia’s war against Ukraine has no military solution. He condemned this war and conveyed the Pope’s strong call to finally sit down at the negotiating table.
This Sunday, special prayer blessings were held in all parishes of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church for schoolchildren, university students, and teachers as they begin the new academic year.
“The opportunity to study, to attend school in the midst of war,” says His Beatitude Sviatoslav, “is a privilege, but at the same time a mission. We see that the most heartbreaking aspect of this war is the children who have been killed or wounded. According to UN data, since February 2022, at least 3,946 children have been killed or wounded in Ukraine. These are children whose childhood has been stolen by the war.”
However, Russia is also systematically destroying the very sphere of education and upbringing.
On September 1, 3.5 million schoolchildren and students will return to their desks in Ukraine: “Indeed, the moment when teachers enter a lecture hall or classroom and students take their seats at their desks signifies that Ukraine’s victory and its future are being forged.”
Read also:
Address by the Head of the UGCC for the 237th Week of the Full-Scale War, August 31, 2026
The Head of the Church congratulated educators, schoolchildren, university students, and their parents on the start of the new academic year: “Your Mother Church, as the mother and teacher of its people, accompanies you on this journey towards knowledge. A quality education is always linked to enlightenment, for all knowledge of the truth—scientific truth about the created world—is inseparably connected with the knowledge of that Truth, who is our Lord Jesus Christ, the Teacher with a capital ‘T.’”
The UGCC Department for Information
