As part of the plenary session of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, held in these days in the Vatican, Patriarch Sviatoslav delivered a presentation on the ecumenical mission of the Eastern Catholic Churches. “The experience of the last two centuries clearly shows that in restoring the unity or communion of the Churches, Christians have fallen into two categories: those who seek unity and those who oppose it,” the Head of the UGCC stressed, summarizing up his appeal to the participants of the plenary session.

“If there is a desire, there will always be the necessary means for its realization. Instead, if there is no such desire, a number of reasons will be put forward – of historical, pastoral, canonical nature – to avoid this unity, "the Head of the UGCC noted. In the opinion of His Beatitude Sviatoslav, true ecumenism demands humility, but at the same time the courage to forgive and ask forgiveness: “The arguments of the historical past should be involved only in order to avoid the sins of the past in our future.”

In his report, he also presented the ecumenical activities of the UGCC and proposed some particular steps towards ecumenical dialogue, the Department of Information of the UGCC reported. (Quelle: www.risu.org.ua, 11. Oktober 2017)