Vatican city/Kyiv - Pope Francis in a letter addressed to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Bishops as they hold their Synod on the theme of synodality in Poland and reiterated his closeness to the people of Ukraine at this difficult time.
Pope Francis urged the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Bishops to be shepherds of their flock and to be close to the faithful entrusted to their care, giving them courage and hope.
The Ukrainian Bishops are holding their annual Synod to discuss the theme of synodality in their Church. The meeting, running from 7-15 July, had to be moved from Kyiv to Przemysl, in Poland, due to the ongoing war in Ukraine.
In a letter addressed to the Major Archbishop of Kyiv-Halych, Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), the Pope first of all reiterated his prayers and closeness to the Ukrainian people enduring the war waged by Russia against their country. Recalling the recent Memorial Day of the Martyrs of Lviv, who were raised to the altars in 2001 by Pope St. John Paul II during his Apostolic Journey to Ukraine, Pope Francis remarked that the current conflict makes the circumstancees in which those priests, monks, nuns and laypeople lived and died under the Soveit regime, even clearer to us in this day.
St. Panteleimon church is seen during sunset, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues, in Kharkiv/REUTERS
“Today from the Heavens they protect their people who suffer," said the Pope entrusting all the Members of the Synod to these martyrs killed by the communist regime in the Soviet era.
Pope Francis reiterated that pastors, as shepherd of their flock, must be close to the faithful entrusted to their care and bring them the “living water of hope”.
Pope Francis therefore expressed hope that the meeting may inspire the Greek Catholic Bishops in a “creative continuation” of the “extraordinary tradition of the faith of the Fathers, rooted, and sustained for generation in the People of God” of Ukraine.
Russia continues to devastate Ukraine
On the warfront, Ukraine launched long-range rocket attacks on Russian forces in southern Ukraine and destroyed an ammunition store, its military said, as Russia continued to pound the country's east.
The strike came after Washington supplied Ukraine with advanced HIMARS mobile artillery systems which Kyiv says its forces are using with growing efficiency.
The area is of strategic importance because of its Black Sea access, once thriving agricultural industry and location just north of Russian-annexed Crimea.
Workers prepare to lower coffins during a funeral for 58 unidentified soldiers of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic killed in Luhansk/REUTERS
Russia continued to pound eastern Ukraine in an effort to gain control of Donetsk province and the entire industrial Donbas region. Moscow earlier this month captured Luhansk province, which makes up the rest of the Donbas.
Russia says it wants to wrest the Donbas from Ukraine on behalf of Moscow-backed separatists in two self-proclaimed people's republics whose independence it recognised on the eve of the war.
The conflict has laid waste to Ukrainian cities and caused 5.2 million people to flee the country, according to the U.N.
The U.N. human rights office said on Tuesday that 5,024 civilians had been killed in Ukraine since the invasion began, adding that the real toll was likely much higher.
The conflict has blocked exports of Ukraine's grain, exacerbating a global food crisis. More than 20 million tonnes of grain are stuck in silos at the key Black Sea port of Odesa.
-VN/Reuters