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Ukrainian Greek Catholic Head Reminds Defense Minister about Spiritual Guidance in Army

01-09-2008

Kyiv--- On 27 August 2008, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), Patriarch Lubomyr (Husar), addressed an official letter to Ukrainian Minister of Defense Yurii Yechanurov. As the patriarch indicated, the purpose of the letter is to note that on 24 August, Ukrainian Independence Day, during the military parade on Kyiv's Khreshchatyk street, "there was no mention of the spiritual guidance that clergy and pastors of our churches conduct for soldiers of our armed forces."

Patriarch Lubomyr drew the minister's attention to the fact that "mentioning such a fact would be very helpful for the listeners of the [broadcast] commentary in Kyiv and outside Kyiv, for parents, mainly for the mothers of soldiers, many of whom will serve in the army under contract for many years." The patriarch expressed his expectation that "in the coming years it will be possible to pay attention to this detail."

Patriarch Lubomyr also indicated that the heads of the churches by their presence at the military parade "wanted to manifest that not only in the prayers very often repeated during our church services do we remember our armed forces, but we also wished to declare publicly our support."

The head of the UGCC wished all the members of the armed forces of Ukraine God's blessings and assured them of his "sincere devotion in Christ the Lord."

http://www.risu.org.ua/eng/news/article;24318/