“I have come with a message and good wishes of peace and prosperity for this country,” said Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, and papal envoy to Ukraine from July 11-17, 2017.
Cardinal Sandri arrived in Kiev on July 11 for a seven-day visit, announced the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church in Ukrainian. He will visit Kiev, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kharkiv, Lviv, Kramatorsk and Slovansk. In addition, he will take part in the annual Pan-Ukrainian pilgrimage to the Zarvanytsya Marian pilgrimage center. The head of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, Patriarch Sviatoslav Schevchuk and the Apostolic Nuncio in Ukraine, Monsignor Claudio Gugerotti received Cardinal Sandri on his arrival at “Borispol” international airport.
“Today, I am happy to come to Ukraine to honour Our Lady of Zarvanytsya and to transmit to her the honour, love and respect that the Church of Rome has for Her and for all the Ukrainian people,” said the Cardinal.
“Today’s visit is associated to the sad events that the Ukrainian people are living,,” continued Cardinal Sandri. “And see why I have come with a message and wishes of peace and prosperity to this country, which is a great hope for the whole world.”
The Prefect transmitted the “warm greeting, prayer and blessing of the Holy Father Francis to the head of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church Sviatoslav, to all the Metropolitans and Bishops of the Church and to the faithful.”
The papal envoy prayed at the foot of the Cross erected in honour of the “Hundred Heavenly Heroes” and he visited the National Memorial Museum to the victims of the Holodomor [death by hunger].
