UGCC head: One day we will have a single Church of Catholics and Orthodox

The head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Sviatoslav Shevchuk. Photo: pravda.com.ua

The head of the UGCC, Sviatoslav Shevchuk, hopes for the unification of the Orthodox and Catholics and joint ownership of churches and monasteries in Ukraine. He said this in an interview with pravda.com.ua.

"God willing, one day we will all be united. That is, all the divisions that exist today between the Orthodox world and the Catholic world, I think, will be overcome step by step," the leader of the Uniates said.

He named St. Sophia’s Cathedral as an example of a future "common temple".

"There are national symbols <...>. And such a symbol is the St. Sophia of Kyiv, the mother temple for all of us. This temple cannot be claimed by any denomination, because it has common roots," Shevchuk said.

In his opinion, after the unification of confessions, "it will be a common temple of all the successors of the Kyiv Сhurch.

"We are not claiming the property, but we say: 'OK, it also has to do with our history, with our identity. We want to feel at home there too.’ The form of this can be agreed," the head of the UGCC said.

As reported, Sviatoslav Shevchuk said that the UGCC wants to be able to pray at the Pochaiv Lavra, as it considers it its historical spiritual centre.

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