Shevchuk: Feels like we, Catholics, spent 30 years preparing for RF invasion

UCCRO members in Oslo. Photo: UGCC Press Service

On October 20, 2025, during a meeting in Oslo between the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations (UCCRO) and the Council of Religious Communities of Norway, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, assured that Catholics had saved the lives of millions of Ukrainians.

“I remember when the war began, the UN humanitarian headquarters came to me and said: we don’t know how to deal with such a massive humanitarian crisis, since 14 million people had fled their homes and were displaced,” Shevchuk recalled.

According to him, it was precisely the Catholics of both rites – Roman Catholics and Greek Catholics – who came to the UN’s aid in that difficult situation.

“We had the feeling that throughout the 30 years of independence, we, the Catholic Churches, were preparing our humanitarian aid structures for a full-scale invasion,” Shevchuk said.

He thanked the Norwegian people for their solidarity with the people of Ukraine.

“Thanks to that solidarity, we won a great humanitarian battle. No one in Ukraine died of hunger or cold, although Russia tried to do everything to turn the humanitarian crisis into a catastrophe. But we prevailed – that did not happen,” Shevchuk emphasized.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that the UCCRO had arrived in Norway on a mission “to advocate for the state of Ukraine.”

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