Editor's Note: Your editor left a comment on the Cardinal Archbishop's website commending him on the following statement. I also suggested he speak out as clearly against the "brutal and nasty" assault on pro-life Christians by the Governor and Mayor of New York, who have both suggested there is "no place" in New York for pro-lifers. Moments later, all comments were removed from the Archbishop's blog. Cardinal Dolan, apparently, sees best at a distance.
Supporting the EuroMaiden Movement in Ukraine
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| Orthodox priests pray as they stand between pro-European Union activists and
police lines in central Kiev, Ukraine, early Friday, Jan. 24, 2014. A top
Ukrainian opposition leader on Thursday urged protesters to maintain a shaky
cease-fire with police after at least two demonstrators were killed in
clashes this week, but some in the crowd appeared defiant, jeering and
chanting "revolution" and "shame." (AP Photo/Sergei Grits) |
Along with many others in the New York community, I am following the somber situation in Ukraine with growing alarm.
Last August, I was honored to be part of the dedication of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church’s Resurrection Cathedral,
in Kiev, and was in awe at the youth and vitality of a Church that had
been starved, jackbooted, imprisoned, tortured, persecuted and martyred
by Hitler, Stalin, and company. With thousands of others, I praised God
for an apparent new springtime where Democracy, human rights, and
religious freedom were in bloom in Ukraine.
Those high summer hopes have now turned as cold as this New York
winter day. What began as inspirational, prayerful, peaceful, powerful
protest, dubbed the Euro Maiden Movement, characterized by
prayer and song led by Jewish, Orthodox, and Catholic clergy, has turned
brutal and nasty, with government thugs relishing the chance to
bludgeon and harass the hundreds of thousands of patriotic Ukrainians,
and oppressive laws quickly passed to suppress freedoms.
Two men I deeply admire — the Metropolitan Archbishop of Kiev, the
head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, His Beatitude, Sviatoslav
Shevchuk, and Bishop Borys Gudziak, one of the founders of the promising
Catholic University of Ukraine — keep in touch. They’ve been leaders
urging peace and restraint, while prophetic on behalf of human dignity,
civil rights, and the place of religion in the reconstruction and
renewal of Ukraine. They are near tears, and look in vain for allies in
their noble cause.
We Catholics in the United States cannot let these brave Ukrainians,
whose allegiance to their religious convictions has survived “dungeon,
fire, and sword,” languish. They deserve our voices and our prayers.
Nor can we as American citizens fail them, as we call for our government to stand with them.
