‘Don’t destroy fraternal bonds among people’

The bishop of the Roman Catholic Church in the embattled Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea called on all believers and non-believers “to refrain from extremism, and in these difficult times not to allow the fraternal bond between people living in the Crimea to break”, writes Josef Pazderka.

Bishop Jacek Pyl, an auxiliary in the Catholic Diocese of Odessa-Simferopol, urged the faithful not to stop praying for peace and called on those who can to “fast voluntarily”.

The Crimean peninsula has become the latest battlefield of the deep political crisis in Ukraine. Russia has tightened its military grip on this Black Sea region, taking de facto control from Ukraine despite repeated demands that it withdraw. Thousands of Russian troops secured the region in what the Government in Kiev and the Western countries called Moscow’s “violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty”.

Most Ukrainian Churches urged against escalation of the conflict. Representatives of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), which is in full communion with the Holy See, stressed that the respect for Ukraine’s independence and sovereignty must be preserved. “Ukraine has been pulled into a military conflict. So far no one is shooting, so far people are not dying, but it is obvious that military intervention has already begun. The entire world is on the side of Ukraine,” said Ukrainian Greek Catholic Patriarch Sviatoslav Shevchuk. “If, God forbid, we will have to stand together on the battlefield with our soldiers, the UGCC is ready to provide pastoral support,” Patriarch Shevchuk added.