Pope Beatifies Ukrainians Before Large Crowd

LVIV, Jun. 26, 01 (CWNews.com) - An estimated 300,000 people gathered under sunny skies at a stadium in Lviv on Tuesday as Pope John Paul II presided at the beatification of two Ukrainian clerics.

The ceremony-- the first of two beatifications scheduled during the papal visit-- was conducted according to the Latin rite. On Wednesday the Pope will preside at a Byzantine-rite ceremony, for the beatification of 28 more Ukrainians.

In his homily, the Holy Father urged the people of Ukraine to follow the example of Archbishop Jozef Bilczewski (1880-1923) and Father Zygmund Horazdowski (1845-1920) by "being generous in love of God and neighbor."

During his homily the Pope also made another plea for unity among the Christians of Ukraine and neighboring Poland. Acknowledging the tensions between the Eastern and Western churches in the past, he said that an honest appraisal should lead Christians to "recognize the infidelities to the Gospel message on the part of more than a few Christians, of both Polish and Ukrainian origins, living in this region." He added that "it is time to leave behind this sorrowful past."

The congregation for the Tuesday ceremony was large and enthusiastic. In Lviv, in the western region of Ukraine, the Catholic population is more numerous than in Kiev, where the Pope was greeted by relatively small crowds during the first two days of his visit. The crowd in Lviv was also heavily sprinkled with Polish pilgrims, who waved their national colors and repeatedly sang the hymn composed for World Youth Day of 1991, in Czestochowa.

After the beatification ceremony, the Pope visited the Latin-rite seminary in Lviv, and met with the Ukrainian bishops for the second time during this visit.

In the evening, the Holy Father was scheduled to have an open-air meeting with the young Catholics of Lviv; a massive crowd was expected.

Catholic World News Service - Vatican Update
26. juni 2001