The Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, will pay an official visit to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) from 11 to 17 July 2017. As the Greek Catholic Church announced in a statement, “the Cardinal’s visit is a sign of the Holy Father’s attention to the activities and development of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church”. On 12 July, the feast of the Apostles Saints Peter and Paul according to the Julian calendar, the Cardinal will participate in the Divine Liturgy at the UGCC Cathedral in Kiev and will say a Requiem for His Beatitude Lubomyr Husar. On the same day, the Cardinal is also due to visit the Seminary of the Archdiocese of Kiev that accommodates some 60 seminarians who will serve the pastoral needs of Eastern and Central Ukraine. The following day, he will consecrate the underground chapel of the Cathedral Church in the city of Kharkiv in central Ukraine. Card. Sandri will then travel to the city of Kramatorsk, 200 kilometres from Kharkiv, which at the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war was under the control of the militia of the so-called self-proclaimed Republic. Kramatorsk will be the venue for both the Divine Liturgy that will take place in the Church of St Elijah and for the meeting with the priests from the Exarchate of Donetsk. Card. Sandri is also due to visit the “Bdgilka” social centre.

On 14 July, the Prefect of the Congregation will visit the city of Slovyansk that was freed from the Russian troops in July last year, where he will meet with the displaced and the refugees. The following day, Card. Sandri will visit the Archeparchy of Ivano-Frankivsk, in Western Ukraine, where he will start a pilgrimage to the Ukrainian Marian Centre in Zarvanytsia. In the village of Zarvanytsia, Card. Sandri will attend the Divine Liturgy alongside the Bishops and will address the pilgrims. His visit to Ukraine will end with a prayer at St George’s Cathedral, in the Archdiocese of Lviv, which houses the relics of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky and Patriarch Josyf Slipyj. His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, will accompany Card. Sandri throughout his visit to Ukraine.