History was created in Melbourne recently with the Permanent Synod of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church held in Australia for the first time.
In his capacity as the current President of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, Archbishop Tim Costelloe SDB, Archbishop of Perth, met with the members of the Permanent Synod.
The meeting was presided over by His Beatitude the Most Reverend Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, who had travelled from Ukraine to be present for the occassion. He was joined by other bishops from Ukraine, the United States, Germany and Poland, as well as His Eminence, Cardinal Mykola Bychok CSsR, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Eparchy of Australia, New Zealand and Oceania.
In his address to the Permanent Synod, Archbishop Costelloe assured the bishops of the warm welcome the bishops of Australia extend to them.
“You do the Church in Australia a great honour by choosing, for the first time, to hold your Synod meeting here among us,” he said.
Archbishop Costelloe also reiterated the determination of the bishops to continue to encourage all Catholics in Australia to offer their ongoing prayerful support and continued material and spiritual assistance for the Ukrainian people as they continue to face the ongoing bombardment of their cities and towns, the endless destruction of their infrastructure, and the heavy and ever-rising death toll of both their armed forces and civilian population.
In his reply, His Beatitude Archbishop Shevchuk detailed the extent of what he rightly called the “deep trauma” of his people as night after night they responded to air-raid warnings, and as, day after day, they waited in fear for news of their loved ones fighting the aggressors.
He said for many decades, and indeed generations, the main pastoral concern of the bishops and priests will be the deep wounds which have been, and continue to be, inflicted on the Ukrainian people and country.
“So please ask the bishops and the people of Australia to continue to pray for us. Only prayer can win for us the peace for which we all long,” he added.
Before concluding his address, Archbishop Shevchuk offered Archbishop Costelloe and his brother bishops a formal invitation to travel to Ukraine when it is possible to do so.
“The presence in Ukraine of our brothers in the College of Bishops, and though them the presence of their local Churches, is a source of enormous consolation and strength for all of us; it is a sign that we are not alone as we confront the evil which has been unleashed upon us,” he said.
