“Ukrainians are paying too high a price for freedom. I always repeat this in America: Ukrainians are fighting for the same freedom that we have, for the opportunity to determine their own future. This is why the whole democratic world has to unite and bear the burden of war together with Ukrainians. In many ways we are all Ukrainians, because we strive for self-determination, freedom, so that no one outside tells us who we are and how we should act.” So said Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago (USA), on 28 June, Ukrainian Constitution Day, when he visited Lviv and Ukrainian Catholic University.
Cardinal Blaise Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago, visited Lviv and UCU
During his visit to UCU, Cardinal Blaise Cupich visited the campus and the Emmaus Center in the university’s Collegium, where people with developmental disabilities live. According to the archbishop, the goal of his visit to Ukraine is to express support and demonstrate solidarity with the Ukrainian people: “Each of us suffers from the Russian invasion. The whole world is at risk whenever there’s a war. People through the whole world have to realize that they have an obligation to be supportive of the Ukrainian people. And my hope would be that, after my visit, there would be an opportunity for me to return to the United States and carry that message to my fellow citizens.”
Cardinal Blaise Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago, visited Lviv and UCU
Cardinal Blaise Cupich is a member for the Dicastery for Bishops and the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. He also serves on the USCCB [United States Conference of Catholic Bishops] Committee on Migration and Refugee Services and Subcommittee for the Church in Central and Eastern Europe.
During his visit to UCU, the cardinal stated that he was impressed with how the university is working in difficult conditions of war: “I see here at the university that you are doing so much. I know that you’re interested in caring for the emotional and mental health of people. You’re also providing opportunity for students to continue their education. I met also a young lady who is finishing her degree here and studying, who is on the front lines as a medic, as someone who helped on the front lines as well [UCU student Orysya Masna]. The Church and its many agencies is bonding with the rest of the people in Ukraine in this very trying time.”
In Emmaus Centre (UCU, Lviv)
Cardinal Cupich and an UCU delegation also visited the Garrison Church of Saints Peter and Paul the Apostles and the Field of Honored Burials, where there was a farewell to a Hero who perished fighting on the front for Ukraine.
In Saints Peter and Paul Garrison Church, Lviv, Ukraine
“On Ukrainian Constitution Day you, Ukrainians, remind the whole free world what a constitution means, what freedoms and rights it guarantees. Today we honor those soldiers who paid the ultimate price so that the constitution and the people who are served by it can continue. This is a moment to feel deep sorrow, but also gratitude for their sacrifice. Humanity weeps today. Ukrainians are paying too high a price for freedom. That is why the whole democratic world has to unite and bear the burden of war together with you,” Cardinal Cupich is convinced.
Cardinal Blase J. Cupich in the Field of Honorable Burials
The archbishop added that Ukraine’s example forces the world to realize “that freedom is not free. We have to be willing to sacrifice for it and to understand with gratitude that there are people who came before us and really paid that price for our freedoms. Today in the cemetery as I look around at all the flags waving over the graves of heroes, I see people who believed in this country.”
In Saints Peter and Paul Garrison Church, Lviv, Ukraine
