Cardinal sees Christian identity as a link between EU and Ukraine

Brussels, Belgium, Nov 29, 2006 / 22:00 pm

Speaking to a representative of Aid to the Church in Need during a recent trip to Belgium, Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, head of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church (UGCC), said that Christian identity is the link between Ukraine and the European Union (EU).

“Our people share Christian roots with the rest of Europe. That is why I feel they want to join the EU,” the Cardinal told a representative of the international charity while attending a Nov. 28th meeting organised by the Commission of European Episcopal Conferences in Brussels.  “Without its Christian values Ukraine would dismember,” he added.

Reflecting on his country’s bitter experiences with Nazism and communism, Cardinal Husar said, “It is clear from our history, that justice must be the foundation of our own state and also of Europe.” In this respect, he took courage from the fact that the ‘orange revolution’ that brought democracy to Ukraine had taken place in a peaceful way.  “Now we are open to give and to receive,” he said.

The meeting in Brussels was held to commemorate the 1932-33 famine in Ukraine. The artificial famine was inflicted by Joseph Stalin on the Ukrainian peasantry to break their resistance to Soviet rule.  In its wake an estimated 10 million people died of starvation.