Pope Leo XIV Urges Eastern Catholics Not to Abandon War-torn Lands

Metropolitan Archbishop Borys Gudziak of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia was in the audience with Pope Leo on May 14. He told CNA afterward that the Ukrainian people have embraced Leo “with acclamation” during his first days.

“His first few words, upon election, this Sunday, and today’s words have really touched the hearts of people who are enduring a brutal genocidal aggression” in Ukraine, the archbishop added.

Gudziak referred to Leo’s remarks at his first Regina Caeli prayer on May 11, when the 69-year-old pope said: “I carry in my heart the sufferings of the beloved Ukrainian people. May everything possible be done to reach an authentic, just, and lasting peace, as soon as possible. Let all the prisoners be freed and the children return to their own families.”

On that occasion, Leo also called for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and for the freeing of hostages. He entrusted all conflicts around the world to the intercession of the Queen of Peace.

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In Wednesday’s audience, the pontiff recalled the Church’s hope in the power of Christ’s resurrection, an emphasis during the Easter season for Eastern-rite Christians, many of whom come from countries experiencing conflict, like the Holy Land and Ukraine.

“Who, better than you, can sing a song of hope even amid the abyss of violence?” Leo said. “Who, better than you, who have experienced the horrors of war so closely that Pope Francis referred to you as ‘martyr Churches’?”

“From the Holy Land to Ukraine, from Lebanon to Syria, from the Middle East to Tigray and the Caucasus, how much violence do we see!” the pope continued. “Rising up from this horror, from the slaughter of so many young people, which ought to provoke outrage because lives are being sacrificed in the name of military conquest, there resounds an appeal: the appeal not so much of the pope, but of Christ himself, who repeats: ‘Peace be with you!’”

Leo’s speech also urged Eastern Catholics, who are minorities and a very small percentage of the global Catholic Church, to remain strong in their traditions, “without attenuating them … lest they be corrupted by the mentality of consumerism and utilitarianism” prevalent in the West.

Speaking about the contribution of the Christian East, the pope praised the sense of mystery in the liturgies, “liturgies that engage the human person in his or her entirety, that sing of the beauty of salvation and evoke a sense of wonder at how God’s majesty embraces our human frailty!”

“Pope Leo,” Gudziak said, “was at pains to say, basically, you might not be statistically big, but you have a unique role to play in the Catholic community: Stay faithful to your traditions.”

“The subtext is that sometimes these Churches, many of which are persecuted, are suffering from war, from genocide — Churches that have been numerically reduced, Churches that are in danger of disappearing after being there for 2,000 years, still speaking and praying in Aramaic, the language of Jesus —  he was saying, hold on to this legacy. We need it. The whole Catholic Church needs it,” Gudziak added.

The Catholic Church needs the Eastern rites’ “focus on the Resurrection, the Christocentric experience of the Church,” the Ukrainian archbishop continued. “There’s no Church without Christ. You can’t just have sociological gatherings. If Christ is not there, it’s not the experience of the Church, it’s not the experience of salvation.”

The closing Divine Liturgy of the Jubilee of Eastern Christians was a Byzantine liturgy with the Melkite Greek, Ukrainian Greek, and Romanian Greek Catholic Churches, together with the other Churches of the Byzantine rite.

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In his homily for the liturgy, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv, the primate of Ukraine, said: “We are all very touched by the meeting with the newly-elected Pope Leo. This morning we felt embraced by the Holy Father, consoled in our suffering … appreciated for our ancient Christian traditions, and encouraged in our evangelizing mission which we carry out in the contemporary world.”

On the new pope’s ability to promote peace in the Russian conflict with Ukraine, Gudziak noted that “today, many are saying maybe Pope Leo is not the most powerful American in the world, but he’s the most important American in the world, even though he doesn’t have [military] or financial or political resources.”

Hannah Brockhaus is Catholic News Agency's senior Rome correspondent. She grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and has a degree in English from Truman State University in Missouri.