Lviv remembers victims of World War II (05/29/05)

Lviv remembers victims of World War II

Religious Information Service of Ukraine

LVIV - Roman and Greek-Catholics as well as Orthodox participated in a joint ecumenical prayer service held on May 8 in memory of the victims of World War II on the 60th anniversary of the end of the war in Europe. Ukrainian and German bishops took part in the service at military graves in the village of Potelych, Zhovkva district, in western Ukraine's Lviv region.

The event was organized by the Peace and Justice Commission of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church's Metropolitanate of Kyiv and Halych and the YI independent culturological journal.

Clergy of the Roman Catholic Church (from Germany and Ukraine), the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church took part.

Bishop Reinhard Marx of Trier, Germany, head of the Peace and Justice Commission of the German Conference of Roman Catholic Bishops, said after a Roman rite memorial service that, even though his fellow citizens are not buried here with glory, their remains are honored by the Ukrainians. He also spoke of the horrors of World War II and remembered the Auschwitz death camp, where many Jews and people of other nationalities were killed.

He said this memorial event is very important, because in it, we remember those who died in the war. "We will walk the way of peace. Our task is to become an instrument of peace," Bishop Marx said.

Roman Catholic Auxiliary Bishop Marian Buczek of Lviv read a prayer for the dead in Latin.

Several Byzantine-rite panakhydy (memorial services) were held at the monument to the Red Army soldiers and at the grave of soldiers of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.

A roundtable meeting titled "World War II: Remembrance. Responsibility. Reconciliation" took place at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv to conclude the event. Clergy, scholars, cultural figures and guests from Germany participated in the meeting.

According to a report by the press service of the UGCC, at the same time Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, head of the UGCC, participated in the ecumenical Memorial Days in Berlin.

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