Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb 26, 2015 / 04:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko has sent a letter inviting Pope Francis to visit Ukraine, though the Vatican diplomacy has not yet responded, Ukraine's Embassy to the Holy See told CNA on Wednesday. The embassy forwarded the letter to the Vatican Secretariat of State Feb. 18, two days before the ad limina meeting of Ukrainian bishops with Pope Francis. Bishop Borys Gudziak of the Ukrainian Eparchy of St. Vladimir the Great of Paris told Radio Liberty Feb. 25 he was aware of the letter, and that the Pope had a “positive reaction” to it. On the other hand, diplomatic sources warned CNA Feb. 25 there would still be a long way to go before a papal trip to Ukraine could effectively take place. According to the source, neither security nor relations with the Russian Orthodox Church would slow down the organization of the trip, but that the trip itself should be carefully managed, which would take time. “When John Paul II visited Ukraine in 2001, he spent five days in the country, and it was considered a rush. Pope Francis’ visit would last at least three days, between Kyiv, Lviv and perhaps another city,” the source maintained. Should the Pope give a positive response to the invitation, one possibility is that a papal trip to Ukraine could be an adjunct to his 2016 visit to Poland for World Youth Day. A papal visit to Ukraine would represent a hope for the country, according to Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv-Halych, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. Major Archbishop Shevchuk said in a press conference Feb. 23 he had invited the Pope to visit Ukraine, saying such a visit would “bring peace to that part of Eastern Europe soaked with the blood of so many martyrs for the unity of the Church.” During the press conference, Major Archbishop Shevchuk also pointed out that Ukraine is “victim of a foreign aggression,” and that “the Ukrainian people feel hurt when the Holy See uses expressions that seemingly come from the Russian propaganda.” Major Archbishop Shevchuk referred to Pope Francis ‘off the cuff’ words at the Feb. 4 General Audience, during which he referred to the conflict in Ukraine as “fratricidal violence.” Fr. Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See press office, later explained that Pope Francis “has always wished to address all the interested parties, trusting in the sincere efforts of each one to implement agreements reached by common consent and invoking the principle of international law, to which the Holy See has referred several times since the beginning of the crisis.” In the official speech delivered to Ukrainian Bishops Feb. 20, Pope Francis no longer mentioned “fratricidal violence,” though on the other hand there was no mention either of a ‘foreign aggression’ or Russia's annexation of Crimea. Major Archbishop Shevchuk commented that the Pope “had spoken of the respect of the international law, and asked for respect of the integrity of Ukrainian territory,” and made it understood that this was enough to him. On the other hand, he also urged a “humanitarian action in the country to help refugees.” Major Archbishop Shevchuk stressed that “UN official data estimates 1 million displaced persons, but non-official data estimates that the amount of people escaping from Crimea and Donbas may be double that, including 140,000 children. The Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church said religious freedom is lacking in Russian-administered Crimea, and areas of Ukraine controlled by Russian-backed separatists: “Muslim Tartars of Crimea had to escape because they were persecuted; Jewish people in Donetsk had to leave the Donbas or were obliged to register themselves as Jewish and to pay a tax; and in Crimea five parishes were requested to renew by March 1 an authorization to stay in the territory, with the risk that the request may be rejected.” Major Archbishop Shevchuk said the Pope told the Ukrainian bishops: “The Holy See supports you, also on the international stage, to articulate your rights, your concerns, and the evangelical values that motivate you.” And he reportedly added: “I am at your side, I am at your service.” Read more

Rome, Italy, Feb 25, 2015 / 04:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A priest who witnessed to a miracle in communist Czechoslovakia in the 1940s was tortured and beaten to death for refusing to recant what his parishioners had seen. And now Catholics from the country are honoring his heroic virtue and pushing for him to be recognized as a martyr. At a recent gathering in Cihost' commemorating the priest's brutal death, his current successor at the parish church says he's grateful for efforts to overturn the decades-long silence on atrocities against Catholics in the 20th century. “Naturally, I am glad that the issue of Father Josef Toufar is starting to be resolved in which it will be shown how the political regime in our country actually was,” Father Tomas Fiala told CNA. During the season of Advent in 1949 – the early phase of the communist era in Czechoslovakia – some parishioners told Fr. Toufar that they saw a cross at the altar in the church moving from one side to another several times. The event has come to be known as “the Cihost' miracle.” To prevent the news of the phenomenon from going public, the secret police interrogated Fr. Toufar, demanding that he say that he had moved the cross himself. The priest, however, refused. In response, the police beat him so drastically that he was unable to speak, walk or sit. Later tortured until he would sign a document asserting his guilt, he died two months after the miracle took place. After Fr. Toufar's death, the Church along with all religions were suppressed across the Soviet Union-led communist regime. The state was officially atheist and any accounts of miracles and those who spoke of them were treated in way to be erased from the record and the historical memory. The regime even filmed a documentary which tried to show that the Cihost' miracle was a forgery. Despite their efforts, the account of the Cihost' miracle has survived. And, now the damage is being reversed, said Fr. Fiala. “We would like to achieve that Father Josef Toufar is recognized as a martyr of the church.” On the Feb. 22, an estimated 500 people gathered for Mass in his former parish of Cihost' to commemorate the 65th anniversary of Fr. Toufar's death. Cardinal Dominik Duka, archbishop of Prague, presided over the Mass. The church was so full with visitors from the entire country that they outnumbered the population of the village of Cihost'. The event was seen as an act of support for the canonization cause of Father Toufar, which is still in the preliminary diocesan phase with approval from the Czech Bishops Conference. Historian and postulator of the cause for canonization, Father Tomas Petracek, told Czech Radio that the Mass was “a satisfactory argument that our engagement in the beatification of Father Josef Toufar is not vain and it is not something made top-down, but it arises from people's veneration.” The liturgy was followed by an exhibition of Fr. Toufar's former room and his belongings as well as a discussion on his life and the beatification process. According to Cardinal Duka, Fr. Toufar was “an icon for the years of violent collectivization,” under the communist regime, he told the Czech Radio. The presumed remains of the priest have been exhumed from a mass grave near Prague. Once verified by scientists, they are set to be brought to Cihost' during a July pilgrimage around the time of Fr. Toufar's birthday.Corrected on Feb. 25, 2015 at 9:15 a.m. MST. Original article stated that Fr. Toufar had seen the miracle personally. A more accurate account is that he was told of the miracle by numerous parishioners and was tortured and killed for refusing to recant what they had seen. Read more

Shrewsbury, England, Feb 25, 2015 / 12:49 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Inside a small English church dedicated to St. Columba, a congregation of Catholics gathered, sitting in the midst of 2,500 years of marriage. As they celebrated marriage as a blessing t... Read more