Copy Of Turin Shroud To Go To Kyiv
On 2 May 2002, the copy of the Shroud of Turin that was brought
to Ukraine from Belarus on 28 September 2002 will leave the
western city of Lviv and travel to Kyiv. On 1 May 2002, Mitred
Archpriest Fr. Roman Kravchyk, administrator of the Greek
Catholic Cathedral of St. George and one of the organizers
of the shroud's visit to Ukraine, talked to RISU about the
shroud's stay in Lviv. The shroud was on display at the cathedral
during its stay in Lviv.
"The shroud is of great significance for Ukraine,"
said Fr. Kravchyk. "It has become a symbol of unity.
Many of the faithful, Catholics of the Latin and Eastern rites
and Orthodox of various jurisdictions came to venerate it.
It has united us spiritually. Pilgrims came from practically
all areas of Ukraine, and also Poland."
"We did not intend to estimate how many faithful visited
the shroud. But if it comes to numbers, hundreds of thousands
is too small a figure to describe the number of visitors.
The people felt a spirit of comfort. There were reports of
healings through prayer near the shroud. I think the determining
factor was prayer," said Fr. Kravchyk.
After the shroud's arrival in Ukraine, Fr. Kravchyk approached
hierarchs of all denominations in the country with a proposal
to arrange pilgrimages of the shroud to various churches.
However, the proposal was accepted only by the Ukrainian Orthodox
Church-Kyivan Patriarchate (UOC-KP) and the Roman Catholic
Church (RCC).
According to a previous arrangement, the shroud will stay
in Ukraine until October and will then be taken to the Baltic
countries. But Fr. Kravchyk does not rule out the possibility
of an extension of the shroud's stay in Ukraine, in view of
continuous requests to bring it to other towns as well. In
particular, such a proposal was made by the Roman Catholic
bishop of Odesa and Simferopol, Bronislaw Bernacki. However,
the question remains open.
According to Fr. Ihor Yatsiv, press secretary of the head
of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), the farewell
ceremony for the shroud's departure to Kyiv will start on
2 May with a Divine Liturgy. This will be followed by an akathist
(prayer service) to Christ the Savior and a moleben (another
type of prayer service). The shroud will be transported to
Kyiv by train.
On 3 May the shroud will be met at the Kyiv Railroad station
by Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, head of the UGCC, and Patriarch
Filaret (Denysenko), head of the UOC-KP. They will process
along the streets of Kyiv to the Cathedral of St. Volodymyr
(UOC-KP). After the shroud has been put in place, an ecumenical
moleben will be served there.
The shroud will stay at the cathedral until 11 May. It will
then be moved to the Church of St. Basil the Great (UGCC).
The shroud will stay there for 2 months and will then be transported
to Donetsk or Kharkiv.
|
