Vatican Communications President Visits Lviv
Lviv — Archbishop John Patrick Foley, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, visited western Ukrainian Lviv from 4 to 9 February 2005 . Invited by Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), the archbishop visited Holy Spirit Seminary in Rudno, the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU), the Svichado ("Beacon") Publishing House and met with religious and secular journalists.
The archbishop's first stop in Lviv was at St. George's Cathedral of the UGCC, where he prayed before the icon of the Mother of God of Terebovlia, which was crowned by Pope John Paul II during his visit to Ukraine in 2001.
The archbishop visited the UGCC's Holy Spirit Seminary on 5 February and spoke on "the Priest and Social Communications" for the seminarians. He also met with representatives of the UGCC media there.
On 7 February, Archbishop Foley visited the Svichado Publishing House in Lviv, run by the Studite order. Though he noted that he cannot read Ukrainian, he did say that many of the books were certainly very attractive. He also looked over an English translation of "Church of the Martyrs," a book about the new martyrs of the UGCC beatified by the Pope in 2001. "Their lives and witness are a special means of communication," said the archbishop.
Meeting with students and staff of the Ukrainian Catholic University in UCU's chapel that afternoon, the archbishop spoke on "Communication as a Way of Life" and presided at a presentation of the book "The Church and Social Communications," a Ukrainian translation of various Vatican documents on the theme done by UCU's Institute of Religion and Society. "I endorse the materials in this book 100 %," said Archbishop Foley.
Local secular journalists were invited to a press conference with the archbishop in UCU's seminar room on 8 February. The Ukrainian translation of the Papal Message for World Communications Day 2005 was presented. The theme of the meeting, and the title of the Papal Message, was " The Communications Media: At the Service of Understanding Among Peoples ." As Archbishop Foley explained, "the Catholic Church has been in the 'business' of communicating its message for 2000 years."
Source: www.ugcc.org.ua
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