You have gathered here in the eternal city of Rome to pray to the Almighty for yourselves, your families and countries, for God’s grace and forgiveness in this Holy Year.
We, Ukrainian pilgrims from America and Canada, South America and Western Europe, under the leadership of our Patriarch, His Beatitude Josyf Cardinal Slipyj, Confessor of Faith, and of our Bishops, have come to this Holy City to implore the Lord and the Holy Mother of God to help the faithful of the Holy Church in Ukraine to endure the sufferings imposed upon them by the atheistic Communist-Russian regime, which has driven the Ukrainian Orthodox and Catholic churches into the catacombs and cruelly punishes the faithful by throwing them into prisons, concentration camps and psychiatric hospitals.
None of them has the opportunity to be present here in Rome to avail themselves of the graces of this Holy Year. We therefore earnestly beseech you, pilgrims from countries of the Free World, to add your prayers for those who are being persecuted for God and for their country;
- For the restoration of human rights and freedom to those who are being persecuted, and of national sovereignty to Ukraine and other subjugated nations;
- For peace and justice between nations, and especially within the Holy Catholic Church;
- For the return of full rights to the Ukrainian Catholic Church under the leadership of its Patriarch, His Beatitude Josyf Cardinal Slipyj, who spent 18 years in Russian prisons and concentration camps, and who does not find due understanding here;
- For the rectification of all injustices done to the Ukrainian nation and its Churches, and for the glory of all martyrs who died for the Holy Faith, for Freedom and for Justice.
We ask you to implore the Holy Father to formally recognize His Beatitude Josyf Cardinal Slipyj as Patriarch of the Ukrainian Particular Catholic Church, just as he has been recognized by the Ukrainian people, disregarding the pressures from the atheistic Russian occupant of Ukraine.
Rome, 12. 7. 1975
Cardinal answers Society’s memorandum See «3a Патріярхат» 7-8/1975
APOSTOLIC DELEGATION UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
No. 2277/75
This No. Should Be Prefixed to the Answer
July 19, 1975
Dr. Myroslav Nawrockyj Post Office Box 11012 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19141
Dear Doctor Nawrockyj:
His Eminence, Cardinal Villot has directed me to inform you that the letter sent by you and Dr. Leonid Rudnytsky has been received and its contents brought to the attention of the Holy Father.
He wishes to assure you that the problem of religious freedom, particularly in the areas to which you refer, is always present in the solicitude of the Holy Father and is the subject of the concern and active interest of the Holy See on every possible and opportune occasion.
May I urge you to continue in your prayers for your brothers and sisters throughout the world and in your cooperation with the bishops and priests of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in this country.
With prayerful good wishes, I remain
Sincerely yours in Christ, Jean Jadot Apostolic Delegate
UKRAINIAN PILGRIMS
