Photo: risu
Lviv theologian and political scientist Andrii Yurash became Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the Vatican. The decree on his appointment was signed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyi 14 December.
Read also: Pope Francis «I want to assure my dear Ukraine in my prayers»
Andrii Yurash is an expert on state-church relations, sociology and geography, Eastern Christian traditions, state ethnopolitics, and the rights of national minorities. He is also an associate professor at Ivan Franko Lviv National University and Mykhailo Drahomanov National Pedagogical University in Kyiv. From 2014 to 2020, he headed the Department for Religions and Nationalities of the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine. From September 2020, he headed the Department of Religious Affairs of the Cabinet Secretariat.
In addition, Andrii Yurash is a member of the board of the All-Ukrainian Association of Religious Studies and one of the founders of the International Association for the Study of Religion in Central and Eastern Europe (ISORECEA).
We will add that the son of the theologian, Sviatoslav Yurash, is a People’s Deputy of Ukraine from the Servant of the People faction, in the Rada (Parliament).
It should also be noted that 15 June 2021 Pope Francis appointed archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas, born in Lithuania, as an Apostolic Nuncio to Ukraine. The Pontiff also expressed support for Ukraine and assured that he was praying for the seven-year war with Russia to come to an end here. Next year, he intends to make a visit here.
Read also: Greek Catholic leader says pope Francis likely to visit Ukraine soon
For reference:
According to the sociological group Rating, as for 2015, the majority of Ukrainians (74%) identify themselves as Orthodox, 8% as the Greco-Roman Catholicism, 1% – as Roman Catholicism and Protestant and Evangelical churches. Just Christians consider themselves almost 9% of respondents, don’t identify themselves with any religious denominations 6%.
Greek Catholicism is a Christian confession which acknowledges Catholic doctrine and is in communion with the Pope, but maintains Eastern rites and rituals, including married priests. It emerged in 1596, when a part of the Orthodox Church recognised the supremacy of the Pope. Later, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) became mostly localised in the Western Ukraine, becoming one of the markers of the national identity for the region’s population during Austrian, Polish and Soviet rule.
Currently, Kyiv is the center of Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, under the jurisdiction of His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, major archbishop of Kyiv-Galicia, and it is present in many regions of the country, though Galicia, where Lviv is, still remains its bulwark. It also has a strong presence among the Ukrainian diaspora, especially in parts of Canada, the United States, and Australia.
Translated by Vitalii Holich
You can read a Ukrainian language version of this story here.
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