The
Reverend Doctor Athanasius D. McVay specializes in the 20th-century history of
Vatican diplomacy and of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. He co-edited a
publication of Vatican archival documents on the 1932-1933 Holodomor famine in
Ukraine, and has recently completed a major monograph on Blessed Nykyta Budka,
Canada’s first Ukrainian Greek Catholic bishop. Novelist and European
correspondent Dorothy Cummings McLean spoke to him last week for CWR about the
ongoing crisis in Ukraine.
CWR: I could hardly believe my eyes when I read that the regime’s
Culture Minister had threatened to “ban” the Catholic Church in the Ukraine.
Were you surprised by this?
Father McVay: A letter was sent by an assistant to the
minister threatening to “re-assess” the status of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic
Church if it continued to celebrate the holy services on the Maidan. The minister
later denied any knowledge of the letter. This is part of a long intimidation
by the current regime against the Greek Catholic Church because the Church
speaks out for freedom and justice and against corruption. [Read more on Catholic World Report]
