Pope Leo XIV today, May 15, met with the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk (Photo: Vatican News)
Letter #48, 2025, Thursday, May 15: Shevchuk
One week ago, on Thursday, May 8, Pope Leo XIV, 69, was elected the first Pope from the United States of America.
Leo has now completed seven days as Pope, though his official inaugural Mass will be on Sunday, May 18, in St. Peter’s Square, in three days.
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A Pope of Christ’s Peace
On each of these seven days since he became Pope, Leo has spoken of peace, notably his words “Never again war!” after his Regina Caeli prayer on Sunday, May 11 (link), but he has always done so in the context of the person of Christ, the Lord of history, in, with and through whom, history has its meaning.
I remind you again of the words that Pope Leo spoke yesterday, May 14, to members of the Eastern Churches during his audience with them:
“Christ’s peace is not the sepulchral silence that reigns after conflict; it is not the fruit of oppression, but rather a gift that is meant for all, a gift that brings new life. Let us pray for this peace, which is reconciliation, forgiveness, and the courage to turn the page and start anew. For my part, I will make every effort so that this peace may prevail.”
Pope Leo’s Way: Centered on Christ
In a video from 13 years ago, then Father Robert Prevost (now Pope Leo XIV) made clear that all Christian life begins with “a personal encounter with Jesus Christ.” (minute 1:20 of this Catholic News Service video).
And, he says that the liturgy should not be superficial, or a “spectacle” but a place where one can come into contact with “that mystery, if you will, who is God, who is love, who dwells within us and who has revealed Himself to us through Jesus Christ” (minute 2:40 and following).
Here also Leo explains why the Church Fathers are so important, and why he, as an Augustinian Father, has been formed by a study of the Church Fathers (minute 3:38 and following). He speaks of “the value that the study of the Fathers of the Church has… We are convinced that the Fathers of the Church have a great deal to contribute… to the searching for a meaning in life… for understanding who we are as human beings… The Fathers do have a great deal to say to us…”).
And Leo in this interview also warns about the control of the media by secular powers, powers which seek to influence the way people think about various issues, describing how this reality became very clear to him when he would return to America, after months or years away in Peru, and would see television presenting issues in a tendentious way that surprised and troubled him (minute 7:40 and following).
From this interview, and from what Leo has said in these 7 days since his election, we may understand have in him a man who is centered on Jesus Christ, not on the ideologies of our age.
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It was in this context, in a context of a search for peace, that Pope Leo received in private audience today His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the head of the eastern-rite Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, whose country has now been suffering under more than three years of terrible war, and the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives, since the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, and more than 11 years of civil conflict in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine, where Russian-supported rebels, seeking to break away from Ukraine, have defied the Ukrainian army since the spring of 2014.
Leo’s decision to receive Shevchuk shows his deep concern for the Catholics in Ukraine, and for all those who have suffered in this terrible war.
Clearly, Leo is publicly praying to God and seeking the intercession of the Virgin Mary, and publicly crying out to all the parties involved, for peace in Ukraine, that the bloodshed may cease.
Here is a brief account of their meeting.
Pope Leo XIV meets with head of Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (link)
The Major Archbishop of Kyiv expresses his gratitude to Pope Leo while meeting with him in a private audience on Thursday morning. The Archbishop gives him a painting entitled “Requiem Prayer” depicting the suffering of the Ukrainian people.
May 15, 2025, Vatican News
Pope Leo XIV received on Thursday morning, 15 May, His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, Major Archbishop of Kyiv.
Meeting in the Library of the Apostolic Palace, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church thanked the Pope for his words during the Regina Caeli on Sunday 11 May when he recalled the suffering of the Ukrainian people, calling for “an authentic, just and lasting peace” and asking for the release of all prisoners and the return home of children who had been taken away.
According to a statement from the Greek Catholic Secretariat, the Pope’s words “are a true spiritual balm for the wounded soul of the Ukrainian people.”
At the conclusion of the audience, Archbishop Shevchuk presented the Pope with a symbolic painting entitled “Requiem Prayer,” which depicts the suffering of the Ukrainian people. Artist Bohdan Pylypiv, the father of a soldier who died in the conflict, created the work.
Moreover, he invited Pope Leo to visit… Ukraine.
Already Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had announced on Monday, May 12, that he had spoken with Pope Leo XIV and invited him to visit Ukraine.
In a message on X, Zelenskyy mentioned it was their first conversation, “but already a very warm and truly substantive one.”
“I thanked His Holiness for his support of Ukraine and all our people. We deeply value his words about the need to achieve a just and lasting peace for our country and the release of prisoners. We also discussed the thousands of Ukrainian children deported by Russia. Ukraine counts on the Vatican’s assistance in bringing them home to their families,” the Ukrainian president added.
Zelenskyy also announced he invited Pope Leo to make an apostolic visit to Ukraine.
“Such a visit would bring real hope to all believers and to all our people,” he said.
The Ukrainian president also said the two men agreed to stay in contact and planned an in-person meeting in the near future.
Here is a 47-second video which shows a few moments of the encounter between Pope Leo and Major Archbishop Shevchuk.
And here is a longer account, from the official Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church website (link):
Pope Leo XIV received in audience the Head and Father of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
May 15, 2025, 5:10 PM
In one of the first private audiences of his pontificate, the newly elected Pope Leo XIV received His Beatitude Sviatoslav, Head and Father of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. The meeting took place on May 15 at the Library of the Apostolic Palace.
The Holy Father expressed his closeness to the Ukrainian people and assured them of his support. His Beatitude Sviatoslav invited the Pope to make an apostolic visit to Ukraine.
At the beginning of the meeting, His Beatitude Sviatoslav congratulated Pope Leo XIV on his election to the Petrine ministry and thanked him for his first gestures and words of support for Ukraine. “The Ukrainian people already consider you the Pope of peace. Last Sunday we heard your words about how the pain of the Ukrainian people is in your heart. Your call for a true, just and lasting peace is especially timely at this time, while your attention to prisoners of war and deported children shows your fatherly concern for the primary victims of the war in Ukraine.”
The Head and Father of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church shared with the Holy Father how his appeals to end the war are extremely important for the Ukrainian people. “They are a true spiritual balm for the wounded soul of the Ukrainian people, which keep our people present in the memory of the international community and give us back a name, which they are trying to take away from us, denying our right to exist.”
Telling Pope Leo XIV about the pastoral ministry of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in times of war, His Beatitude Sviatoslav emphasized that “our fundamental task is to stand beside our people and proclaim the Gospel of hope. As pastors, we have learned a new form of ministry — the pastoral care of mourning. Sometimes, we cannot find words of comfort for the mother who has lost her child, but we can and must stand by her.”
The Head and Father of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church extended an invitation to His Holiness to make an apostolic visit to Ukraine. “When the Holy Pope John Paul II came to visit us, Ukrainians believed that communism would never return to our land. Today we believe that the Pope’s visit will help stop the war in Ukraine.” “It is clear that the Lord will decide the time and the occasion, however I consider it my duty to convey to You the invitation of millions of Ukrainians, who are waiting for You,” said His Beatitude Sviatoslav.
The Holy Father Leo XIV assured the Head and Father of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church: “I am with the Ukrainian People. The Holy See continues and will continue to support every initiative and create the necessary conditions for dialogue and will accompany the Ukrainian People in this terrible time of history.”
The Head and Father of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church gave the Holy Father the list of prisoners of war and told him about the cooperation with Pope Francis for the release of prisoners of various categories, asking him to continue this work: “Every time I visit our parishes and eparchies in different regions of Ukraine, I meet the families of prisoners of war and missing persons, who give me the names of their loved ones, asking me to personally bring them to the Pope.”
His Beatitude Sviatoslav stressed that the Holy See is doing a lot to promote the release of prisoners. “We have evidence that when the Russian side receives such lists from the Vatican, the treatment of such prisoners improves.”
At the end of the audience, the Primate of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church presented the Pope with a symbolic painting that represents the pain of the Ukrainian people. The author of the painting is the artist Bohdan Pylypiv, father of the fallen Ukrainian soldier Andriy. His Beatitude Sviatoslav explained to the Pope the meaning of the work: “The painting is called ‘Requiem’. The embryo wrapped in a clock spring represents children who were never born because of the war. The clock mechanism marks endless moments of loss, rivers of blood that take away what is most precious — human life. The hand in the shape of a Roman sword — is a symbol of wartime, a dark time that looms over Ukraine and the world.”
His Beatitude Sviatoslav also invited Pope Leo XIV to meet with Ukrainian pilgrims who will travel to Rome on June 28 for the Jubilee of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
The Primate explained that the pilgrimage will be accompanied by bishops of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church from all over the world and that “this pilgrimage will be a unique opportunity to pray for peace in Ukraine at the tomb of the Prince of the Apostles, St. Peter.”
Other papal meetings today
The Pope had several other appointments today, notably with many members of the Christian Brothers, who are dedicated to teaching, with the leadership of the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, headed by the Jesuit, Cardinal Michael Czerny, and with three Churchmen from Brazil, one the emeritus archbishop of Aparecida, Brazil, and the other two the president and general secretary of the Latin American bishops’ conferences.
This morning the Holy Father received in audience:
–His Eminence Cardinal Michael Czerny, S.J., Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development; with Sister Alessandra Smerilli, F.M.A., Secretary; His Eminence Cardinal Fabio Baggio, C.S., Under-Secretary; Msgr. Anthony Onyemuche Ekpo, Under-Secretary;
–His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, Major Archbishop of Kyiv-Halyč (Ukraine);
–Brothers of the Christian Schools;
–His Eminence Cardinal Raymundo Damasceno Assis, Archbishop Emeritus of Aparecida (Brazil).
This afternoon the Pope received in audience:
–His Eminence Card. Jaime Spengler, O.F.M., Metropolitan Archbishop of Porto Alegre (Brazil), President of the Latin American Episcopal Council (C.E.L.AM.); with His Excellency Mons. Lizardo Estrada Herrera, O.S.A., Titular Bishop of Ausuccura, General Secretary.
This is the complete text of what Pope Leo said to the Christian Brothers today (link):
Udienza ai Fratelli delle Scuole Cristiane, 15.05.2025
This morning, the Holy Father Leo XIV met with the Brothers of the Christian Schools. Below is the address that the Pope gave to those present during the meeting:
Address of the Holy Father
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, peace be with you!
Your Eminence,
Dear brothers and sisters, welcome!
I am very happy to receive you on the third centenary of the promulgation of the Bull In apostolicae dignitatis solio, with which Pope Benedict XIII approved your Institute and your Rule (26 January 1725). It also coincides with the 75th anniversary of the proclamation, by Pope Pius XII, of Saint John Baptist de La Salle as the “heavenly Patron of all educators” (cf. Apostolic Letter Quod ait, 15 May 1950: AAS 12, 1950, 631-632).
After three centuries, it is beautiful to see how your presence continues to bring with it the freshness of a rich and vast educational reality, with which still, in various parts of the world, with enthusiasm, fidelity and a spirit of sacrifice, you dedicate yourselves to the formation of young people.
Precisely in the light of these anniversaries, I would like to pause to reflect with you on two aspects of your history that I believe are important for all of us: attention to current events and the ministerial and missionary dimension of teaching in the community.
The beginnings of your work speak a lot of “current events.”
Saint John Baptist de La Salle began by responding to the request for help of a layman, Adrian Nyel, who was struggling to keep his “schools of the poor” afloat.
Your founder recognized in his request for help a sign from God, accepted the challenge and got to work.
Thus, beyond his own intentions and expectations, he gave life to a new teaching system: that of Christian Schools, free and open to anyone.
Among the innovative elements he introduced in this pedagogical revolution, we recall the teaching addressed to classes and no longer to individual students; the adoption, as a didactic language, instead of Latin, of French, accessible to all; Sunday lessons, in which even young people forced to work on weekdays could participate; the involvement of families in school courses, according to the principle of the “educational triangle”, still valid today.
Thus the problems, as they arose, instead of discouraging him, stimulated him to seek creative answers and to enter new and often unexplored paths.
All this can only make us think, also raising useful questions in us.
What are, in the youth world of our time, the most urgent challenges to face?
What are the values to promote?
What are the resources we can count on?
The young people of our time, like those of every era, are a volcano of life, energy, feelings, ideas.
You can see it from the wonderful things they can do, in many fields.
However, they too need help, to make so much wealth grow in harmony and to overcome what, even in a different way than in the past, can still impede its healthy development.
If, for example, in the seventeenth century the use of the Latin language was for many an insurmountable communication barrier, today there are other obstacles to face.
Let us think of the isolation caused by widespread relational models increasingly marked by superficiality, individualism and emotional instability; the spread of thought patterns weakened by relativism; the prevalence of rhythms and lifestyles in which there is not enough room for listening, reflection and dialogue, at school, in the family, sometimes among peers themselves, with the loneliness that comes from it.
These are demanding challenges, but we too, like Saint John Baptist de La Salle, can use them as springboards to explore ways, develop tools and adopt new languages, with which to continue to touch the hearts of students, helping them and encouraging them to courageously face every obstacle to give the best of themselves in life, according to God’s plans.
In this sense, the attention you pay in your schools to the training of teachers and the creation of educational communities in which the teaching effort is enriched by the contribution of all is praiseworthy.
I encourage you to continue on these paths.
But I would like to mention another aspect of the Lasallian reality that I consider important: teaching lived as a ministry and mission, as a consecration in the Church.
Saint John Baptist de La Salle did not want priests among the teachers of the Christian Schools, but only “brothers”, so that all your efforts would be directed, with the help of God, to the education of the students.
He loved to say: “Your altar is the chair,” thus promoting in the Church of his time a reality that was previously unknown: that of lay teachers and catechists invested, in the community, with a true and proper “ministry,” according to the principle of evangelizing by educating and educating by evangelizing. (cf. Francis, Address to the participants in the General Chapter of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, 21 May 2022).
Thus the charism of the school, which you embrace with the fourth vow of teaching, as well as a service to society and a precious work of charity, still appears today as one of the most beautiful and eloquent explanations of that priestly, prophetic and royal munus that we all received in Baptism, as the documents of the Second Vatican Council underline.
In your educational realities, thus, religious make prophetically visible, through their consecration, the baptismal ministry that spurs everyone (cf. Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, 44), each according to his state and his tasks, without differences, to “contribute as living members […] to the growth of the Church and to her ongoing sanctification” (ibid., 33).
For this reason, I hope that vocations to Lasallian religious consecration will grow, that they will be encouraged and promoted, in your schools and outside of them, and that, in synergy with all the other formative components, they will contribute to arousing joyful and fruitful paths of holiness among the young people who attend them.
Thank you for what you do! I pray for you and impart to you the Apostolic Blessing, which I willingly extend to the entire Lasallian Family.
[00542-IT.01] [Original text: Italian]
Upcoming meeting with Patriarch Bartholomew
The Patriarch of Constantinople will attend the Sunday, May 18, inaugural Mass for Pope Leo XIV in Rome, and then is expected to meet with Pope Leo on Monday morning, May 19
On Monday morning, May 19, Leo’s first audience is expected to be with Greek Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew — in order to discuss issues related to Catholic-Orthodox dialogue, including the question of when Pope Leo might travel to Nicaea, in Turkey, where the First Ecumenical Council took place from May to August in 325 A.D, 1,700 years ago this year.
Until the death of Pope Francis on April 21, it had been proposed that the 88-year-old Francis would make just a one-day trip, due to his health problems, but now it is thought that Pope Leo may consider a 3-day trip to commemorate this important event in Church history, taking in the capital of Turkey, Ankara, it’s largest city, Istanbul (until its fall to the Turks in 1453 named Constantinople), and Nicaea, where the Ecumenical Council was held in 325 A.D.
It was at that Council that the Alexandrian priest, the eloquent and learned Arius, debated the question of Christ’s divinity with a very young St. Athanasius, still in his 20s, in one of the great debates of all time, to answer the question, “Who do you say that I am?”
The Council of Nicaea, agreeing with Athanasius, condemned the view of Arius that Christ was “not equal” to the Father, but created by Him, and so not fully divine because, as Arius argued, “there was a time when he was not.”
The Council Fathers agreed with Athanasius, that Jesus Christ was not a created being, but had been “begotten by the Father” from all eternity, and so shared the divine nature of His Father fully and without any moment of division.
Thus, Jesus was truly and fully divine, as well as truly, fully human.
This condemnation of Arius, however, did not end the influence of Arius’s ideas, and the Arian movement became very powerful during the 300s, threatening the very orthodox belief that had been established for all time at Nicaea.
But this is a matter for another letter… (link)
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