Catholic leaders in Poland and Ukraine have pledged mutual forgiveness for the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians during the Second World War.
Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kiev-Halych, head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, and Archbishop Józef Michalik of Przemysl, president of the Polish bishops’ conference, asked forgiveness and also appealed to all Ukrainians and Poles in the world “to open their hearts and minds bravely to mutual forgiveness and reconciliation.”
“Neither violence nor ethnic cleansing can ever be a method of solving conflicts between neighboring peoples or nations, or justified on political, economic or religious grounds,” said the church leaders’ joint statement, published June 28 in Warsaw.
