Last month President Yushchenko invited Pope Benedict to Ukraine to set up a working group to research and study historical documents in the Vatican Secret Archives related to Ukraine, including the Holodomor.
Unfortunately what they got was Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, a Secretary of State who loves the lime light – he appeared on many TV shows and articles denouncing the Da Vinci code and on his first day on the job announced “the Pope’s option in favour of inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue is equally unequivocal”. His attitude towards the Holodomor isn’t any better:
“The Ukrainian people and authorities perceive the tragedy of the Holodomor very painfully primarily because, as we know, the tremendous failure of crops that affected Ukraine in those years provoked the death of seven million people,” Bertone said.
Crop failure, are you serious? It’s such an outdated defense not even the deniers are using it anymore! Even the slightest amount of research will draw you the conclusion that the Holodomor was the result of a state-sponsored famine through confiscation (Fact #2), not a natural catastrophe.
The new direction the Vatican is taking is a complete turn around from the days of Pope John Paul II who was a staunch opponent of Communism. He addressed to Ukraine on the 70th anniversary of the Holodomor:
These are the sentiments that the 70th anniversary of the consequences of the Holodomor tragedy awakens in my heart: millions of people suffered an atrocious death due to the nefarious success of an ideology that caused suffering and bereavement in many parts of the world throughout the 20th century. It is for this reason, Venerable Brothers, that I want to be present in spirit at the celebrations to commemorate the countless victims of the great famine instigated in Ukraine by the Communist regime. It was an inhuman scheme put into effect in cold blood by those in power at the time.
As is proving more and more evident, larger groups of concentrated power aren’t beneficial to the individual no matter what group you belong to.
I’m still looking up how to contact Cardinal Bertone.
Dear Friend, I have good news:
The Vatican officially recognize the Holodomor in Ukraine in 1932-1933 as genocide against Ukrainian nation!
http://www.mfa.gov.ua/mfa/en/news/detail/10609.htm
About me:
http://www.president.gov.ua/documents/7072.html
http://www.president.gov.ua/en/news/10432.html
Best regards.
LuÃs Ribeiro – Portugal
Hi Luis,
Thanks for commenting, I checked out your article and noted the wording:
“V.Khandogiy expressed the gratitude for the Vatican’s condemnation of the Holodomor in Ukraine in 1932-1933 as genocide against Ukrainian nation in the text of the Compendium. (Chapter 11 Part 3 article C, 506)”
This Compendium is a generic document on the social doctrine of the church. While it does condemn ‘ethnic cleansing’, its relation to the Holodomor is only implied by the author Volodymyr Khandogiy, First Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.
There is no statement by the Vatican officially recognizing the Holodomor as genocide, and don’t expect one soon following more erroneous statements like Cardinal Bertone’s.
Dear Friend:
In fact, the Vatican officially recognizes the Holodomor as genocide.
The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church (2004) – policy document of the Holy See – represents the doctrine of the Catholic Church and embraces practically all spheres of political, social, economic, family and personal life.
This official document was made by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace (Justitia et Pax), which, according to the request received from the Pope John Paul II, has been drawn up in order to give a concise but complete overview of the Church’s social teaching.
The Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace (President – Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino) is a part of the Roman Curia, the administrative apparatus of the Holy See and the central governing body of the entire Roman Catholic Church, together with the Pope.
About the Holodomor, the Compendium declares (Chapter 11 Part 3 article C, 506): […] The twentieth century bears the tragic mark of different genocides: from that of the Armenians to that of the Ukrainians, from that of the Cambodians to those perpetrated in Africa and in the Balkans. Among these, the Holocaust of the Jewish people, the Shoah, stands out: “the days of the Shoah marked a true night of history, with unimaginable crimes against God and humanityâ€.
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/justpeace/documents/rc_pc_justpeace_doc_20060526_compendio-dott-soc_en.html#The%20duty%20to%20protect%20the%20innocent
The Secretary of State, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, was supporting this document.
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/justpeace/documents/rc_pc_justpeace_doc_20060526_compendio-dott-soc_en.html#SECRETARIAT%20OF%20STATE
Best regards,
LuÃs
Hi Luis,
That’s a good find and I’d hate to nitpick but it does not mention the Holodomor. Also your article was under Pope John Paul II’s era which in my last paragraph notes how the Vatican is seemingly changing its direction to the Holodomor with Cardinal Bertone’s false statement.