Poles are against the canonization of Metropolitan Sheptytsky, an accomplice of Bandera and Hitler
The board and members of the “Union of Poles who suffered in Volyn” wrote an open letter to the Apostolic Nuncio in Poland with a request to stop the beatification (glorification as a Catholic saint) of the Uniate Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky, who can be canonized by Rome as a Catholic saint.
Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky did not react, in their opinion, to the genocide that was carried out by Western Ukrainian Greek Catholic nationalists against the Polish population.
The “Volyn massacre” took place at the time of Sheptytsky’s active work as Metropolitan of Lvov.
“This was a betrayal against the teachings of the Church; he committed a pact to support acts of evil,” the authors write letters.
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“Members of the Association are people who miraculously escaped from the saws, axes, and pitchforks of Ukrainian nationalists from the UPA and SS Galicia,” writes the Polish portal Kresy.pl.
The authors of the appeal themselves recall the “Volyn Massacre” in this way: “Despite the passage of time (more than 72 years have passed), we still remember those bloody days and nights... The smell of burned human bodies, living or dead, accompanies us throughout our entire lives. The Poles on the territory of the Second Republic in Eastern Galicia were subjected to deliberate, organized genocide. Every day and every night death entered our homes.”
The Poles describe the horrors of the genocide: “In Ostrovki and the surrounding area they killed 470 people, including 250 children; in the village of Lesnyaki - 141 people, including 64 children; in the village of Jankovice, 80 people died, including 18 children. In Volyn there were more than 2000 large and small settlements inhabited by Poles, of which hardly any remained.” The remaining victims of the Volyn Massacre, children who saw the deaths of their parents, sincerely doubt that Sheptytsky did not know what the Greek Catholic nationalists were doing.
“Pregnant women’s bellies were cut open, fetuses were pulled out and smashed against doors, people’s heads were cut off with an ax or scythe. Extremely severe torture was used against Catholic priests. They were killed in the altar during Mass. They died in the altar in agony along with the believers.”
“We, living witnesses of the Volyn massacre, remember well July 11, 1943. On Sunday there were services in churches, faithful parishioners came in large numbers to participate in the service. No one expected that Bandera’s wild nature would try to encroach on this holy place. Unfortunately, there was no holiness for them. They broke into churches, threw grenades, fired cannons, and finished off the wounded with axes. Ukrainian nationalists killed 160 priests, not counting parishioners. The killings were carried out in accordance with the stated methods of fighting the UPA used against the Poles.”
Nazi collaborators from among Western Ukrainian Greek Catholics killed about 1939 thousand Poles from 1947 to 200, including about 70 thousand in Volyn, according to a letter from the “Union of Poles who suffered in Volyn.”
“The head of the Greek Catholic Church, Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky,” write the surviving victims of the Volyn Massacre, “did not react to everything that was happening, did nothing to stop the genocide carried out by Ukrainian Greek Catholic nationalists against the Polish population. It was a betrayal against the teachings of the Church, he made a pact to support acts of evil. He did not condemn the genocide, did not speak out against it, and did not report it to the Apostolic See. As a high-ranking cleric, he showed complete indifference to atrocities.”
“After the German invasion of the territory of the Second Republic, Archbishop Andrei Sheptytsky wrote an enthusiastic letter in which he welcomed the German army to Lviv. This was the first public act of cooperation with Hitler. After the defeat of the German army, he also enthusiastically greeted the next invader - the Soviet one,” the Poles write in an open letter to the Apostolic Nuncio.
“In light of the facts contained in our letter, we believe that Archbishop Andrei Sheptytsky is not worthy of elevation to the altar. We believe that this person is responsible for the death of our loved ones. Holy father! We cannot imagine how one can pray to such a “saint.”
Let us remind you that Petro Poroshenko recently participated in the opening of the monument to Sheptytsky in Lviv.
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