UGCC bishop urges to get away from Moscow and adopt Gregorian calendar
In the opinion of the UGCC exarch in Italy, the "old" calendar is used only by the Churches influenced by Moscow – Jerusalem, Serbian and Georgian, monasteries of Athos.
The representative of the UGCC in Italy, Exarch Dionisio Lachovicz, published a "pastoral message" in which he called on the Uniates to "get away from Moscow" and switch to the Gregorian calendar.
Dionisio Lachovicz noted that "with the creation of the church structure of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Italy, we also faced the issue of synchronizing the liturgical life of all our parishes in accordance with the conditions in which we live and in accordance with the requirements of the times".
According to him, “many believers of our Church in Italy, as well as in Ukraine, in recent years have increasingly raised the issue of the possibility of celebrating the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ together with the majority of Christians around the world on December 25”, and among the Uniates in Italy "There is a time for a request to change the liturgical calendar to the Gregorian, the so-called ‘new style’”.
In his opinion, “only those Churches that have been influenced by Moscow for a long time use the “old” calendar. This applies to believers in the Russian, Jerusalem, Serbian and Georgian Churches, Athonite monasteries, as well as Orthodox Christians in Ukraine and Belarus".
He is confident that the transition to a “new style” will help “the Ukrainian Christian get rid of the feeling of separateness, isolation from world Christianity, take a step forward, demonstrate our openness, ability to keep up with the times, preserving our identity”.
That is why he appealed to all priests and believers of the UGCC “to prepare our communities for the transition to the use of the Gregorian calendar in our liturgical practice”.
Earlier, the UOJ wrote that the Chernivtsi Uniates will celebrate Christmas on December 25 to break away from Russia.
