Постійний Представник України при ООН Сергій Кислиця взяв участь в урочистому молебні в соборі Св.Патріка з нагоди вшанування жертв Голодомору 1932-1933.

 Постійний Представник України при ООН Сергій Кислиця взяв участь в урочистому молебні в соборі Св.Патріка з нагоди вшанування жертв Голодомору 1932-1933.

Шановна українсько громадо, пані Посол, The reverend clergy, Ladies and gentlemen,

It is an honour for me to join all of you in commemorating one of the most tragic pages of history of the 20th century. As in previous years when in this magnificent Cathedral I joined you on this solemn occasion, and particularly since 2014 I feel this stabbing pain that does not wear off, but to the contrary, its intensity increases by the day. It pains me to watch the same evil that planned and executed the genocide walks unpunished for what is soon nine decades. Today we pay tribute to the memory of millions of victims of the Holodomor-Genocide 1932-33 in Ukraine.

Symbolically, the Holodomor remembrance is very close to the International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of Prevention of this Crime. The Day has been established to mark the anniversary of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, signed on 9 December 1948. Genocide, among other things, targets dignity and freedom. Both are the cornerstones of the Ukrainian national character. The totalitarian regimes have always considered them to be a threat and stopped at no crime to destroy Ukrainians as a nation. It was a deliberate starvation, organized by the Stalin regime in 1932-33, and it is an armed aggression against Ukraine now, launched by Russia with the same goal to deprive Ukrainians of the right to chart their own future.

We will continue our work in the United Nations to raise awareness of the horrors of the Holodomor-genocide in Ukraine. We are grateful to those UN Member States that supported in 2018 the Declaration on the eighty-fifth anniversary of the Holodomor. We will work to have more ambitious text and broader group of supporters of a commemorative document on the upcoming 90th anniversary. We are confident that one day UN Member States will call the Great Famine by its real name – the genocide. The day when a vicious cycle of impunity will finally be broken to prevent future tragedies and suffering. The thing the United Nations has failed up till now, because we all have failed to make it do that.

“If we say that we have no sin. We deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 Jn 1:8) It pains me to watch the same evil tortures Ukraine unpunished for what is soon eight years. ______________________ “And I will punish the world for [their] evil, and the wicked for their iniquity, and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and I will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible”, we read in the Book of Isaiah (13:11), the first of the Major Prophets in the Christian Old Testament. The tyrants and oppressors will be punished for their pride, arrogance, and haughtiness. Christians should forgive others, one may say, but forgiveness does not mean impunity. The Lord forgave David, yet bereaved him, and this was not an exception. “The Lord overthrows the thrones of rulers, and enthrones the lowly in their place,” the Book of Sirach (10:7-18) With this in mind, let us join many across the world in lighting the candles and honoring the memory of the perished millions.

Вічна пам'ять жертвам Голодомору.

Слава Україні!