Manifesto

We, the non-institutional media of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and the Roman Catholic Church in Ukraine, in times of open Russian aggression and war against Ukraine, unite our efforts for joint action.

We firmly believe that among the primary needs of every believer of the Catholic Church are not only personal safety, own home, food, clothing, and medical care, but also the right to access to accurate and verified information, spiritual and prayerful support, interpersonal contact, especially with their pastors. In times of war, these needs become even more urgent.

We recognize that every Catholic journalist is an individual with his or her own face and history. We are sure that the editorial offices of Catholic media bear moral and material responsibility for their employees, especially in difficult times of war.

We state that the Catholic Church in Ukraine is in danger of losing its voice if the material difficulties caused by war will lead to the closure of Catholic media. We also state that this will harm the Church itself and its faithful and employees of these media.

Therefore, we, the authorized representatives of the Ukrainian nationwide Catholic Media, aware of the needs of the faithful and of our responsibility to our employees, establish a joint project to support Ukrainian Catholic journalists called “Catholic Voice of Ukraine” to preserve the voice of the Catholic Church in Ukraine. The project aims to maintain the full-fledged activity of the mentioned media by raising funds both in Ukraine and abroad to provide at least half of the monthly salaries of their employees (on the average level of the pre-war period).

We are united in this project around the Ukrainian Catholic Press Association, founded in Lviv in 2015 with the blessing of the relevant Church authorities. We hope to eventually extend this support to other Catholic media and individual Catholic journalists who request it in the future.

The project timeframes cover the entire period from the signing of the manifesto until the official end of the war and the first years after it.

To ensure the activities of the “Catholic Voice of Ukraine” project, we delegate all necessary powers to act on our behalf to the project manager appointed by the Ukrainian Catholic Press Association. The duties of the project manager will include establishing the canonical and civil legal form of the project; representation of the project members before Church and state authorities, charitable foundations, and individual benefactors (according to the project goals); provision, control, and distribution of the funds raised; systematic reporting to stakeholders; selection of the necessary number of collaborators, etc.

With faith and hope of God’s assistance and human support, we, the Ukrainian Catholic Media, continue to fulfill our mission in this historical time of the war for the independence of our Homeland. Our unity and joint action matter. Let us save the voice of the Church together!

Signed by: