"Greeted with an ovation by the Council Fathers, the Metropolitan of Lviv of the Greek Catholic Rite, Józef Slipyj, made a firm and authoritative intervention against atheism at the council session on 11 day of this month [November].
In his speech, the Metropolitan appealed to the Council to find the most appropriate and effective ways for our time to fight this widespread evil and danger throughout the entire world. This appeal to create specific norms for the apostolate of the struggle against atheism made a profound impression on those present. It was like an echo of the words of the Holy Father, spoken at the opening of the second session of the Council.
The first appeal to the struggle against atheism, at the Council, came from the lips of a bishop from behind the Iron Curtain.
The Metropolitan also requested that the Council raise the Metropolitan See of Kiev-Halych to the rank of a patriatchate: the Uniate bishop emphasized that those lands belonged to the sphere of Western Christianity, and of their connection with Catholic Rome and the See of St. Peter."
– Information Service of the Embassy of the Polish Republic to the Vatican, no. 31, Rome, 13 November 1963.
