Budka Biography Presented in Rome

The presentation of God's Martyr, History's Witness, the historical biography of Blessed Bishop-Martyr Nykyta Budka, took place on 18 March 2015, at Centro Ecumenica in Borgo Pio, near the Vatican. Presentations were given by: Bishop Borys Gudziak, Ukrainian Eparch of France and Benelux and President of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv; Father James McCann, SJ, Rector of the Pontifical Oriental Institute, Dr. Gianpaolo Rigotti, Archivist of the Congregation for the Eastern Churches and Professor of the Oriental Institute, and the author. Father McCann acted as moderator.  Among those present were: His Beatitude, Patriarch Sviatoslav Shevchuk, Father and Head of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church; Bishop Hlib Lonchyna, Ukrainian Eparch of Great Britain and Apostolic Visitor of the Irish Republic, Bishop Irenaeus Bilyk, Canon of the Liberian Basilica of Mary Major, Her Excellency Tetiana Izhveska, Ukrainian Ambassador to the Holy See, clergy, religious, historians, archivists and other scholars. The presentation began with the singing of Царю небесний (O Heavenly King), led by Patriarch Sviatoslav.

Report in Ukrainian by UGCC Press Service

"Immigrant bishop, builder, martyr" by Laura Ieraci

Vatican Radio Interview with Christopher Wells

Rome Presentation of Budka Biography

Holodomor - Death by Famine. 80th Anniversary Commemorated in Rome

From 11 through 24 November, the City of Rome officially commemorates the 80th anniversary of the Holodomor, an artificial famine imposed by Stalin on Ukraine and other parts of the Soviet Union.  A list of events may be found here on the city's website.

Among the events being held, on 21 November 2013 a scholarly conference took place at Rome's City Hall (Campidoglio) with the participation of the City, the Ukrainian Ambassador to Italy, and the Apostolic Visitor for Ukrainians in Italy.

I presented a lecture entitled "La Santa Sede e il Holodomor nell'Archivio Segreto Vaticano ed altre fonti della Sede Apostolica Romana" (The Holy See and Holodomor in the Vatican Secret Archives and other archives of the Roman Apostolic See. This lecture was structured as follows:

Gli Archivi della Sede Apostolica – I fondi archiviali - I documenti custoditi in Vaticano sull’Holodomor - Compendio storico vaticano sul Holodomor - La raccolta delle informazioni - Il coordinamento dei sussidi erogati in denaro; gli interventi diplomatici - Lo sforzo di lanciare una missione di soccorso.

A Ukrainian article on the confernece was published in Radio Svoboda.

Interviews of the participants and video coverage was done by Rome Reports.
  

Here are links to past interviews by myself an my co-editor on our book, The Holy See and the Holodomor: Documents from the Vatican Secret Archives Concerning the Great Famine of 1932–1933 in Soviet Ukraine.