Source: Government of Italy (English)
Undersecretary of State to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers Alfredo Mantovano chaired a meeting at Palazzo Chigi this evening between the Italian Government and a delegation from the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, led by the Major Archbishop of Kyiv-Halyč, His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk.
The meeting was also attended by: the Minister of Culture, Alessandro Giuli; the Minister of the Environment and Energy Security, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin; the Minister of Health, Orazio Schillaci; the Italian Ambassador to the Holy See, Francesco Di Nitto; the President of Triennale Milano, Stefano Boeri; the President of the MAXXI Foundation – National Museum of 21st Century Art, Emanuela Bruni; and, the President of the Bambino Gesù Foundation and Paediatric Hospital, Tiziano Onesti.
The meeting came just a few hours before the start of the 2025 Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC2025), which will be held in Rome tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, 10-11 July, and will be opened with addresses by the President of the Council of Ministers, Giorgia Meloni, and the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky. In this regard, Undersecretary of State Mantovano thanked Archbishop Shevchuk “for having accepted the invitation for a discussion on the very eve of an international event dedicated to the reconstruction of war-torn Ukraine”.
The meeting reaffirmed the key role played by the Greek Catholic Church in providing the population with spiritual and social support over more than 40 months of conflict. “During these years – underlined Undersecretary of State Mantovano – you have demonstrated that you are a vibrant and united Church and community, able to respond as one, together with the other Christian Churches, to the suffering of your people”.
There was a significant focus on the prospects for reconstruction and the role local communities and religious institutions can play in the country’s regeneration. “We are convinced – added Undersecretary of State Mantovano – that the ‘local dimension’ will be one of the pillars of Ukraine’s economic recovery. You too are among the representatives of local areas, demonstrating the crucial contribution believers can make in any context”.
Today’s meeting forms part of a broader cultural and social collaboration programme promoted by the Italian Government which, already since September 2023, has involved institutions such as Triennale Milano and MAXXI in initiatives dedicated to the restoration of war-damaged heritage, including the Transfiguration Cathedral in Odesa, and in training projects in the fields of cultural heritage conservation and management.
At the end of the meeting, Undersecretary of State Mantovano presented His Beatitude Shevchuk with the bronze medal minted in 2024 by the Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato [State Printing Works and Mint] to celebrate Ukraine’s resistance and support the ‘Unbroken Kids’ rehabilitation centre at the Saint Nicholas Children’s Hospital in Lviv.
[Courtesy translation]