- Feb 5, 2002
- 166,654
- 56,277
- Country
- United States
- Faith
- Catholic
- Marital Status
- Married
- Politics
- US-Others
A conversation with John Burger about At the Foot of the Cross: Lessons from Ukraine—An Interview with Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk.
John Burger is a Catholic journalist and author of a book-length interview with Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk titled At the Foot of the Cross: Lessons from Ukraine
(Our Sunday Visitor, 2023). Archbishop Shevchuk has been Major Archbishop of Kyiv-Galicia since 2011. In that role, he’s witnessed the historical convulsions suffered by Ukraine: in the 2014 Russian seizure of Crimea, Moscow’s ongoing proxy war in Ukraine’s east, and finally Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Archbishop Shevchuk provides a religious overview of the situation, with particular attention to the situation of Ukraine’s Greek Catholics, Christians who follow Eastern liturgical traditions but are in union with Rome.
Mr. Burger spoke with Catholic World Report recently about his book.
CWR: What inspired you to write At the Foot of the Cross? Presumably, the idea came to you before the February 2022 Russian further invasion of Ukraine?
John Burger: Although I’m a Latin Catholic, I’ve been interested in Eastern Christianity for some time—especially the Byzantine tradition. I’ve been writing for Catholic media since 1993, and I began to notice that the Catholic press focused almost exclusively on RomanCatholicism. So I’ve tried to stay attuned to interesting stories from “the East.”
In 2018, when I learned that His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, was planning to visit the United States, I requested an in-person interview. So I met him at the Supreme Convention of the Knights of Columbus, where he was the keynote speaker, in Baltimore.
After I wrote a couple of articles based on the interview, a member of his staff asked if I would be interested in writing a biography of His Beatitude. I agreed to work on it, but His Beatitude was averse to having a biography written about him. He agreed, however, to collaborate on a book-length interview. I envisioned it to appear in question-and-answer format.
CWR: At the time of the interview, what most struck you about Archbishop Shevchuk?
Continued below.
www.catholicworldreport.com
John Burger is a Catholic journalist and author of a book-length interview with Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk titled At the Foot of the Cross: Lessons from Ukraine
(Our Sunday Visitor, 2023). Archbishop Shevchuk has been Major Archbishop of Kyiv-Galicia since 2011. In that role, he’s witnessed the historical convulsions suffered by Ukraine: in the 2014 Russian seizure of Crimea, Moscow’s ongoing proxy war in Ukraine’s east, and finally Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Archbishop Shevchuk provides a religious overview of the situation, with particular attention to the situation of Ukraine’s Greek Catholics, Christians who follow Eastern liturgical traditions but are in union with Rome.
Mr. Burger spoke with Catholic World Report recently about his book.
CWR: What inspired you to write At the Foot of the Cross? Presumably, the idea came to you before the February 2022 Russian further invasion of Ukraine?
John Burger: Although I’m a Latin Catholic, I’ve been interested in Eastern Christianity for some time—especially the Byzantine tradition. I’ve been writing for Catholic media since 1993, and I began to notice that the Catholic press focused almost exclusively on RomanCatholicism. So I’ve tried to stay attuned to interesting stories from “the East.”
In 2018, when I learned that His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, was planning to visit the United States, I requested an in-person interview. So I met him at the Supreme Convention of the Knights of Columbus, where he was the keynote speaker, in Baltimore.
After I wrote a couple of articles based on the interview, a member of his staff asked if I would be interested in writing a biography of His Beatitude. I agreed to work on it, but His Beatitude was averse to having a biography written about him. He agreed, however, to collaborate on a book-length interview. I envisioned it to appear in question-and-answer format.
CWR: At the time of the interview, what most struck you about Archbishop Shevchuk?
Continued below.
Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk on life, faith, Ukraine, and the Greek Catholic Church
www.catholicworldreport.com
