On his arrival in Ukraine, the pope asked the Orthodox Church for mutual forgiveness for the wrongs committed in both the distant and recent past. The Orthodox Church affiliated with the Moscow Patriarch however did not accept his words. It refused to attend a meeting between the pope and representatives of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations. Ukraine's two other Orthodox Churches (Kyiv Patriarch and the Autocephalous Church) did however attend.

    Even though the Moscow affiliated Orthodox Church rebuffed the words of reconciliation from the pontiff, the trip still had great importance for Ukraine.

    As an independent nation, Ukraine is seeking to define itself as a state. On a world stage, which the pontiff commands, he gave Ukraine legitimacy and definition. When Pope John Paul spoke the words of Ukraine’s famous 19th century poet Taras Shevchenko, “Nowhere in the world is there another Ukraine,” he gave the nation legitimacy. When he spoke in the Ukrainian language at his masses, he gave Ukraine definition. This is very important to a country, which had been under foreign domination for centuries.

    The pope’s act of beautification for sainthood of twenty-eight Ukrainians, who suffered from Soviet and Nazi oppression, was also important for the Ukrainian nation. In this century Ukraine had experienced horrific death and destruction on its territory. In 1933 over seven million were starved to death by an artificial famine perpetuated by the Kremlin. Less than a decade later, over ten million perished during the Nazi occupation. In 1946 Stalin liquidated the Catholic Church. The pontiff spoke of a “land of Ukraine, drenched with the blood of martyrs.”

    The act of beautification was recognition that crimes against humanity had been committed in Ukraine. In the past they were denied because their existence would imply that a desire for a Ukrainian state existed in the Ukrainian people.

    A nation cannot build a new future if it still carries in silence the scars of the atrocities committed against it in the past. With the beautification, the pope gave voice to the existence of these crimes and those who suffered because of them. This will allow Ukraine to finally begin to put behind the past and look ahead. In the pope’s farewell address he offered these words about Ukraine’s past and future. “Even if you still feel the painful scars of the tremendous wounds inflicted over endless years of oppression, dictatorship and totalitarianism, during which the rights of the people were denied and trampled upon, look with confidence to the future. This is the opportune time! This is the time for hope and daring!”