More on the Ukraine revolution

From VaticanRadio:
....The protests in an increasing number of public squares across Ukraine are more about a growing people’s movement than plain political expression, says a Ukrainian Greek Catholic bishop.
While the media is reporting that the ongoing protests are motivated by the Ukrainian government’s refusal to sign an agreement that would have steered Ukraine towards Europe, Bishop Borys Gudziak says the story “has a much broader context and a much deeper quality.”
The Maidan movement is a reaction against the general atmosphere of fear and intimidation in Ukraine and against wanton corruption in the country, he said. It is a movement of principle and dignity, with spiritual expression.....

.....Protest leaders include many from the Ukrainian middle class; about two-thirds of protesters have university degrees, he said.
The clergy from the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, the various Orthodox churches, the Roman Catholic Church and Protestant communities, as well as Jewish and Muslim clerics, have joined protesters seeking to minister to their spiritual needs.......

.......The religious presence in the main Independence Square in Kiev is obvious. Acting in accord, the churches hold ecumenical prayer on Sundays at noon. And throughout the night, when fear of violence is greatest, prayer is led from the main stage on the hour every hour, said the bishop. Religious services are held and “ecclesial tents” are set up in the square, where people can pray quietly before an icon, access the sacrament of confession and spiritual guidance..........

.......In early January, the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture sent a letter to the Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, stating that the Church’s involvement in the protest could lead to a revocation of its legal status.
“That is a very serious threat expressed to a Church that for much of the 20th century, by the powers that be, was outlawed,” Bishop Gudziak said .
From 1945 to 1989, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church was the biggest illegal Church in the world and the biggest body of resistance in the Soviet Union, he stated. It did not collaborate with the regime; as a result, by 1945, all of its bishops were imprisoned........