“We appreciate Ukraine’s closer association with Europe, not only because it will help Ukraine’s defense at this time of the unprovoked Russian invasion, but also because Ukraine will contribute much to the EU,” Ukrainian Catholic Archbishop Borys Gudziak of Philadelphia said after the EU made Ukraine a candidate for EU membership.
“Ukrainians are showing that there are principles worth living and worth dying for,” he continued. “Ukrainians in the hundreds are giving their lives every day for the principles of democracy, justice and freedom.”
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Holy See’s Secretary of State, also welcomed the EU’s decision.