UGCC expects to establish partner relations with authorities after meeting with Yanukovych

The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) hopes that after the meeting with Ukraine’s president on Holy Thursday, the church and state will establish the same partner relations as before the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych, said the head of the Department of External Relations of the UGCC, Fr. Oleksa Petriv.

According to him, if the meeting between the president and the heads of the churches takes place, it will be attended by the head of the UGCC, Patriarch Sviatoslav Shevchuk.

“We also hope that the meeting will be attended by the whole religious spectrum of the state – that is, we want the Council of Churches and Religious Organizations to be heard by our authorities from the top to the bottom. For thus far we have communicated only to a certain level. And now we hope our partnership will develop so it may deal with more specific matters,” stressed the minister.

Also, in his comment on the statement of the president that “the role of the state is not to interfere in the affairs of the church and is to establish equal conditions of development for all the confessions in Ukraine,” Fr. Petriv said that he believes the words of Yanukovych. 

“To tell sincerity from insincerity is the business of psychologists. If a state official of any level, especially of such a high level, declares publicly such a thing, we believe it will be so,” stressed the representative of UGCC, reported gazeta.ua.

The president of Ukraine will meet with the heads of all the Ukrainian churches on Holy Thursday, April 21.