Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church – Has Been and Will Stay Outside of politics

“The position of our Church regarding the second round of elections is presented in the Synod’s Address. Let the priests in this difficult time for our Motherland be examples of political non-engagement, Christian culture, and zealous prayer, and encourage the same from all the faithful. The rest we entrust in God’s Providence, hoping for His favor and guardianship on the Church and on the nation,” states the letter of Bishop Bohdan (Dzyurakh), Secretary of the Synod of Bishops of UGCC, addressed to all bishops of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) in Ukraine. The letter was written on the commission of Patriarch Lubomyr, in response to the open letter of the national deputy of Ukraine Petro Pysarchuk, as reported by the UGCC information Department on February 8, 2010.

The response was sent directly to Mr. Pysarchuk. “Having no chance to check on the authenticity of the information given by you, but sharing your disturbance in relation to honesty and transparency of the election campaign, we undertook necessary steps to prevent and prohibit appearances or statements from the side of our clergy, contradictory with the position of the Church regarding the electoral processes, or the general ethical norms,” states the document.

Bishop Bohdan remarks thus that “the Church neither shares, nor supports any displays of humiliation of human dignity, the fostering of enmity or opposition in the society.”

At the end of January some electronic mass media (report found on web page of UNIAN) wrote that the national deputy of Ukraine Petro Pysarchuk had written an open letter to the head of the UGCC. In the letter Mr. Pysarchuk complains about the fact that according to his information, some of the clergy exhibit improper and even direct offences about one of the presidential candidates of Ukraine.