Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada issued an address to Pope Benedict XVI denouncing attempts of some Catholic Church officials to interfere into the nation’s political situation.‘Ukraine is undergoing an uneasy time and we all need much patience and wisdom to overcome these challenges in the best way. It is a pity that the current political crisis happened in Ukraine during the holy week,’ the Ukrainian parliament’s address said.
‘Active involvement of Christian congregations into Ukraine’s political life is unfortunately not something new for this country, yet we especially distresses as we saw two honorable Catholic hierarchs, Cardinal Husar and Bishop Trofimiak, among the statement signers,’ the MPs said.
Shortly before that the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations issued the statement suggesting that an extraordinary parliamentary election may help Ukraine to get out of the political crisis.
The statement was signed by the leader of the so-called Kievan Patriarchate Filaret Denisenko, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, Bishop Mikhail Panochko of the Church of Christians of the Evangelical Faith of Ukraine, the president of the Ukrainian Conference of Roman Catholic Bishops Bishop Markijan Trofimiak, and some others.
‘We would like to believe that the Apostolic Roman Church will remain above the political struggle. We hope that close cooperation between the Roman Catholic Church and their European colleagues will make them more religious, tolerant and wise,’ the parliamentary address said.
The full text of the Verkhovna Rada’s address is published by the official website of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce