UGCC Is Not Against Construction of UOC-Moscow Patriarchate Church in Lviv

It is not the UGCC’s business to allocate or not allocate land to the Moscow Patriarchate (MP), as there are authorities for that, “but whether we are against it or not, we certaintly do not mind,” said the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), Patriarch Lubomyr, in an interview to the newspaper Day.

“I myself wrote a letter to the city authorities several years ago saying that we, the Greek Catholics, have absolutely nothing against the city allocating an appropriate land plot for the construction of a cathedral for the MP. This document exists: let them look for it,” said the head of the UGCC in reposonce to the journalist's comment that the Moscow Patriarchate states that it opposes the construction of the UGCC church in Odesa because Greek Catholics allegedly do not allow them to build a church in Lviv.   

In his comment on the situation regarding the construction of the cathedral of the UGCC in Odesa, Patriarch Lubomyr said, “It seems to me that someone failed to see – as it was probably not convenient to – that our each duly registered church, religious organization in Ukraine has some rights.  And these rights do not depend on other people’s opinion of it."

According to the head of UGCC, the tragedy of the situation in Odesa and similar situations is that someone deliberately refuses to understand that the Constitution and constitutional rights should be ensured for everyone, irrespective of whether there are ten million of them or ten thousand or a thousand. "Everyone has a right. Because later negative consequences may come for those who pass such decisions. For when someone begins to cry that everything should be for us and only for us and the authorities blindly obey it is not a healthy situation. I am sorry to admit that, but that is true,” said Patriarch Lubomyr.

As RISU earlier reported, the press service of the Odesa Eparchy of the UOC-MP headed by Bishop Ahafanhel (Savin) of Odesa and Izmail on September 1 published a statement calling the authorities not to allow the construction of a Greek Catholic Church in Odesa.

According to the Information Department of the UGCC, in answer to the statement of the Odesa representatives of the UOC-MP, the hierarchs of the UGCC representing Greek Catholic eparchies of Ukraine, European countries, South and North Americas, and Australia passed a Synodal Address to President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych calling the head of the state not to allow in Ukraine the stirring of religious hatred, interdenominational intolerance, and restriction of the constitutional rights of citizens because of their religious beliefs.