The UGCC to punish priests who fail to withdraw from elections

His Eminence Bohdan (Dziurakh), Administrator of the UGCC Patriarchal Curia and Secretary of the Synod of Bishops, on behalf of His Beatitude Sviatoslav, appealed to the ruling archbishops and bishops of the UGCC in Ukraine regarding the participation of some priests of the UGCC in this year's elections to local governments.

“As you know, these actions are contrary to church law of the Catholic Church that prohibits direct involvement of the clergy in the political processes and decisions of the 63rd session of the Synod of Bishops that were formulated the instructions you are familiar with about the behavior of priests of the UGCC during political election campaigns",” goes the letter of Bishop Bohdan.

Secretary of the Synod noted that such activities of the clergy, except that do not meet the Church teaching, “also distress the faithful people, and undermine the authority of the Church in the eyes of the citizens of Ukraine.”

In this regard, Bishop Bohdan requested the UGCC hierarchs to check whether any of the clergymen behaved this way, and in the case of the statements to take steps to address the situation, namely:

- oblige these clergymen to quickly withdraw their candidacies from the election race and make a warning about the inadmissibility of such actions in the future;

- In the case of disobedience – impose penalties, according to church law;

- remind all clergymen the content of instructions about the behavior of the UGCC clergymen during political campaigns.

"Please, show you pastoral consideration to prevent repetition of past errors and protect our church from the scandal, and at the same time give both clergy and laity proper moral guidance for their behavior during this time which is hard for our Motherland,” Bishop Bohdan, Secretary of the Synod of Bishops ended his letter. It was reported by Information Department of the UGCC.