Patriarch Sviatoslav Calls Priests To Keep Away From Election Campaign
In anticipation of the election, the Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Patriarch Sviatoslav (Shevchuk) warned the priests that none of them has a right to praise anyone except God. He said so during his recent visit to Kolomyia of Ivano-Frankivsk Region.
According to the hierarch, “when the Church interferes in politics, it always loses.” “For no political party seeking to present gifts to the Church will let it remain free.”
At the same time, the patriarch reminded the audience about the Pastoral Address of Bishops of UGCC to the people on occasion of elections in which the Church called the faithful to participate in the parliamentary election planned for October of this year. The hierarchs consider it not only a civil but a Christian responsibility of each of us to come the precincts on the day of election.”
“To stay away from the election means to dissociate oneself from the responsibility for the fate of one’s own country, refuse to give a Christian testimony in the social life and to hand one’s own fate and the fate of one’s children and grandchildren to accidental and, possibly, even criminal hands,” reads the address.
The bishops of UGCC advised the believers not to trust the numerous promises of politicians but to consider concrete works of the candidates done for the people.
“As we communicate with the candidates or analyze their programs, let us ask them to answer a few simple questions which are essential for each descent person: what good have you done for your nation? What socially significant initiatives have you proposed and implemented? If you were a deputy in the past, did you fulfill your duty to the nation properly, that is, did you make your choices on the command of your conscience and not a visible or invisible “hand?” reads the address.
The hierarchs also called Greek Catholics not to sell their votes by any means.
“A Christian cannot sell his/her vote at the election or buy votes in favour of any political force as it will make him a direct participant in the corruption which ruins our society. It has become a tradition in the life of our state that various forms of material aid or increase of social payments coincide in time with election campaigns. These are attempts to substitute imitations for real reforms and changes badly needed by various sectors of social life. Under these circumstances, the payments become a kind of voters’ conscience anaesthesia and humiliate the dignity of already humiliated and subdued nation,” warned the bishops.
