UGCC Metropolitan of Ivano-Frankivsk: We need to pray so that we are not ashamed of the future

During a meeting with Precarpathian journalists, Metropolitan Volodymyr (Viytyshyn) voiced his opinion about the second round of the presidential elections.

“The church must pray. We always say prayers for the fair and just elections,” says Metropolitan Viytyshin. “When they arrive, one usually feels anxious. We learn to live at such a time, as, earlier, we used to live in a system when everything was known in advance. Now the result is unknown. This testifies to the free choice of every person. But we still cannot isolate the elections from populism, which is available to a large extent.”

According to the hierarch, each of us must realize – his voice is the future, the tomorrow of the children, grandchildren and the whole society, of our Homeland. Especially now, when the war is ongoing in the country.

“Therefore, one should pray at best that we elect the figures who will lead Ukraine in a good direction so that we are not ashamed of the future, and the authorities could represent us with dignity at the international level. We learn a lot. Compared to other countries, ours is young, therefore, we learn [the ways of] democracy. Taking into account the past elections in the country, we conclude that if people had not sold their votes for the money, our best sons would surely have not died in the East. Ukraine would have been secured and had taken a place in the European Union. It would be guarded by NATO troops as our closest neighbors are – Romania, Hungary, Poland, Lithuania. Until recently, just like us, they were in a socialist camp, but now they are much better protected.”

Therefore, as Metropolitan Volodymyr (Viytyshyn) stressed, it depends on those who live in the east and west of our country how long our way to safety will last.