Viktor Yanukovych, photo via wikipedia.org

Ukrainian Catholics want president to upheld equal religious rights

Bishops from Ukraine's Greek Catholic church have urged the country's newly elected president, Viktor Yanukovych, to ensure all believers are treated equally under the constitution, while pledging to respect his Orthodox beliefs, reports Ecumenical News International.

"Ukrainian legislation envisages that all churches and religious communities duly registered by State bodies are provided with equal rights," said the Greek Catholics. Their church combines eastern rites with loyalty to Rome, and is larger than Ukraine's Latin-rite Roman Catholic Church which also has adherents in the country.

"Unlike certain countries of the world, where one religious organization enjoys privileged status, Ukraine is a multi-confessional State," the Synod of Bishops of the church's Kiev-Halych archbishopric said in a message after a meeting in Lviv in late March.

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TAGS: Ukraine Greek Catholic church Viktor Yanukovych religious rights Roman Catholic Church

[04/20/2010]

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