Apr. 9, 2007 (CWNews.com ) - Ukraine's pro-Russian parliamentary leadership has criticized the country's top Catholic prelates for their public response to the country's political crisis.
The leftist coalition-- composed of the Socialist and Communist parties and the Party of the Regions-- lodged a complaint with Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) about "some leaders of the Catholic Church in the Ukraine." The reference was to Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, the Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, and Bishop Markijan Trofimiak, the vice-president of the Latin-rite Ukrainian bishops' conference.
Ukraine’s political crisis began on April 2 when the country’s president dissolved parliament and called for early elections. The pro-Russian coalition rejected the president’s decision, and neither side is willing to compromise.
Cardinal Husar had held a press conference to say that "the churches cannot be quiet and should not be quiet" in the face of a national political crisis. The All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations sent a letter to the country’s president, Viktor Yushchenko, in support of his dissolution of parliament and call for early parliamentary elections. Metropolitan Volodymyr of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church—Moscow Patriarchate did not sign the letter.
Socialist Party parliamentarian Witalij Szybko has criticized the Catholic Church’s role in the current crisis. “Not since the time of Pope Pius XI has there been such Church interference in political life," he complained.