Shevchuk: Vatican's document on LGBT couples "doesn’t concern" UGCC

Sviatoslav Shevchuk claims that the UGCC does not have the same theology as the Pope. Photo: catholicsun

The UGCC on its official website published a Communiqué signed by S. Shevchuk, which comments on the attitude of Greek Catholics to the Declaration of the Dicastery of the Faith "Fiducia Supplicans" of the Vatican on the blessing of LGBT couples.

The text of the document says that the Declaration allegedly applies only to Roman Catholics, not to the Eastern Catholic Churches, and that it "has no legal force for the believers of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church".

The Uniate leadership assured that "the meanings of the concept of 'blessing' in the UGCC and the Latin Church are different" because the UGCC allegedly has a different "theological, canonical and spiritual heritage".

Shevchuk assured that the blessing of a UGCC priest or bishop is always "a liturgical gesture that cannot be separated from the rest of the content of the liturgical rites and reduced only to the circumstances and needs of private piety."

"According to the traditions of the Byzantine rite, the concept of "blessing" means approval, permission, or even an order regarding a certain kind of deeds, prayer and ascetic practices, in particular certain kinds of fasting and prayer. Obviously, a blessing by a clergyman always has an evangelical and catechetical dimension, so in no way can it contradict the teaching of the Catholic Church on the family as a faithful, indissoluble and fruitful union of love between a man and a woman," Shevchuk said.

Earlier, the UOJ in the article "Vatican and Same-Sex Unions: to Bless or not to Bless?" analysed in detail the provisions of the Declaration of the Dicastery of the Faith "Fiducia Supplicans".

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