Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk’s
comments came in a sermon last week delivered on the Marian feast of
the Theotokos or “Mother of God.” He first condemned abortion, then
linked it to homosexuality.
“Today we are observing a very interesting
and dangerous phenomenon – in a global dimension a new ideology tries to
destroy the family institution” and threatens “a new enslavement of
Ukrainian people. This danger is called gender ideology. This is one
more way to kill a life.”
The
archbishop said the ideology argued that the family was not a God-given
institution but merely a social construct which could be “erected and
dismantled.” He cited Pope Benedict XVI as saying gender ideology was
similar to previous totalitarian systems that attempted to destroy “the
foundation of a humanity, [because] the family institution is much
older than nation or state institutions.”
He
concluded, “So let us pray together in this holiday for the Ukrainian
family, for fathers and mothers, who follow their parental vocation
faithfully and give Church and nation new children. Thus, they give us
all a future.”
Archbishop
Sviatoslav was responding to the November passage of amendments by
Ukraine’s Parliament which specify sexual orientation and gender
identity as categories protected from employment discrimination. Church
organizations fear this will force them to hire practising homosexuals
even though the Christian faith condemns homosexual relations. The
Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church had proposed wording that simply
prohibited discrimination of any kind.
Ukraine
bans same-sex “marriage” in its Constitution and a majority of members
initially opposed the widening of the code, a move prompted by the
European Union’s insistence on it if Ukrainians were to be allowed into
EU countries without visas. Even then, supporters of the changes in the
very factionalized Parliament had to move the amendments seven times
over several days, with much arm-twisting at each juncture, before the
requisite support was assembled on November 12.
Even
the man who engineered the final and successful vote, the parliamentary
speaker Volodymyr Groysman, said he was no fan of the homosexual
agenda, insisting the anti-discrimination amendment had no bearing on
larger issues. “God forbid same-sex marriages in our country,” he told
fellow deputies.
In
condemning the labour code amendment, His Beatitude Sviatoslav was
repeating earlier arguments from the conference of Ukrainian bishops,
and from the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious
Organizations, representing several Orthodox communions and Judaism
along with Catholics. The council warned that the labor code amendments
will be followed by restrictions on free speech, employment quotas for
homosexuals, and legalization of same-sex “marriage.”
Archbishop
Yevstratii, spokesman for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, said at a
council press conference held after the amendments had passed that they
were based on an ideology rather than morality. “There is a mechanism of
natural sexual union between man and woman. But one cannot claim the
naturalness of same-sex relationships, because there is no natural way
for men to unite sexually.”
The
Orthodox archbishop said that the gender ideology behind the labour
code changes was one more “social experiment” in a long series of
ideology-driven experiments through the course of the 20th century. The
latest one “will force out an important institution - the institution
of family.”
Another
member of the council, Deputy Chief Rabbi of Kiev David Milman, said
fighting corruption and encouraging economic growth were better ways to
address the public interest than attacking the family. “If we destroy
the foundation on which the faith in God rests,” he said, “in what way
do we differ from animals?”
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