UGCC rep comments on Suprun's call to support homosexuals

Ulyana Suprun and Metropolitan of Philadelphia Boris Gudziak, head of the UCU. Photo: Facebook/Alexander Voznesensky

Hieromonk Justin (Yuri) Boiko, responsible for the monasticism of the Lviv Archdiocese of the UGCC, addressed an open letter to Ulyana Suprun, the former acting Minister of Health of Ukraine and founder of the School of Rehabilitation Medicine of the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) in connection with her statements regarding support for the LGBT community.

In his public address, published on Boiko's Facebook page, the UCC representative stressed that it is not the first time that Ulyana Suprun has publicly approved and even more – promoted "same-sex marriages, the right to adopt children, LGBT people, etc.".

"Well, democracy is democracy," he said. “You speak out publicly, and I as a priest and theologian am obliged to publicly assess your statement in the light of the doctrine of the Catholic Church. So, as a priest, I claim that when you publicly write such things and at the same time admit your belonging to the Catholic Church (the UGCC as far as I understand), your words contradict the teaching of the Church.”

"You should either declare that you disagree with the teaching of Christ and the Church, and therefore dissociate yourself from it, or ask forgiveness from all those Christians who consider you to be an authority, claiming that you wrote this, not knowing the science of the Church," Boiko wrote, stressing that he expects Ulyana Suprun to respond to his open address.

According to the Orthodox analyst and blogger Alexander Voznesensky, the question raised by the Uniate clergy "is actually much deeper than it may seem at first sight”.

"The fact is that Suprun is not just one of many UGCC believers," he wrote on his Facebook page. “She came to the chair of Minister of Health from the Ukrainian Catholic University, and the leadership of this structure, which is managed by UGCC hierarch Boris Gudziak, has been very supportive of her all along. And it's not just that Gudziak and Suprun are both Americans. No, the point is that the Ukrainian Catholic University, which, by the way, played a key role in the organization of coup d’état 2014, receives most of its funding from the U.S. and Canada. And among the sponsors of this institution are large foundations, including such as the Soros Foundation. In view of this, scandals on this topic regularly arose at the university itself. This was directly written about by former UCU employee Alexander Sich, who, after teaching at this institution, wrote that he was shocked by the scale of support for LGBT within the walls of this Catholic University.”

Thus, according to Voznesensky, "Suprun simply continues to act within the framework of the UCU policy”.

"Given this, Comrade Justin Boiko should have addressed Gudziak initially, but he won't. Why? Well, first of all, it's an image blow to the UGCC. Secondly, when the UGCC dealt with scandals on sexual grounds, the head of the UGCC Sviatoslav Shevchuk intervened in the case (after all, much money allocated for the UCU programs also goes to the UGCC) and said that all statements of priests and believers of the UGCC with accusations against the UCU are like devil arrows. He simply indicated at once that all those who oppose the UCU will be regarded as enemies of the church. Therefore, Boiko, who at that time made statements against the UCU, is now afraid to do so and limited himself to a formal appeal to Suprun, pretending that he does not understand where the wind is blowing from," he stressed.

As reported earlier, Ulyana Suprun spoke about gays in the U.S. church and called to support the LGBT community.

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