Yurii Bohutskyi: Politicians provoke confrontations between churches

In an interview to the newspaper Day, Deputy Minister of Culture of Ukraine Yurii Bohutskyi said that he did not deny the importance of the participation of the church in a number of socially significant problems but stressed that there all indications that the politicization of the church, as well as adding the religious factor to politics, sometimes leads to complications, additional contradictions and confrontations in the society.

According to Yurii Bohutskyi, the church is a conservative structure with its own traditions, canons and historical positions, and it is not to be accountable to politicians and society; the contradictions between the churches are created by politicians themselves.

“Let us consider who causes the contradictions between the churches: it is politicians. Does a priest have the right to participate in the elections as representatives of political parties? The church today thinks about this question. For instance, it has recently been discussed in Moscow at a session of the Hierarchical Council. But, regardless, one can see today the politicization of religious organizations and religious institutions. It is enough to say that approximately 250 religious figures ran in the last local elections,” said the deputy Minister of Culture.