Patriarch Kirill grateful to Pope for considered stance on Ukraine: Condemns Uniates

Interfax-religion

Moscow, May 5, Interfax – Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia has praised Vatican’s position on the Ukrainian crisis but condemned the activities in Ukraine of the followers of the Greek Catholic Church (Uniates).

“Pope Francis and the Holy See’s State secretary have taken a considered position on the situation in Ukraine, avoiding unilateral assessments and calling for an end to the fratricidal war,” the patriarch said at a ceremony on Thursday which saw him receiving honorary doctorate from the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Diplomatic Academy.
Such a position coincides with that of Moscow Patriarchate, the patriarch said.

“This is very important because, as we know, the Greek Catholics and schismatics in Ukraine have taken a unilateral position, add oil to the fire, incite negative feelings, pit people against one another, and call this the protection of national interests, stage witch hunts, seize Orthodox churches and from being a peacekeeping force have turn into an ideological one that serves one side of the civil conflict,” the church leader said.

Today, only the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate has the peacekeeping potential, and it is “being persecuted precisely because it stands firmly on the peacekeeping position,” he said.

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