Patriarch Kirill: Uniates, schismatics seeking to eradicate Orthodoxy in Ukraine

Orthodoxy Cognate PAGE August 20, 2014 2:34 pm 51

Moscow, August 18, Interfax – Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia has called on the primates of the local Orthodox Churches to stand up in defense of the Orthodox believers in Ukraine.

“As far back as last autumn when the present political crisis in Ukraine just began, representatives of the Greek Catholic Church and schismatic communities, who appeared in the Kiev Maidan, openly preached hatred towards the Orthodox Church, calling to seize Orthodox shrines and to eradicate Orthodoxy from the territory of Ukraine,” Patriarch Kirill said in a letter to Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, which is available on the Moscow Patriarchate’s website.

“With the beginning of hostilities, the Uniates [Greek Catholics] and schismatics, having been given arms, under the pretext of antiterrorist operation, began an outright aggression against the clergy of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the east of the country,” Patriarch Kirill’s letter says.

“The Uniates and schismatics linked up with them seek to gain the upper hand over the canonical Orthodoxy in Ukraine, while the Ukrainian Orthodox Church continues with patience and courage to take pastoral care of her suffering faithful in this very difficult situation. Most of the clergy who serve in places that have become arenas for hostilities have remained with their flock, sharing with them all the terrors of civil war,” he said.

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COMMENTS

Wordpress (51)

TommyD 10 years

This is really sad. The truth is that every side in the Ukraine conflict has acted in ways that are less Christian than they should be, but the worst behavior has been on the pro-Russian side. Here are the facts:
1) The Uniates have every right to move Ukraine politically closer to Western Europe
2) The Orthodox have every right to move Ukraine politically closer to Russia
3) There is no inherent conflict between 1) and 2) if done in a fraternal spirit
4) The Moscow Patriarchate says
– The Uniates are lying about atrocities
– The Protestants are lying about atrocities
– The breakaway Kyiv Patriarchate is lying about atrocities
– The Muslims are lying about atrocities
Since the likelihood of these all being lies is low, the most charitable conclusion is that
the Moscow Patriarchate is blind, and the least charitable is that it is corrupt
5) The Uniates and the breakaway Kyiv Patriarchate could have been more open in
seeking reconciliation with Moscow, in particular they should have insisted on the
invitation of Patriarch Kirill to the 1,000 anniversary of the baptism of the Kievian Rus
6) Patriarch Onuphry’s recent comments are correct and accurate. Patriarch Kirill and
Metropolitan Hilarion (basically a good man) should listen to him over Putin
7) The Moscow Patriarchate is being corrupted by Russia’s laws regulating religion, and
this corruption is the root of the religious conflict in Ukraine and Crimea today. For the
sake of all Christians these laws need to be repealed