Russian Church official decisively rejects reproaches of politizing Patriarch Kirill’s visit to Yanukovich inauguration

Moscow, February 25, Interfax – Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia will focus on celebrating a Divine Liturgy and a prayer service during his visit to Ukraine, head of the Moscow Patriarchate Information Department Vladimir Legoyda says.

On air of the Govorit Moskva radio station he mentioned that Patriarch Kirill came to Ukraine in “difficult, destiny time,” to “be with his flock, to pray with his flock when the country faces very serious changes.”

“We have stressed more than once that the Russian Orthodox Church is not a Church of the Russian Federation, so today I’ve been disappointed to read at an information website that head of the Presidential Office Naryshkin and Patriarch Kirill will represent Russia at inauguration ceremony in Ukraine,” Legoyda said.

He added then it was equally possible to claim that Patriarch Kirill represented Ukraine in Russia. To consider pastoral visit as a visit of a state official to another country is “categorically incorrect,” Legoyda stressed.

According to him, flock of the Russian Orthodox Church lives in Ukraine, in Byelorussia, in Moldavia. “All these people are the Patriarch’s flock and thus the color of his passport doesn’t matter at all,” head of the Information Department said.

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