Petro Poroshenko and the head of the Church in Zarvanytsya
The establishment of the Local Church in Ukraine will allow the Uniates to realize their interests, said Vyacheslav Pikhovshek.
The idea of autocephaly in Ukraine may play into the hands of the Greek Catholics, said journalist and political analyst Vyacheslav Pikhovshek in the broadcast of “Subjective results”.
According to Pikhovshek, there is no guarantee that “epic” pursues the interests of autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodoxy. In turn, the plans of the UGCC you can guess, if you remember some of the remarks of the leader of the Uniates Sviatoslav Shevchuk.
“In April of this year a meeting of head of the UGCC with the authorized Ambassador of the USA in Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, in which Sviatoslav Shevchuk said that the establishment of the Local Church is only the first step to achieve the unity of the churches of Volodymyr’s baptism, – the journalist explained. – The next step is “Ecumenical dialogue between the UGCC and the Ukrainian Orthodoxy on the restoration of the original unity of this Church””.
According to Pikhovshek if we translate all this into plain language, we can see a clear sequence of actions.
“The first step: the defeat of the canonical Church in the person of the UOC and the creation on its ruins of a Local Church, where first place will be political and social rather than spiritual values, – said the expert. – Second step: the gradual retraction of the new Church with its new political and social orientation in strategic Alliance with the UGCC, which will end with the dissolution of the Orthodox Church in the structure of the UGCC, as more powerful from a spiritual point of view of the organization.”
According to Pikhovshek, this development would solve a number of strategic objectives for Greek Catholics.
“First, having taken to himself a single Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church will finally be a nationwide organization, beyond the range of the Western regions. Secondly, a significant strengthening of its resource base will allow a new force to put before the Vatican the question of granting the UGCC the status of Patriarchate. And this, perhaps, is the goal of all today’s games with the autocephaly for the Orthodox of Ukraine”, – concluded the expert.
Earlier the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, speaking on 15 July on the “easier” of the UGCC in Zarvanytsya, urged to pray for the obtaining of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church autocephaly, as it is one of the foundations of security in the country.
In mid-April, Poroshenko appealed to the Constantinople Patriarch Bartholomew to grant the Tomos of autocephaly of the Church in Ukraine and announced the creation of a Single Local Church. The Verkhovna Rada supported the President.