The Chairman of the Department for external Church relations of the Moscow Patriarchate Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk
The political task of Kiev is to break the resistance of the UOC, which is not going to participate in the “unification Council,” said Metropolitan Hilarion.
The task to lead the “unification Council” as much as possible the number of canonical bishops of the UOC to the President Poroshenko has set Patriarch Bartholomew, as if this is the “Cathedral” one of the dissenters, it will look absurd and weird. This was stated on air of transfer of “Church and peace”, Chairman of the Department for external Church relations of the Moscow Patriarchate Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, reports the DECR communication service.
“All these actions are a consequence of the policy of the current Ukrainian authorities aimed at the discrimination of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The canonical Church does not want to participate in that lawless act that is trying to commit in Ukraine Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and which will be called the “unification Council””.
The Bishop added: “Supposedly the “Council” must unite all the branches of Ukrainian Orthodoxy, but in fact, no branches, but there is a Ukrainian Church, which unites the majority of Orthodox believers, and there are two groups of dissenters. While the authorities of Ukraine failed to unite even these two groups of dissenters”.
According to him, the authorities in whatever was necessary to break the will of the Ukrainian hierarchs: taking all possible action in order to change the situation in favor of Ukrainian authorities.
“Let’s not forget that in the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church 90 bishops, and all of them headed a large diocese with thousands of people, with hundreds of temples. While Raskolnikov does not reach, probably, and 40 pseudo-bishops. And some of them lead, in fact, a nominal diocese. If all this so-called “unification Council” will consist only of the dissenters, of course, he will not have even a shred of legitimacy, is necessary in order to set this meeting to acknowledge that it understands Patriarch Bartholomew. So I think that he put in front of Poroshenko’s goal to achieve the participation of at least one of the canonical hierarchs of the Church,” explained Bishop.
According to the Hierarch, the President Poroshenko is doing everything in order to stay in power, and for this he “needs some high-profile successes and high-profile victory”: “One of those victories they conceived the creation of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Church, but only the people of the Church against the draft, so he can’t move.”
As reported by PWC, informed the head of the parliamentary faction “the Opposition bloc” Vadim Novinsky said, is reconciliation and stitching Ukraine President’s team plays in the most painful and dangerous contradictions, at the risk of the remnants of peace among Ukrainians.
Recall, December 9, Metropolitan Hilarion of Donetsk and Mariupol, Metropolitan and Horlivka and Slavic Mitrophan not allowed to cross the line of demarcation in the Donetsk region. In connection with the incident, Metropolitan Hilarion sent a letter to the head of the Donetsk regional state administration, which was asked to intervene and restore the possibility of making the mission “to promote the unity of the people of Donbass and the establishment of a long-awaited peace in the region.” Later permissions were restored.