Politexpert: an appeal of the Verkhovna Rada to Patriarch Bartholomew – violation of the norm of separation of Church and State

On June 8, "defying the constitutional norm of the separation of Church and State, the speaker Parubiy and deputies Vysotskiy, Levus, Kniazhytskiy, Yelenskiy, Matios registered a draft resolution on the appeal of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to His Holiness Bartholomew, Archbishop of Constantinople and New Rome, Ecumenical Patriarch, on granting autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine," reports on his Facebook page political commentator and journalist Viacheslav Pikhovshek.

"I have read a draft of this appeal. Even it is voted for, it will not have a legal value, more than just a point of view of some people’s deputies. This is a solution of the local objective of Filaret, an attempt to rise, while the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is weaker than it should be. There is an obvious attempt of the authors of the appeal to present Filaret as the only figure around whom something like a unified church structure can be built. A theater of the absurd," said Pikhovshek.

"Parubiy, Levus and Knyazhytskiy are Greek Catholics. Did their spiritual leaders authorize them to deal with Orthodox affairs?", resents the journalist.

The expert also stresses that the adoption of the appeal will provoke sectarian conflict. "Radical nationalists, including some of the authors of the draft appeal, didn’t take into account, i.e. spit onto two groups of people. The first is big: those faithful who will not want to be with Filaret, under any circumstances. The second is presented by the ORDLO ("DPR-LPR") believers. Imagine that tomorrow these people will be told that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has had another blow. Does it contribute to the reintegration of Ukraine or not?" resumes the expert.

Read also