Kiev Patriarchate Chief admits juggling with statistics on the number of UOC and UOC KP believers, – expert

The expert considers such a conclusion can be inferred out of a mere juxtaposition of two fragments taken from Filaret’s interview to “Focus” outlet.

In the first fragment the UOC-KP leader states: “We have every reason to believe sociologists. They say, in particular, nearly 60% associate themselves with the Kiev Patriarchate, whereas about 24% - with the Moscow Patriarchate.

The second fragment goes as follows: “If the Ukrainian Church receives autocephaly and becomes independent from Moscow, the ROC will shrink by approximately 30 mln believers.”

“The ROC can be REDUCED in Ukraine by 30 million believers provided these believers form a part of this Church (through the UOC, which has an autonomic status and enjoys broad powers of autonomy within the Russian Orthodox Church), highlights the expert. “In other words, Filaret de-facto admits the UOC includes 30 million parishioners.”

Taking into account the fact that the number of the population of Ukraine as of 1 December 2016 made up 42.434.217 regular citizens, according to the information of the State Statistics Committee, the journalist wonders “how come that 60% of the population in Ukraine can be ascribed to the Kiev Patriarchate given that the population is 42 million people with 30 million being UOC faithful?”

“This is a basic calculation,” concludes Mr Kostenko. “If we follow what Filaret has said, then we should actually speak of the UOC led by Metropolitan Onuphry that encompasses 70% (!) of the entire population, while the Kiev Patriarchate is left with the next to nothing.”

Why has Filaret “screwed up” so much?, asks the expert. In his opinion, this is the property of one rule: “when somebody tells a big lie, he’d better avoid telling specific things. For any precise facts and details unveil the whole lie and position a lie-monger in the most unfavorable light ever. Especially if it is thought that this person by his calling and status should not resort to lies, since it’s a devil’s weapon.”

As it was reported by the UOJ, leader of the unrecognized Kiev Patriarchate Filaret believes seizures of temples of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church “inappropriate” and wants to draw closer to the canonical Church.

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