Expert: Fighting against UOC, Poroshenko thereby makes it only stronger

Director of the Social Communications Agency, political expert Sergey Belashko

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko drew public attention to the UOC and, by its actions, launched the process of increasing its prestige among Ukrainians, said the head of the Social Communications Agency political analyst Sergei Belashko to the “1Kozak” channel.

Before Poroshenko’s interference in the religious life of Ukraine, the Orthodox Church was not public, few knew about the personal qualities of its clerics, and the society considered the UOC to be “inert”, the political expert said.

According to him, the discussion around autocephaly allowed to see that the UOC is a living part of society.

“We see the hierarchs, who have something to say, rapidly rushing into the public space,” the expert noted.

Belashko gave the example of Metropolitan Luke (Kovalenko) of Zaporozhye and Melitopol, who has a brilliant medical education, a degree, a sense of humor and courage. Prior to Tomos-related events, Metropolitan Luke was known only in the Zaporozhye eparchy, now he is much talked about outside Ukraine, the director of the Social Communications Agency emphasized. He added that the public also paid attention to the talents of Archbishop Clement (Vecheria) of Nezhin and Priluki and other hierarchs of the UOC.

“All these processes can lead to the fact that in 2, 3, 4 years we will have a qualitatively different religious reality,” Belashko said. “Religion will become an important socio-political phenomenon.”

The expert assumes that now the Ukrainian people will listen to His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry of Kiev and All Ukraine just as the people of Georgia listens to Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II of Georgia, who "is the main moral authority in the country".

On November 15, 2018, Protopriest Nikolai Danilevich, deputy head of the UOC DECR, reported that the Church is now upholding the right to independence from external forces.

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