Pat. Kirill expects hierarchs who recognized OCU to rethink their decisions

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus. Photo: Patriarchy.ru

The recognition of the OCU due to the pressure exerted on the Church seems obscure in the context of the history of Orthodoxy during the years of Soviet power. It was said by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus on Monday at the diocesan meeting of Kaliningrad Metropolis, Interfax reports.

“We hope that this insanity will pass, and my brothers, who for various reasons have bowed their heads to the powers that be, realize their canonical responsibility and sin to support schismatics and thereby strike at the suffering body of our Church,” emphasized the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church.

In his opinion, the words of the Alexandrian Patriarch Theodore that he recognized the OCU because of the pressure exerted on him look unconvincing in the context of the history of the Orthodox Church in the twentieth century.

“When we are told in Russia that someone puts pressure on someone, it becomes obscure. We have lived for decades under heavy pressure from godless authorities. It is impossible to compare, because now no one is forced physically to do anything or threatened with prisons and exiles. Our fathers and grandfathers went through a time when pressure was accompanied by persecution of the Church. <...> And when we are told that someone puts someone under pressure, we reply: most of the history of the twentieth century is a story of incredible pressure and persecution, but we did not flinch, we survived and we also wish you the same,” said Patriarch Kirill.

As reported by the UOJ, earlier the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church expressed his gratitude to the Primate of the Orthodox Church in America, Metropolitan Tikhon of America and Canada, for his principled position on the non-recognition of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and support for the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, led by His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry.

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