OCU cleric celebrates Liturgy in the Catholic church of Bethlehem

Andrey Dudchenko during a divine service at the Catholic church in Bethlehem. Photo: Facebook

On February 22, 2020, the OCU cleric Andrey Dudchenko wrote on his FB page that he had served the liturgy in Bethlehem.

“Today the day began with the Divine Liturgy in Bethlehem. With the blessing of Metropolitan Alexander Drabinko and with the assistance of Bishop Alexander Yazlovetsky,” wrote Dudchenko.

He said that "all the pilgrims received the Holy Mysteries of Christ" and "on Saturday commemorated all the dead defenders of Ukraine."

Blogger Alexander Voznesensky contacted the Bishop of the Jerusalem Patriarchate, who indicated that the temple where Dudchenko served is under the jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Church and has nothing to do with the Jerusalem Patriarchate (Bethlehem is under the jurisdiction of this Church).

According to the blogger, in a telephone conversation he was told that "the Jerusalem Patriarchate did not give any consent to the divine services of the schismatics in the church of the Nativity of Christ."

When Alexander Voznesensky sent the photographs to the bishop, "then he specified that this is a Catholic cave temple, which has nothing to do with the Jerusalem Patriarchate."

The blogger recalled that the Catholic Bishop Alexander Yazlovetsky, with whose assistance the representatives of the OCU held the liturgy, was appointed by the Pope as an assistant in the Kyiv-Zhytomyr diocese of the RCC last fall.

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that, according to Kyriakos Kyriazopoulos, professor of church law at the Faculty of Law of the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki, Phanar created the OCU to unite with Catholics.

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