Romanian MP: What the Ukrainian authorities do with UOC is complete madness

Member of the Romanian Parliament Dumitru-Viorel Focsa. Photo: romania.postsen.com

Dumitru-Viorel Focsa, member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Romanian Parliament, sharply condemned the actions of the Ukrainian authorities aimed against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

“The OCU is Poroshenko’s political move that Zelenskyy took over; an artificially created 'church' that received the blessing of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, which caused a lot of confusion in Ukraine,” the politician said in a video posted on his Facebook page. “The priests of the UOC are subordinate to Metropolitan Onuphry and in no way intend to go over to the OCU. Since the OCU has the support of the President, armed people and SBU officers come to the temples of the UOC with searches and threats, instill fear in the priests, forcibly undress them and take pictures. This is complete madness!"

The MP noted that "the blessing of Bartholomew sowed great discord, and Metropolitan Longin (Zhar) speaks very harshly in his sermons about the actions of the patriarch."

The parliamentarian stressed that the clergy of the Romanian Orthodox communities, which are in the bosom of the UOC, are under pressure from the authorities: “The priest who told us about what is happening in the Chernivtsi region, an ethnic Romanian, is very scared. <...> What Zelenskyy is doing is called denationalization. Romanian priests are being terrorized and forced to leave the autonomous canonical church of Ukraine and enter a new political ‘church’."

As the UOJ reported, earlier on the air of the Romania TV channel, the Romanian ex-deputy Gelu Visan spoke about "the crimes that the Ukrainian authorities commit against the ministers of the Lord."

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