So who is Putin’s friend – UOC or “father of the Tomos”?
Petro Poroshenko and Vladimir Putin. Photo: True
One of the main levers of this pressure was the Church being accused of “serving the aggressor”.
Poroshenko accused the UOC that all divine services in Her temples “begin with prayers for Putin”, he called the canonical Church the “fifth column”, while the OCU, in contrast to the UOC, was called “Putin-free Church”. As a result, the then president said that the UOC, “since it was the Russian Church”, has nothing to do in Ukraine: “My dears, you have nothing to do here. There is nothing for your Church to do in Ukraine ... Go home. To Russia."
Today, a recording of Poroshenko’s conversation with Putin, which took place in 2015 shortly after the tragic battles in Debaltseve, appeared on the Net. The battles, which killed many Ukrainian soldiers.
A friendly and slightly ingratiating tone, obsequious chuckles, congratulations on the holidays – the fifth president of Ukraine did not at all look like a fierce denouncer of the “aggressor state”, as we used to see him in public speeches, in particular, in those speeches when he accused and insulted the believers and the hierarchy of the UOC.
Is there anything unexpected in this? Probably, not. We always knew that those who violently accuse others of the lack of patriotism are far from being most sincere and most patriotic themselves.
Filaret, Epiphany, Drabinko, Poroshenko ... The more the individuals, who participated in the OCU project, reveal themselves, the more we have the right to be proud of our Church, which under the tremendous pressure of such “patriots” almost completely ranged Herself from the stinking political project "Local Church".
Read also
Why the defense of UOC is “Achilles’ heel” of Ukrainian government lobbyists
In public, lobbyists for the Ukrainian authorities in the United States insist that there is no persecution of the Church in Ukraine. In reality, they know everything perfectly well and are aware of every single case.
Was the true number of voluntary transfers accidentally revealed in the OCU?
38 clerics out of 2000 "transfers" are about 2%. This is the exact percentage of actual voluntary transitions from the UOC to the OCU demonstrated to us by Serhiy Dumenko.
Opinion polls on the war and Zelensky: a case study in manufactured consent
KIIS polls on church-related issues have long served Dumenko and his circle as convenient “evidence” that the majority of Ukrainians supposedly belong to the OCU.
Seven years of the OCU – what fruits has it borne?
On the anniversary of the event, Dumenko produced a pompous text that appears to have been written in some parallel reality.
Metropolitan Arseniy and the Kremenchuk deputy: what is common?
The example in Kremenchuk is yet another evidence of the authorities' double standards. And we have the right to say that Bishop Arseniy is in the pre-trial detention center not because he committed a crime.
On sausage and milk during the fast
The true meaning of fasting is not gastronomical but spiritual. Yet how many of us can honestly say that during the fast we pray more, refrain from judging anyone, visit hospitals and prisons, and tend to those in distress?