NASU academician: One cannot drag Ukraine to Europe through Catholicization

Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Pyotr Tolochko. Photo: RIA Novosti

They are trying to rebuild Ukraine according to the patterns of the Greek Catholic Galicia, whose values are far from all-Ukrainian, said the historian, academician, honorary director of the Institute of Archeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, member of the Academy of Europe Pyotr Tolochko.

“There is a special culture and civilization in the territory of Galicia – Catholicism,” Tolochko said on the air of “GolosUA”. “No matter how much our brothers (Uniates – Ed.) try to position their Church as Greek Catholic, there is nothing Greek in it. It is Catholic and strictly oriented towards the papal throne: both canonically and administratively."

The scholar believes that politicians have chosen Catholicization of the entire country as the fastest way for European integration and separation from Russia, but in the end, it will bring more harm than good.

“I am not against European integration: please integrate as much as you want, unless you are not a poor relation but a full-bodied member of this European community,” the historian says.

At one time, the participants of the Brest Union were able to tear three regions away from the Orthodox choice of Prince Vladimir – the current Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Ternopil regions, Tolochko recalls. So in today's realities of the dominance of the Galician region, the followers of the union can successfully repeat this experience.

Earlier, Tolochko stated that the granting of the Tomos to the OCU was a subversion against Ukraine.

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