His Beatitude: Political labels completely alien to the UOC are hung on it

His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv and All Ukraine. Photo: Reuters

Officials of all levels have launched real persecution against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church with all sorts of political labels that are completely alien to it. This was stated in an interview with the UOJ by the Primate of the UOC, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv and All Ukraine.

He noted that among the opponents of the Church there is a "misunderstanding of the spiritual processes" associated with the war.

“Her (UOC – Ed.) prayers sound day and night in all the monasteries of Ukraine, day and night the prayer of millions of Orthodox Ukraine for peace, for an end to military warfare is offered to the Throne of God,” said the Primate. “But what happens simultaneously with this? Churches are being taken away, closed, agreements on the use of land plots are terminated everywhere, where hundreds of Orthodox monasteries, theological seminaries and the Academy, Sunday schools, charitable, missionary, and educational centers were revived and created. All this with the light hand of officials of various levels is subject to a ban, their existence is complicated, and obstacles are created in serving Christ and the people of God.

His Beatitude Metropolitan noted that the media prefer not to notice the huge contribution of the UOC to the defense of the country and the scale of assistance that the Church provides to those affected by the war.

“The political situation, the war stirred the hearts of millions of the faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, thousands of soldiers stood up to defend the homeland. The Church tirelessly, in all dioceses, provides tremendous assistance to people affected by the war; there is a volunteer movement in all dioceses of our Church; financial and technical resources are regularly transferred to the Armed Forces of Ukraine and residents of the affected cities and villages across the entire country. Unfortunately, this movement is not covered at all in the public media,” the Primate said.

He expressed his conviction that the Church will survive the current difficult period, as it happened more than once when certain forces tried to destroy it.

“Being in the Church, we are indeed inside a miracle. By all human plans and calculations, the Church should have disappeared long ago. Many times the persecutors of the faith of Christ foretold that the Church would be wiped off the face of the earth. She, according to their calculations, had to disappear without being born, after the crucifixion of the Lord; She had to be strangled in the bud during the persecution of the Apostles. Huge trials fell on the Church of God in the past XX atheistic century, it seemed that She was to perish ... But the Church of Christ is alive now and will live until the end of time, and the gates of hell, according to the word of the Savior of the world, 'will not overcome it' (Matt. 16:18),” emphasized His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry.

As the UOJ reported, Metropolitan Joanikije of Montenegro and the Littoral said that today the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, headed by His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry, who is the pillar of Orthodoxy, is on Golgotha.

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