UOC Eparchy: OCU uses funerals of ATO fighters for its political propaganda

"Chaplains" of the OCU conduct political propaganda at the funeral of the ATO soldier. Photo: video screenshot from the Facebook page of the Chernivtsi-Bukovina diocese of the UOC.

The secretary of the Chernivtsi-Bukovyna diocese of the UOC, Archimandrite Nikita (Storozhuk), said that everyone knows, but for some reason they are silent that the “chaplains” of the OCU use the funeral of soldiers who died in the ATO / JFO as a profitable platform for political propaganda, the diocese reports on its Facebook page.

“The more funerals there are, the more OCU ‘chaplains’ will be able to tell about Putin, Kirill, nationalization, deportation of all low-quality Ukrainians to Siberia, etc. These words contain nothing about Christ, or the Mother of God, or the tears of a mother, or the cry of his wife, or the soul of the warrior himself, who has already died before the Lord and needs our prayers,” said the archimandrite. As an example, he cited the funeral in the village of Cherepkivka on April 16, where the “priests” of the OCU came without any invitation of the victims' families in order to turn the funeral into a political scandal, which was then boosted in the media as their “achievement”. “It is ultimate hypocrisy and cynicism to build a religious organization on the coffins of soldiers,” Archimandrite Nikita (Storozhuk) noted with regret.

The secretary of the Chernivtsi-Bukovina diocese told how the “chaplains” of the OCU lie in their propaganda speeches that the priests of the UOC refuse to bury the dead soldiers. “Often propagandists in robes accuse the priests of the UOC of their not performing the funeral service for ATO soldiers. But if we go back to the beginning of hostilities in eastern Ukraine (in 2014), then it was the first heroes who, unfortunately, died and returned in coffins to the villages of Mykhalcha, Davydivka, Sankovtsy, Ispas and were buried by the clerics of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church," the archimandrite said. He recalled that the UOC wants to see the sons of the Ukrainian land safe and sound and pray for peace in the country.

As reported by the UOJ, the OCU “ordained a deacon” a sniper who fought in the “Aydar” battalion.

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