UGCC calls clerics who get to OCU as schismatics

Heads of the OCU and the UGCC. Photo: pametna.info

Lviv Uniate Metropolitan Igor Voznyak told his subordinates that Ivan Garat, who had moved from the UGCC to the OCU, is a schismatic, and concelebration with him is forbidden.

The transition to the UOC-KP or OCU should be considered a schism (split), the head of the Lviv Uniates emphasized in an official message about the schismatic on the website of the UGCC LA office.

Garat left the UGCC in 2011 and moved to the Kyiv Patriarchate, and then to the OCU.

"According to the legislation of the Catholic Church, such actions are classified as a crime against the faith," said the hierarch of the UGCC. "Whoever in schism avoids subordination to the supreme authority of the Church, unity with the faithful and its subordinates."

In March 2021, Garat was handed a decree that he was banned "from priesthood or performing any other task." The Metropolitan of Lviv of the UGCC forbade his clerics to concelebrate with the schismatic or "perform any other task" together with Garat.

As reported by the UOJ, Uniates and Catholics conducted a funeral service over the body of the "hierarch" of the OCU. 

Read also

Patriarchs of Moscow and Serbia concelebrate at Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra

The Patriarchs emphasized the unity and spiritual kinship of the Russian and Serbian Orthodox Churches.

Patriarch Porfirije awarded Honorary Doctorate by Moscow Theological Academy

Patriarch Porfirije of Serbia expressed deep gratitude and humility, calling this award "a sign of our unity in Christ".