OCU bishop admits "ordinations" of Filaret Denisenko were invalid

Filaret Denisenko. Photo: rbc

An "hierarch" of the OCU, Alexander Drabinko, stated that the "ordinations" performed by "patriarch" of the UOC-KP Filaret Denisenko were invalid. Former Metropolitan of the UOC shared this in an interview with "Polskie Radio".

Explaining why priests of the UOC do not want to "transition" to the OCU, Drabinko said that one of the reasons is "bias in the fact that someone does not recognize, like our Polish colleagues, the ordinations performed by Filaret during the schism."

According to Drabinko, "things need to be called by their names," because until the Patriarch of Constantinople lifted the anathema on Filaret imposed by the ROC, the ordinations performed by Denisenko were invalid.

Only after Patriarch Bartholomew granted the Tomos to the OCU, Drabinko says, "all ordinations and sacraments performed in the last 30 years in the so-called Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP) and in the Autocephalous Church (UAOC)" were recognized.

"But why exactly the Polish church and other churches, like the Albanian, do not recognize its status? Because they do not recognize those ordinations that were performed during the so-called schism," explained Drabinko.

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that, according to Drabinko, the Polish Church should engage in communion with the OCU, "because circumstances are developing this way, time requires it, and it pleases God."

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