OCU calls atheist Ivan Franko a prophet and righteous man

Ivan Franko. Photo: wikipedia

"Hierarch" of the OCU Viktor Bed’ called Ivan Franko, known for his atheistic views, a prophet and a righteous man.

As reported in the press service of Bed'-led Mukachevo-Carpathian diocese of the OCU, on August 27 the "hierarch" of the OCU performed a "lity for the dead” for “the Ukrainian political, public and cultural figure, fighter for the national and state independence of the Ukrainian nation <...> the prophet of the Ukrainian nation and the righteous man" Ivan Franko on the occasion of the 165th anniversary of his birth.

Ukrainian poet, playwright and philosopher Ivan Franko (08/27/1856 - 05/28/1916) was known for his atheistic views, was fond of Indian philosophy and distributed critical works related to the Bible and religion in Galicia. Despite the fact that researchers talk about Franco's soul-searching in terms of his attitude to God in the last two decades of his life, he died without confession and repentance, while his death was accompanied by a conflict with the clergy of the UGCC.

As the Greek Catholic activist Makariy Karovets recalled, “From the very first minutes of his speech until his death, Franko was our main devout propagandist of atheism and its purveyor both in his popular scientific writings and poetry. <...> When Franco was dying, priest Theodosius Galushchinsky visited him and tried to persuade him to make peace with the Lord God and with the church in which he, Franco, was born and which he had been fighting all his life. However, he received an answer from Franco, ‘But what would the young people, whom I have taught all my life not to believe in God, say to that?’"

The UOJ also wrote that the “hierarch” of the OCU, Viktor Bed’, called the Taliban a struggle for the liberation of the Afghan people.

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