Vasyl Lomachenko expresses support for Metropolitan Longin
Vasyl Lomachenko and Metropolitan Longin. Photo: Lomachenko’s Facebook
Renowned and most highly decorated Ukrainian boxer Vasyl Lomachenko shared a photo on social media with Metropolitan Longin of Bancheny, accompanied by words of Christ from the Savior’s Sermon on the Mount.
“Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you,” Lomachenko quoted, adding a wish for peace to all.
As a reminder, at the end of May, a number of Ukrainian media outlets published false reports against Metropolitan Longin of Bancheny, basing their claims on a “video investigation” by photographer Edgar Kalancha. These outlets alleged that drugs were being sold, a brothel operated, children beaten and their bones broken, and that nuns drank alcohol with residents at the orphanage affiliated with the Bancheny Monastery.
Following these publications, police opened a criminal case.
Meanwhile, the author of the video stated that “all references to individuals, events, or organizations are fictional or interpreted from open sources in the form of satire, hypothesis, or artistic assumption.” “All events described in the material should be regarded as artistic fiction, hyperbole, or critical analysis within the bounds of freedom of speech and expression,” he wrote.
Read also
Clergy and faithful of Nizhyn Eparchy donate blood for wounded soldiers
Metropolitan Clement, priests, nuns, and UOC parishioners took part in the blood-donation drive at the Nizhyn District Hospital.
Phanar hierarch: Encounting head of Montenegro's schismatics is accidental
The Archbishop of Finland stated that his meeting with the head of the "Montenegrin Orthodox Church" was "brief".
New head of Lavra Reserve lets Dumenko into Near Caves
Maksym Ostapenko allowed Epifaniy Dumenko and his associates into the Near Caves of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.
Khmelnytskyi RMA legalizes “transfer” of UOC church to OCU in Kuzmyn
The regional authorities carried out the re-registration of the community despite protests by parishioners of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
Warming stations opened in UOC churches in Kyiv for capital’s residents
By the blessing of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy, UOC parishes in Kyiv have organized assistance points for the city’s residents during the freezing days.
Amsterdam: Ukraine and Armenia use Bolshevik methods to destroy the Church
The lawyer said that under the pretext of an “anti-Russian stance”, the governments of Zelenskyy and Pashinyan are employing undemocratic methods against the Church.