Memory pill: Whom Zelensky asks the pope about
Andriy Sheptytsky with a swastika. Photo: Ukrainska Pravda
“Your Excellency,
Führer of the Great German Empire Adolf Hitler,
As head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, I extend to Your Excellency my heartfelt congratulations on the capture of the capital of Ukraine, the golden-domed city on the Dnipro – Kyiv.
We see in you the invincible commander of the incomparable and glorious German army.
The Ukrainian people see in this liberation of the capital from the Bolshevik yoke a harbinger of their liberation from slavery. They see in you the victorious commander of the incomparable and glorious German army. They entrust to your military and statesmanly genius their national future in the introduction of a new order in Eastern Europe…
Since the fate of our people has been entrusted by God chiefly into your hands, we hope, as a deeply interested friend of Germany in this struggle which you also wage for the development of our people, for the possibility of religious and national freedom.
In gratitude, together with the Ukrainian part of the Eastern Church, connected with universal Christianity, I will pray to God for the blessing of victory, which will be the pledge of lasting peace for Your Excellency, the German army and the German nation.
With special respect,
Andriy Count Sheptytsky, Metropolitan
September 23, 1941”
Let us recall: the consequences of the Nazi occupation of Kyiv were concentration camps, the suffering and deaths of tens of thousands of civilians, Babi Yar – where Zelensky regularly comes to mourn. Yet Sheptytsky today is a figure glorified at the state level. Streets and even cities are named after him.
During his most recent meeting with Pope Leo, Zelensky spoke of “the respect in Ukrainian society for the figure of Andriy Sheptytsky” and lobbied for his canonization.
And yes, no moral here is being offered. Each one is capable of drawing their own conclusions.
Read also
Was a UOC сhurch in Ivano-Frankivsk demolished for the sake of a park?
The authorities in Ivano-Frankivsk have decided to create a park on the vacant lot at 6 Chornovola Street. On the surface, the decision looks utterly routine. In reality, it says a great deal.
The devolution of Metropolitan Simeon
According to Shostatsky, “we know that where the majority is, there is the truth – not where the minority is.”
On how the OCU scorns its own rent-a-crowd
According to Zoria, the OCU looks down on staged crowds – for them, “what matters is truth, not the number” of parishioners. And yet, for every one of Epifaniy Dumenko’s traveling services, people are bused in by the coachload.
Persecution of UOC and liquidation of UGCC in 1946: Are there parallels?
After the defeat of Nazi Germany and the liberation of Western Ukraine, the leadership of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) initiated negotiations with Soviet authorities concerning the future of its ecclesiastical structure.
On the mobilization of a priest as a sniper
A man who has chosen the path of the priesthood has no right to join the army and take up a weapon. And the very idea of killing another human being is all the more absurd.
On statistics: how many Orthodox, Muslims and Jews we have
Trust in the Razumkov Center's research methods on the topic of Orthodoxy is minimal.