Those who persecute UOC are not Christians, says Greek Metropolitan

Metropolitan Seraphim of Kythira. Photo: Orthodoxia News Agency

Metropolitan Seraphim of Kythira (Church of Greece) offered a harsh assessment of the persecution of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, calling its persecutors “not Christians” and “not even human,” UOJ Greece reports, citing Vima Orthodoxias.

“When I learn of this, my soul suffers, and the heart of every Orthodox Christian suffers. This is barbarity – these are abhorrent actions,” the hierarch said.

According to him, those who seize churches, abduct relics, and beat UOC faithful are “not Christians, not people – nothing at all.”

“They treat the Orthodox so cruelly – the canonical Orthodox Church of Ukraine under the leadership of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry,” the hierarch emphasized.

Metropolitan Seraphim compared what is happening in Ukraine to the persecutions of the early Christian era.

“We have the events of the early Christian epoch – we have the holocaust of three centuries of persecutions. It is terrible,” he said. “And those who were the instigators bear great responsibility before God,” the hierarch added.

Concluding the interview, the Metropolitan of Kythira asked: “I share this pain of my soul with you, because my sufferings are great. May God grant that this drama of the Ukrainian people may end – a terrible drama.”

Earlier, the UOJ reported that, according to Metropolitan Seraphim, the recognition of the OCU by the Church of Greece was a real crime.

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