Online users recall how Filaret supported UGCC's joining ROC

Filaret Denysenko. Photo: Hlushchenko's Facebook

Social media reminded about the speech by Filaret Denysenko, in which he supported the joining of Greek Catholics to the Russian Orthodox Church. The corresponding fragment of his 1986 report dedicated to the anniversary of the 1946 Lviv Church Council was published on Facebook by Deacon Andriy Hlushchenko.

In the published text, Filaret, who then held the position of Patriarchal Exarch of Ukraine, declared that the Lviv Council adopted a "historic decision on the liquidation of the Union of Brest and the reunification of Galician Greek Catholics with the Mother – the Russian Orthodox Church."

According to him, for several centuries the inhabitants of Galicia were under the authority of Rome, and the possibility of breaking with the Union appeared only under conditions of political changes. In his speech, he also emphasized the significance of this event for church unity.

"In two years, the Russian Orthodox Church will celebrate the 1000th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus, which marked the beginning of the Christianization of our people and the existence of our Holy Church. It is significant that we approach the millennium with an awareness of the unity achieved by Galician Greek Catholics in the bosom of the Orthodox Church. Throughout the thousand-year history of the Russian Orthodox Church, our blood brothers and sisters were under Roman authority for 350 years. Only under conditions of political freedom and national unity was it possible to break with the Union of Brest, forcibly imposed on our ancestors – Ukrainians and Belarusians, blood brothers and co-religionists of the Russian people," states Filaret's report from 20 years ago.

As the UOJ wrote, Filaret was hospitalized.

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