Baumeister: What the OCU and UGCC are doing is paganism in Christian garb

Andriy Baumeister. Photo: Baumeister's Facebook page

Doctor of Philosophy Andriy Baumeister said in an interview with blogger Oleksandr Shelest that nationalism, rather than Christianity, has effectively become Ukraine’s state religion.

“At the state level, we currently have no understanding of the role of Christianity. And I regret that the Greek Catholic Church and those fragments of another Orthodoxy – the OCU, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine – are playing a pagan, anti-Christian game while dressed in Christian garb,” he said.

Commenting on the celebration of Ukrainian Statehood Day, timed to coincide with the anniversary of the Baptism of Rus, the philosopher said the authorities’ appeal to Holy Prince Volodymyr appeared unconvincing.

“Volodymyr is known first and foremost for baptizing Rus. Yet the religion of modern Ukraine is a secular and, I would say, anti-Christian religion of nationalism,” Baumeister stressed.

According to him, every young state “has the right to appropriate certain distant stages of the past” in order to construct a long historical identity. In Ukraine’s case, however, “the game has gone on too long”: nationalism has become the state religion, and it “has nothing whatsoever to do with St. Volodymyr.”

In this context, the philosopher recalled Emmanuel Macron’s speech during Bastille Day celebrations, in which the French president proclaimed the slogan: “Yes to patriotism, no to nationalism.”

As the UOJ previously reported, Andriy Baumeister said that the persecution of the UOC was one of the gravest crimes committed by the authorities.

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