UOC priest to UGCC cleric: What Christian are you to frighten with SBU?

Archpriest Vasyl Balan. Photo: a screenshot from the YouTube channel "Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos"

A clergyman of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Archpriest Vasyl Balan, rebuked UGCC cleric Justyn Boyko for malice and incitement of hostility against the UOC.

The dispute was prompted by the recent visit of Metropolitan Filaret of Lviv and Halych to the opening of a center for wounded soldiers, at the invitation of Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi. Following this, UGCC cleric Justyn Boyko called the Orthodox bishop's participation "a betrayal of Lviv" and demanded that the Security Service of Ukraine launch an investigation. "Moscow has entered Lviv through the front door," the Uniate cleric declared.

Archpriest Vasyl directly asked the Uniate cleric: "What kind of Christian are you if you threaten people with the security forces?" According to the Orthodox priest, a true pastor is obliged to pray to God for people and to ask the Lord to correct their mistakes. "But you are showing that malice and hatred live within you, and that you take pleasure in the suffering of your neighbors," the priest noted.

As an example of such an attitude, the UOC priest cited the demolition of Orthodox churches using excavators in Lviv and the Ivano-Frankivsk region. He also pointed to the hypocrisy of the Uniates, who are building their own church in Kyiv despite protests from six thousand local residents, while themselves opposing the presence of the Orthodox Church in the west of the country.

Father Vasyl also mentioned a video of a UGCC service held in honor of the anniversary of Pope John Paul II's visit. During this service, one of the Uniate bishops drank water from a bottle in the middle of the Liturgy, before Communion.

"According to Church rule, only an infirm person may do such a thing. Even small children receive Communion fasting from the age of three. By your attitude toward the Liturgy, you show why you fear Orthodoxy in Western Ukraine," the priest concluded. In Father Vasyl's view, such disregard for the rules causes Uniates to feel fear before Orthodox believers.

As the UOJ reported, a scandal erupted in Lviv over the invitation of a UOC hierarch to the opening of a medical center.

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