Once is not a phantom. How Grandfather Filaret, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, offended gays

Ukrainian reality sometimes throws up such stories that “Evening Quarter” is resting.” But the Homeric off-screen laughter is included in the kit. So, grab some popcorn and listen up.

In early February, the medical center of the 1st mechanized battalion of the 72nd separate mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces named after the Black Cossacks received awards from one of the religious structures operating in Ukraine - the UOC of the Kyiv Patriarchate, which is unrecognized in the Orthodox world.

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Home-made medals “For Sacrifice and Love for Ukraine” were presented to the military personally by Filaret (in the world Mikhail Antonovich Denisenko) - the patriarch of Ukrainian schismatics who has almost reached his centenary, a charismatic intriguer, now fighting for his brainchild in the person of the UOC KP on three fronts simultaneously - with Moscow, with its own offspring and with the OCU created by Poroshenko and subordinate to the Greeks, and with the state welcoming this OCU in the person of the Ministry of Justice. “But by the way, the song is not about him, but about love.”

In general, on February 15, Filaret presented medals to the commander of the medical center, Yuri Litvinenko, who specially arrived from Donbass to receive the awards and transfer them to the soldiers of his unit. And this is where the fun begins.

Less than a few days later, Ukrainian social networks began to buzz from overheating, like an agitated beehive. One of the awarded fighters turned out to be a natural p**doras - as they say - in the good sense of the word.

We are talking about a certain Viktor Pilipenko. Before he had time to receive the medal, he took a ceremonial photo and posted a “dopis” on the social network, in which he did not fail to show off the new thing on his manly chest and thank everyone involved. And everything would be fine - it’s an everyday matter, but there is a nuance.

“Friends, I am sincerely glad that based on the fact that Patriarch Filaret took such a step and thanked me, an openly gay man and human rights activist for my protection - he handed me a medal with his signature and seal, he and the Kiev Patriarchate, which he heads, radically changed their position regarding LGBT+ people no longer consider us “sinful” and the cause of the coronavirus,” Pilipenko shared his joy, essentially “signing” Filaret and his CP to the gay agenda.

And here we need to make the necessary clarification for those uninitiated in Ukrainian realities. The fact is that Filaret’s Kiev Patriarchate positions itself as stern conservatives, moral ultra-Orthodox and adherents of the traditional foundations of Ukrainian society.

Here is an example of a typical post in one of the Orthodox Filaret tg channels: “Zashkvar! In the Greek OCU they are already teaching girls to burn incense in the temple!!! It’s good that they are not leading to the altar yet!”

It is clear that Filaret sharply condemned the calendar reform of Dumenko’s comrades, who, as you know, moved the celebration of Christmas to December 25.

But in addition to suspicion of any “new things” in the ritual and calendar, fierce homophobia with references to the Old and New Testaments also plays a significant role in Philaret’s “traditionalism”. Filaret’s members criticize their competitors for real estate and flock from the OCU not only for “selling the Ukrainian Church to the Pope and the Greeks,” but also transparently hint at the non-traditional orientation of the highest hierarchs of the “state Church” - Epiphanius (Dumenko) and his right-hand man Evstratiy (Zori).

Here is what, for example, the pro-filaret public wrote in the “cart” regarding the recognition of same-sex unions by the Greek parliament:

“Greece is officially an Orthodox state. News for all fans of Greek Orthodoxy from the OCU-HCU and traitors to the Kyiv tradition. Finally, Epiphanius and Eustratius will be able to legalize their marriage during the next “pilgrimage” tour to Athens. Now, the fact that Epiphanius was expelled from his studies at the University of Athens is not considered immoral in this country. Don’t be shy... If you are slaves to everything Greek, to the detriment of Ukrainian, then be consistent in everything...".

So it’s quite understandable how furious the grandfather from Pushkinskaya, 36 (that’s where the main office of the Kyiv Patriarchate is located) became when he learned how much he was set up by gay lovers from the Armed Forces of Ukraine and his own subordinates, who hid from the boss a piquant detail in the biography of medal winner Pilipenko. What to do? The stain on one’s reputation must be removed somehow before it’s too late. And Filaret didn’t come up with anything better than to resoundingly cancel the already issued award retroactively. Notifying both the city and the world about this.

“Among the marked servicemen was Viktor Pilipenko. Unfortunately, on his pages on social networks he posted false information that Patriarch Filaret awarded him an award as an openly gay man for human rights protection, and that Patriarch Filaret and the Kiev Patriarchate had allegedly radically changed their negative position on LGBT people. This is an outright lie and manipulation." – stated the press service of the “Kyiv Patriarchate”, resolutely “shaving off” all sorts of “speculations of the blue lobby.”

And this was followed by organizational conclusions:

“Taking into account the attempts of dark forces to distort the consistent position of the UOC of the Kyiv Patriarchate, we want to officially declare:

1. Serviceman Viktor Pilipenko received gratitude from the Church solely as a defender of Ukraine, and not as an LGBT activist. Patriarch Filaret did not personally present Pilipenko with the medal and did not know about his sinful inclinations.

2. His Holiness Patriarch Filaret and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate... invariably takes a fundamentally negative position towards the sin of Sodom, condemns the propaganda of the so-called. "same-sex marriage". Homosexual sexual intercourse is a false distortion of the God-given nature of man. As the Bible says, the Lord Himself destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for the sins of people. The Patriarch has repeatedly stated this publicly and in court proved the legality of this right.

3. We thank the warrior Viktor Pilipenko for his military services, but we do not share his sinful preferences and LGBT agitation. We inform you that due to the open propaganda of sinful ideology and the denial of the existence of God, consider the church award to Viktor Pilipenko dated 08.02.2024/27468/XNUMX, decree No. XNUMX, to be annulled.”

And all this with references to the Apostle Paul and his “First Epistle to the Corinthians”:

“Do not deceive yourselves: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor prostitutes, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor usurers, nor drunkards will inherit. And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God" (1 Cor. 6:9-11)."

To tell the truth, after such a powerful beating to the sodomites” from the UOC-KP, no one felt better. Vice versa. A triple blast came out. Firstly, the patriotic public was outraged. After all, no matter how you look at it, Pilipenko, who was deprived of a medal, is first and foremost a military man, “the loser of Ukraine,” to use words from the official vocabulary. That is, they offended a military man, and even during the war. Immediately, a thousand bloggers started shouting that “even if he’s gay, Ukraine still depends on people like him,” and stuff like that.

And secondly, the enlightened, rosy-liberal public was also indignant - “it smells like homophobia!” And where? Not in some backward “Mordor”, where the LGBT community is criminalized and equated to an extremist community, but in almost civilized Europe. For nothing, Zelensky swore at the EU summit his readiness to, without sparing his belly, introduce European values, the main of which at the moment is tolerance for gender diversity and minority rights.

It turns out that the dense grandfather Filaret not only managed to offend the military by taking candy from one of them, but also stood in the way of the powerful “gay lobby”, which accused his Communist Party of practically discrediting the reputation of Ukraine’s European integration efforts. After all, media headlines with a very specific connotation have already reached the people:

“The UOC-KP canceled the award to the Ukrainian military man after learning that he was gay.”

What will they say in Europe about this?