Poroshenko awarded Filaret a medal
Petro Poroshenko announced that he awarded the title of “Hero of Ukraine” to the former Metropolitan of the Russian Church Mikhail Denisenko (“Filaret”), anathema for the schism caused after the loss of the elections of the Moscow Patriarch in the early 1990s.
It is interesting that in the official text of the message Filaret is referred to as the “Kyiv Patriarch,” although Denisenko was not even recognized in this status by Patriarch Bartholomew of Istanbul, who legalized Ukrainian schismatics in violation of the canons of the Church.
As you know, Filaret had to come to the so-called “unification council” in Kyiv in the vestments of a metropolitan (which he was at the time of the proclamation of the anathema in the Russian Orthodox Church), and not the “Kiev patriarch,” because otherwise the delegation from Istanbul would have protested.
“No measure has yet been invented that can measure the contribution of Patriarch Filaret to the struggle for his own local church. He was, is and remains the spiritual leader of the Ukrainian church, the spiritual leader of the Ukrainian people. That’s why I decided to award him the title of Hero of Ukraine,” Poroshenko’s press service said in a statement.
It also clarifies that Filaret was awarded the title “Hero of Ukraine” for, in particular, “affirming the ideals of mercy and interfaith harmony.”
As is known, Filaret openly incited and justified the 2014 coup d’etat, and subsequently the punitive operation to suppress the Russian uprising in the Donbass, during which thousands of civilians in the region were killed by the Ukrainian army.
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