Handing over the keys to churches - what is behind Poroshenko’s church initiative
The true goal of creating a “single local Orthodox Church” (UPOC) in Ukraine is to squeeze out the priests of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate from the country.
The weekly “Mirror of the Week”, considered influential in Kyiv, writes about this today.
“In most cases, the question will be posed simply and clearly: either you join the EPOC, or hand over the keys to the temple. Everything earned by “overwhelming cooperation” with administrative resources will stand in the throat of the UOC-MP - hospital parishes, parishes in prisons and military units, on the territories of educational institutions. And then private shops will catch up – administrative resources are prone to betrayal and change,” the publication writes.
“Zerkalo Nedeli” considers this option ideal, but fears that in this way the authorities will only blackmail the UOC-MP, which cooperates with the opposition.
“You can squeeze out church Moscow from Ukraine “on your own”, without any appeals to the “single local”. That’s why the state structure includes the SBU, the prosecutor’s office, and intelligence. They, however, have also become more active recently in the Moscow-church direction,” the publication writes.
As PolitNavigator previously reported, this week Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and the Verkhovna Rada turned to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew with a request to grant the Ukrainian Church autocephaly on the basis of the schismatic UOC-KP and UAOC.
If Bartholomew satisfies the initiative of the Ukrainian authorities, he will violate canonical rules by recognizing schismatics and invading the territory of another local Church - the Russian Orthodox Church, to which Ukraine belongs.
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