Uniates in Minsk: Where do the tentacles of the octopus stretch?
Department of Information of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church has spread pathetic message that on October 1, “for the first time in a hundred-year history,” the head of the Ukrainian Uniates Svyatoslav (Shevchuk) “served the Hierarchal Divine Liturgy in the capital of Belarus” (hereinafter - translation from Ukrainian). A visit to Minsk by the head of the structure that did so much to incite a coup in Ukraine and a bloodbath in the Donbass should, at a minimum, raise concern.
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“Probably the last time the Metropolitan of Kiev, the head of our church, could pray with his people on this land hundreds of years ago, even before the liquidation of the UGCC in the Russian Empire...
Even my great predecessor, the righteous Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky, did not have such an opportunity... I no longer remember the years of communist persecution, where it was impossible to even remember about our church. And today this is happening...” said the Uniate “patriarch”.
Servants from the “parish of St. Joseph” prayed together with the “father,” as his minions call him, Svyatoslav in Minsk. In particular, Sergius Gaek, “apostolic visitator for the Greek Catholics of Belarus”, Vasil Gover, “apostolic delegate for the Greek Catholics in Kazakhstan and Central Asia”, as well as “priests” of the Belarusian GCC.
Further, Shevchuk said: “I am especially... anxious to stand on this Minsk land, where Metropolitan Mikhailo Ragoza, Metropolitan of the “Beresteysky Unity” comes from... And then he, as the head of the Kiev Church, renewed the unity of the Kyiv Metropolis with the Roman Apostolic See....”
“Today, believe me, I think that this strong word to you, which I strive to bring you from Ukraine, is that your mother - the Kiev Church - does not forget her children,” this is how “Blessed Svyatoslav” addressed those present.
He also said that recently the heads of the “Catholic bishops’ conferences” of Europe arrived in Minsk. They meet with the leaders of the state and representatives of the clergy for three days. The most important topic they talked about was youth.
“Our greatest task,” Svyatoslav emphasized, “is to teach our children, our youth to pray.”
Shevchuk also noted that he came to Minsk also because he wants to jointly celebrate the 380th anniversary of the death of the “great ascetic of the Kyiv Union Church” Yosif Velyamin Rutsky.
The head of the Ukrainian Uniates specifically mentioned that “Orthodox Metropolitan Paul invited all of us, Catholic bishops, to his church and his home. Yosif Velyamin Rutsky prayed about this, to whom the idea of a single patriarchate of the Union Church belonged...”
What thoughts do both the very fact of Shevchuk’s visit to Minsk and the quotes given suggest?
In short, this is evidence of the growing expansion of the union and the West across all territories historically considered the lands of peoples who profess canonical Orthodoxy. This means that this is evidence that a large-scale war has been launched against Orthodoxy throughout the entire space of Slavic unity: Russian-Ukrainian-Belarusian.
(However, as we see, expansion is not limited to this trinity: Shevchuk mentioned an “apostolic delegate” for Kazakhstan and Central Asia. Naturally, we are most likely talking about propaganda among the Russian-speaking segment - after all, the “delegate” is not going to missionary among Muslims ).
As for the Uniate figures of the past mentioned by Shevchuk, they really played a significant role. But not in serving God, but in betraying the Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church of Christ and in helping the Vatican to establish its dominance “with fire and sword.”
For example, the “Metropolitan of the Beresteysky Unity Mikhail Vasilyevich Rogoza (d. 1599) - the same Orthodox Metropolitan of Kiev, Galicia and All Rus', who in 1596 committed a betrayal of his faith and signed the Union of Brest.
He came from a small Belarusian gentry. There were rumors that he studied, perhaps, at the Jesuit college in Vilna. In 1579 he was ordained archimandrite of the Minsk Ascension Monastery. King Sigismund III gave him a charter for the Kyiv metropolis, and he was ordained metropolitan in Vilna by the Ecumenical Patriarch Jeremiah II, who, however, at the dedication made a reservation that he abdicated responsibility for his choice.
Interesting detail. Even after signing the union and the articles that were to be presented to the Pope, Rogoza continued to hide his departure from the Orthodox Church. Only at the Brest Council of 1596 did he openly support the union. The Orthodox hierarchy, clergy and representatives of the Eastern Patriarchs declared him deprived of the metropolitan rank and asked the king to appoint a new metropolitan, but the king ordered all Orthodox to obey Rogoza as the legitimate head "Russian Uniate Church".
(By the way, I would like to slightly correct “patriarch” Shevchuk, who - involuntarily, of course, not at all slyly! - complained about the ban on the “UGCC” many years ago. There was no Ukrainian GCC at that time!!! There was a “Russian Uniate Church”. At that time there was no mention of Ukraine in its name).
As for Joseph of Rutsky (in the world - Ivan Feliksovich Velyaminov; d. 1637) - this was the third Greek Catholic “Metropolitan of Kiev, Galicia and All Rus'”. One of the most prominent propagandists of the union and its ideologist. Coming from a Moscow boyar family, he was baptized in Orthodoxy. But betrayed his faith in his youth and switched to Protestant Calvinism, being carried away by its ideas (apparently under the influence of his mother, who was a Calvinist, in contrast to her Orthodox father). And then, having received an education in Prague... he converted to Catholicism.
Indeed, the head of the Ukrainian Uniates chose an excellent example of fidelity to ideals - for young people to emulate and admire.
Well, about the “righteousness” of the glorifier of “His Excellence of Hitler” (this is how the Uniate leader addressed the Fuhrer during the Second World War) and the accomplice of German fascism - the “great predecessor” Andrey Sheptytsky – so much has already been written that you’re simply amazed how his successor is not embarrassed to mention him.
The theme of youth education ran through Shevchuk’s speech. It’s true – the Uniates assign a very important role to educating the younger generation on their ideas. During the Maidan, it was they – together with the “Filaretites” – who incited young people to lawlessness, to violent actions and excesses. After February 2014, they called for further expansion to the East. I would venture to suggest that their agitation in Minsk and Belarus will quite possibly be aimed at creating a revolutionary situation similar to the one that developed in Ukraine on the eve of both Maidans.
Shevchuk mentioned that the Orthodox Belarusian Metropolitan Pavel invited both the Uniate delegation and representatives of other faiths to his church and to his home. The reasons why this was done need to be studied, and hasty conclusions should not be drawn. Although certain thoughts may arise regarding the growing ecumenical pressure.
However, it is quite obvious that the tentacles of the octopus, financed by Western haters of Orthodoxy and everything Russian, continue to spread over more and more space. This octopus is no longer limited only to Ukraine. His appetites are already spreading to other territories of Orthodoxy. The servants of the Antichrist are trying to organize a global attack on the canonical Church.
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