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Andriy Yurash: Patriarch Kirill was one of the ideologists of war in Donbas

20.02.2017, 11:25
Andriy Yurash: Patriarch Kirill was one of the ideologists of war in Donbas - фото 1

jurash_67.jpg-jjjjj.jpgAndriy Yurash, Director of the Department for Religions and Nationalities to the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, commented for the publication “Detector Media” on the role of the Orthodox Churches in Ukraine in public discourse “in the war between Ukraine and Russia,” according to Portal-Credo.Ru.

“Unfortunately, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is in communion with the Moscow Patriarchate, was very actively engaged by one of the parties to the conflict,” said Andriy Yurash. – “Frankly speaking, the Head of this Church, Patriarch Kirill was one of the ideologists who actually gave rise to this war. Especially in the beginning, he was trying to attach sacred meaning to the war in eastern Ukraine, to justify, to show that it is almost a sacred struggle of one part of the religious segment against another, and not political assaults or imperial ambitions of a certain state on neighboring countries.”

The head of the Department of Religious Affairs obviously has in mind the statement by the Patriarch Kirill (Gundyaev) of the Russian Orthodox Church Moscow Patriarchate, made in 2014 about the ‘religious grounds’ of war in Donbas, which is waged by ‘Uniates’ and ‘splitters’ against Orthodox people. The letter provoked a critical response in the Ukrainian press and among religious organizations of Ukraine.

Andriy Yurash recalled the unsuccessful attempts of his Ministry to get from the UOC (MP) a clear explanation “why some metropolitans of this denomination blessed weapons in occupied Crimea,” carry out joint activities with militants in Donbas, cultivate in these Ukrainian regions the ideology of “Russian world.”

The official said that “we really want to draw up a table and can recall hundreds of cases” when the leadership of the UOC (MP) gave no response to doubtful or openly anti-Ukrainian activities of its clergymen.