Yurash on statement of "UOC-KP Press Service": Authors discredit Patriarch Emeritus
Religious expert Andriy Yurash commented on the statement of the "Press Service of the UOC-KP" which claims that the document signed by Patriarch Emeritus Filaret on the liquidation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate is not a decision of the Local Council and therefore it has no legal force.
In particular, Andriy Yurash stressed that "the level of lies and manipulations in this supposedly official document is just sky high."
He wrote about it in a Facebook post, IA ZIK reports.
"Yesterday, yet another statement ("Explanation") was made by the so-called press-service of the UOC-KP, liquidated in December last year, that is, a statement of a group of people (or a person) who call themselves the press service of a religious structure that does not exist at the moment. This "Explanation" has already been actively commented on, but I would like to draw attention to one very revealing and extremely eloquent fact: this is the level of lies and manipulations, which is simply sky high in this supposedly official document! If Patriarch Filaret knew about it and has blessed this document, he is personally responsible for it. If this statement was released without the Patriarch knowing about it, then he needs to urgently to change the entire staff, assembled around His Holiness. For the untruth present in the document casts a shadow on the authority of the last head of the former UOC-KP," the religious expert stressed.
In particular, he drew attention to one example: the statement says that it seems that the issue of liquidation of the UOC-KP appeared only on December 15 in the morning, right before the very Unification Council."
"The authors of the "Explanation" either do not have full information or deliberately lie: the issue of the liquidation council arose the day before, as it became clear that all bishops and two representatives from each of the dioceses will come to Kyiv: that is, the future liquidation Council will be exclusively representative and had a legal force," Andriy Yurash stressed.
He explained that a special meeting was held on the eve of the Council. The text of the document on the liquidation of the UOC-KP was agreed on and was to be adopted by the Local Council of the UOC-KP, as well as the entry into the structure of the established UOC (OCU). And one of the bishops of the then UOC-KP authorized to conduct negotiations went to Patriarch Filaret to agree on the proposed text.
"Approximately in an hour and a half, this bishop returned and said that the Patriarch was coordinating the text of the liquidation resolution of the Local Council of the UOC-KP. That is, the statement about spontaneity and the fact that no one planned to liquidate the UOC-KP, to put it mildly, does not correspond to the real state of affairs," the religious expert said.
"If those who consider themselves to be a member of the "press service" call themselves journalists, then they should be disappointed: journalists are those who seek to find out the truth, and not manipulate it, falsify the fact, and in this particular case – they wrong-foot and discredit the authoritative and respected, 90-year-old Church figure who worked so hard to have the idea of the canonical Ukrainian autocephaly approved. Therefore, if you honor and want to strengthen the authority of his Holiness Patriarch Filaret do not be lazy and in the shortest possible time just refute the content of the document published yesterday. Lying is a sin! Lying to those who are well aware of what sin is, is a manifold sin!" Yurash summed up.
As reported, the non-existent UOC-KP has released the "Explanation": it argues that it did not dissolve itself.
