MOSCOW PATRIARCH SEES ATHEISM IN DOMINANT IDEOLOGY OF UKRAINE
During Sunday liturgy in the church of Christ the Savior in Moscow, Patriarch of Moscow Kirill declared that wickedness has become the state ideology of Ukraine. This was reported by the Russian news agency TASS, Radio Liberty reports.
"Each person may believe or not believe; that is his personal choice. But when wickedness has become the state ideology and when as a result people are dying and churches are being destroyed, that is more than ideology. Our church has coped with all of this and the Ukrainian people are coping, and we are praying about this daily in the churches of our church," Patriarch of Moscow Kirill said.
He said the Orthodox Church has prayed every day "that militant atheism would recede and not manifest itself any more through state authority."
The patriarch of Moscow also assured that he is not making division between believers in Russia and Ukraine. "We are not dividing the people of Ukraine. This is our flock, Orthodox believing people, who have testified about Christ since their baptism in the waters of the Dnepr," the director of the Russian Orthodox Church added.
Previously, the UPTs of the Moscow patriarchate, through the lips of Metropolitan Onufrey, declared that it speaks against the war that is going on in the east of Ukraine. This was the clergyman's explanation when he was asked why he did not stand in the Supreme Soviet on 8 May during the reading of the name of heroes of Ukraine who perished in the ATO [Anti-Terrorism Operation].
In all of the period of the occupation of Crimea and military actions in the Donbass, the leadership of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow patriarchate thus has not condemned the actions of the aggressor country. (tr. by PDS, posted 25 May 2015)
UKRAINE ADVISES PATRIARCH KIRILL TO SEEK ATHEISTS IN KREMLIN
The head of the RPTs, Patriarch Kirill, should call Russian President Vladimir Putin and the entire leadership of Russia to cease open aggression against Ukraine, which clearly is not a Christian action. This was declared by a spokesman of the UPTsKP Evstraty, commenting on Kirill's statement that "wickedness has become the state ideology of Ukraine."
In the archbishop's opinion, such statements by Patriarch Kirill are "an element of the Kremlin's propaganda against Ukraine."
Vladyka Evstraty said that such "is very strange to hear, in light of the fact that the leadership of his own government is engaged in a blatant lie and undisguised and open aggression."
"Why does he not call his own leadership to cease those actions that are clearly nonchristian actions? His own president displays by his acts the signs of a man who is significantly more atheist than those who stand behind the acts of the Ukrainian government," Archbishop Evstraty notes.
He said that expressions of this kind are proof once again that the Moscow church, in the person of its leadership, is one of the instruments of the Kremlin and another element of propaganda against Ukraine. This was reported by Ukrinform. (tr. by PDS, posted 25 May 2015)
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