EDITOR’S NOTE (Markos): The Pope has controlled the ecclesiastical narrative “on the ground” in Kiev (within the Uniate and pro-Vatican factions) for several centuries now, and certainly his Vatican predecessors have longed for the day that Orthodoxy would cease in those regions. It is either that suddenly Francis has gone “rogue” and departed from 800 years (since the 4th Crusade) of Vatican strategy, or, knowing that the optics are going to be quite ugly, he simply wants to “distance himself” in front of the cameras, and wash his hands like Pontius Pilate…
Don’t be deceived by this apparent “Papal condemnation”, and recall the moment when the Pope “prayed for peace in the Ukraine”, back in 2014, as the 2 doves that were released were immediately attacked by a crow and a seagull…it appears God may not have accepted his “prayers of peace” for the Ukraine…
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Pope Francis condemns Ukraine’s ban on Russian Orthodox Church
(RNS) – ‘Churches are not to be touched!’ Pope Francis said after Ukraine approved a law banning churches tied to Russia.
VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Following the Angelus, his weekly prayer service at the Vatican, on Sunday (Aug. 25), Pope Francis criticized Ukraine’s decision to ban the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which has historically been tied to Russia, saying that Christians should be allowed to pray freely and that churches should not be abolished.
“In thinking about the laws recently adopted in Ukraine, I fear for the freedom of those who pray, because those who truly pray always pray for all,” Francis said after the prayer service.
Francis stated that “a person does not commit evil by praying” and urged Ukrainian leaders to “let those who want to pray be allowed to pray in what they consider their Church.”
“Please, let no Christian church be abolished directly or indirectly. Churches are not to be touched!” he said.
A day earlier, on Ukraine’s Independence Day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed into law a long-debated bill outlawing churches affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church, including the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. While the UOC has denied having any ties to the Moscow patriarchate since the beginning of the war between Russia and Ukraine, the church has been suspected of promoting Russian propaganda.
Ukraine’s security service has accused the UOC of acting as a platform to justify the Russian invasion of Ukraine and says its churches are havens for spies. The organization has launched criminal proceedings against at least 100 UOC clergy members, with 26 already sentenced.
FILE – The Monastery of the Caves, also known as Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, one of the holiest sites of Eastern Orthodox Christians, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, March 23, 2023. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)
A study conducted in April by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology found that 83% of Ukrainians felt that the government should intervene in the activities of the UOC, while 63% supported banning the church altogether.
After some two years of discussion, Ukraine’s parliament overwhelmingly passed the law by a vote of 265-29 on Aug. 20. Religious groups with ties to Russia were allowed nine months to sever their relationship with Moscow or leave the country.
The spokesman for the UOC, Metropolitan Klyment, told journalists after the bill was passed that the ban “will only discredit, including internationally, those who will try to do this,” and compared the policy to the Soviet takeover of church properties in the last century.
The majority of Ukrainians are Orthodox Christians, but following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, Metropolitan Epiphanius I of Kyiv and All Ukraine led his loyalists to form a new denomination, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. In 2019, the spiritual head of the global Orthodox Church, Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, officially recognized the independent church.
The split deepened the religious dimension of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and gave Moscow Patriarch Kirill, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, cause to defend Russia’s invasion, describing it as a holy war. In the territory that Russian forces occupy in eastern Ukraine, they have attempted to dismantle the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
In a video meeting with Kirill in March of 2022, Francis made an appeal for peace while warning the patriarch not to be “Putin’s altar boy.”
Russian Orthodox clergy and Patriarch Kirill, right side of table, meet with Cardinal Matteo Zuppi and Roman Cathoic delegates at the Patriarchal Residence in Danilov Monastery, in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, June 29, 2023. (Photo by Moscow Patriarchate)
Francis and the Vatican have conducted multiple diplomatic missions to promote a peaceful resolution to the conflict. The church has made charitable contributions to the Ukrainian people while sending a papal envoy, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, to negotiate prisoner exchanges and create humanitarian corridors for refugees.
The No. 2 official at the Vatican, Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, traveled to Ukraine in July to meet with high-level officials and religious representatives. On July 22, he met with Viktor Yelensky, head of Ukraine’s agency for ethnic affairs and freedom of conscience, to discuss religious freedom issues.
With Zelenskyy’s signing of the ban on Russian-affiliated churches, these diplomatic entreaties seem to have failed, pointing up the challenge Francis’ peacemaking has faced since the war began. The Vatican’s determination to act as an impartial arbiter in the conflict with the hope of negotiating a peace between the warring sides has primarily caused backlash from Ukrainian leaders and citizens alike.
“I continue to follow with sorrow the fighting in Ukraine and the Russian Federation,” the pope said on Sunday. “Let us continue to pray for an end to wars, in Palestine, in Israel, in Myanmar and in every other region. The people are asking for peace! Let us pray that the Lord will give us all peace.”
Poor Francis has washed his hands alright….in a bucket of Ukrainian/Russian blood….a little too late, but we should accept his fake olive branch. 🕊
God willing, and only God’s will, we will have peace in the region soon. Pray…
https://www.orthodoxianewsagency.gr/patriarxeia/oikomeniko_patriarxio/stin-konstantinoupoli-apo-1-eos-3-septemvriou-i-synaksi-tis-ierarxias-tou-oikoumenikou-thronou/
The entire synod of the EP will be meeting next week for the first time since 2021. This includes the hierarchs from every eparchy and those within Greece who are under the EP.
It’s going to be very interesting to see what is said regarding the UPC/OCU especially given the vocal support the entire Orthodox world has given since the UOC has for all practical purposes been banned.
You have to wonder how the bishops under the EP who reside in Greece are feeling about the OCU. Greece is much more hostile to them than the direct EP hierarchs.
There is no way they are going to be able to get around discussing Ukrainian Orthodoxy. Besides the demographic collapse of GOARCH, Ukraine would have to be the #1 thing that needs to be discussed.
Bartholomew recently had conversations with Patriarch John of Antioch and I believe others, and apparently it was told directly to Bartholomew that the OCU will never be recognized. Pair that with the words from just today from Patriarch Daniel of Bulgaria and it should be beyond obvious to Bartholomew that his goose is cooked.
If he was wise and wanted to get out of this situation the best way to do it is to listen to the words of Patriarch John and convene a pan-Orthodox synod to answer the Ukrainian situation.
If he convenes a pan-Orthodox synod, they wouldn’t be able to invite the OCU, because it is not recognized by the others…(new autocephalous Churches have first been recognized by the rest before they are welcome to the combined table)…then, they would declare the Tomos as invalid…then what would that do to the “bishop of Constantinople”?
Markos.
Your analysis is to the point and I totally agree with it. I also want to add two thoughts on why Francis is “concerned” about Ukrainian Orthodox. Francis and all Catholics are raised in a Universal church. Not a nationalist one, as we, Orthodox are. The Germans and the French Catholics were merrily killing each other in the two World Wars, without having to split the church and force it to be on their side, as Russia and Ukraine are doing. In order for the Orthodox, including us, the Greeks, who are the most “westernized” of all other Orthodox, we need to have a church of our own. If we happen to have a bone to pick with the Bulgarians, the church has to support us or she is a traitor. This is why Francis either does not understand, or he does, but chooses to ignore the fact, to prove his “peaceful” intentions to the rest of the world, that are ignorant of such matters. Take the Moslems for instance. The Shiites and the Sunnis are mortal enemies. Their faction is supported by their adherence to which ever branch o Islam they belong to.
Another point that is glaring in its ignorance is that Francis is “concerned” about the Ukrainians being prevented from praying. The Latest anti UOC ruling has no such intent. It is not meant to prevent anyone from praying. Rather, it is to prevent a fifth column, as they see it from undermining their nation at a time of war
How exactly is an Orthodox person “not prevented from praying” when they take away the church buildings and criminalize the priestly function? How do you baptize and marry future generations according to this “genocidal” law? And furthermore, if the war is ever declared “over”, does the new law automatically become invalidated, because there is no longer a “fifth column”, so no need for the “intent” that you suggest? Who expects us to believe this elementary school level propaganda?
Markos
How do they “take away the buildings” as you’re saying? The church buildings are not taken away or closed. They are still there. The only change would be that they would be under a different bishop. If your intent is to pray, why would you care which bishop or which patriarchate the church you’re in is under? I have not seen anywhere that baptism or weddings would be affected.
Too many people use the word “genocide”, where it does not belong. And the result is that it affects the word’s resonance. The Ukrainians under the Russian patriarchate will not be at the position the Jews were in.
As for after the war, it will be just as it is in all other Orthodox countries. A national Orthodox church.
If you really feel that way, then go pray in the Vatican with the Pope, then…they call themselves “bishop” too… In the meantime, the rest of us can recall the biblical phrase “be wary of false prophets (you may substitute bishop)”
It is clear you don’t acknowledge that there are ecclesiastical, theological as well as dogmatic reasons why Epiphanios has not been recognized by all Orthodox hierarchs, and only by one Synod (Constantinople) officially. When you understand these reasons, and when you understand what the word Uniate means, then you can reconsider what you just wrote, because it’s ludicrous. Anastasios of Albania is a good hierarch, for example…he hasn’t recognized or concelebrated with Epiphanios, and he has made his reasoning known in public letters. Feel free to read them.
And by the way, the term “genocide” can also be modified with the adjective(s) “spiritual / cultural” and not just with the word “corporal”…that’s the flavor of genocide the Janissaries (and in recent times the Bulgarians) perpetrated upon the Greek children they took, where they “preserve the living organism”, but “wipe out the mindset, culture, and identity of future generations”, that’s what happened to those populations who still today speak Pontian Greek on the shores of the Black sea, because their ancestors were converted to Islam under the threat of the sword, and no longer behave or act as their Greek ancestors, etc… That’s exactly what the Uniates from the Vatican gradually did to the Orthodox refugees escaping from the Ottomans during the 14th – 15th centuries in Sicily, to 50% of the population in Syros (Greece), and other places, in order to enforce “religious allegiance”, by trying to “wipe out” (spiritual genocide) the percentages of Orthodox populations in those lands over the years. They dressed up as Orthodox, performed the Orthodox liturgy, but had allegiance with the Pope (who ironically follows two Creeds with this model…one flavor with the filioque, and one without) That’s what they intend to do in the Ukraine, and I’m sorry, but Uniate affiliation, origin, or even worse – active engagement – are not fitting of the label “Orthodox”, even though they throw this label around in the Ukraine these days as being fitting to describe Epiphanios and his following…only when all Orthodox Churches have officially agreed that these folks are indeed Orthodox will it be a de facto truth. Until then, there’s a serious problem.
Really, man…you should reconsider why you repeatedly argue for the sake of arguing….that’s the “Greek kafeneio” syndrome…give it a rest. Ukraine already has and had a “national Orthodox Church”…”they”(those pulling the strings in Kiev) didn’t like it, and they didn’t like Ounoufrios…now they are trying a “coup” of sorts to eliminate Orthodox clergy, confiscate the buildings, and forcefully “absorb the flock” into this “Synod of Schismatics”, using Bartholomew’s “Tomos”, and now a “kangaroo law” by a legislative body in Kiev that doesn’t include proper representation for 50% of the population as the “legitimization artifacts”. And you seem to be ok with this…that’s shameful, man…if not totally disgusting, and abhorrent.
Άγει προς φως την Αλήθειαν ο χρόνος. Κατά τον Μοντεσκιέ (De l Esprit des lois) “δεν είναι Δίκαιο κάτι επειδή είναι Νόμος αλλά πρέπει να είναι Νόμος κάτι που είναι Δίκαιο”.
Ο Πάπας δείχνει να ξέρει να παίζει καλά το παιχνίδι του Παπά,” εδώ Παπάς εκεί παπάς που είναι ο Παπάς;”