Bishop Victor (Kotsaba) of Baryshevsky, Head of the Representation of the UOC to European International Organizations, explained why millions of believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church oppose the visit of the head of the Church of Constantinople to Ukraine. The interview is published by the Information and Education Department of the UOC.
“Our believers have already learned from bitter experience and know that this visit will bring suffering to millions of Orthodox Ukrainians. Fears have been repeatedly expressed that after the arrival of the Patriarch of Constantinople, there will be a change in the political vector and a return to the course followed by the previous government of the country until 2019. This means that the number of seizures of churches can significantly increase, which means that the level of violence against the UOC will also increase. After all, Patriarch Bartholomew cannot but understand that his arrival in Ukraine will be perceived by the nationalist radical forces as a call to action. And if he speaks of love for all Ukrainians, then he should refrain from the planned visit.
On the other hand, the head of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, as the first among equal bishops of the Ecumenical Orthodox Church, could publicly condemn acts of violence against the UOC, call on his spiritual children from the OCU to stop the vicious practice of seizing churches and beating up believers of the UOC. He could stop the targeted stream of insults, slander and anger directed at our Church. However, he never did this.
Naturally, under the circumstances, his arrival cannot evoke approval from millions of believers in our Church. This can be compared to how the Pope was going to come to Ukraine in the early 90s of the last century, when the Uniates daily and everywhere seized our Orthodox churches in Lvov, Ivano-Frankovsk, Lutsk, Ternopil (on the territory of western Ukraine). What could be the reaction of believers who suffered from these seizures and remained on the street outside the walls of the churches taken from them, which they themselves, their grandfathers and great-grandfathers built? Negative, of course. Both in the 90s and now.
Such sentiments regarding the visit of Patriarch Bartholomew, caused by his actions in Ukraine, prevail among our flock. Nevertheless, we hope that the head of the Church of Constantinople, having carefully studied the real, and not the virtual, situation in Ukraine, will make a wise decision so as not to aggravate the existing problems in the religious life of our country, ”the hierarch said.
