The hierarch of the Cypriot Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Neophyte of Morph, gave an interview to the UOJ, in which, in particular, he commented from a spiritual point of view why churches are massively seized, set on fire, desecrated in Ukraine, and sometimes simply destroyed, as in Lviv.

“The Devil is worried about the Divine Liturgy, fasting and prayer. And most of all, of course, the Divine Liturgy. And it is the Orthodox Liturgy, because only it has the Holy Spirit in it. There is no Holy Spirit at the” liturgies “of other confessions,” the bishop noted. .

He added that “other forces are hiding behind Zelensky. And behind these other forces is the devil, who dictates his will to them. Just like any saint hears inside himself, in his heart, the voice of Christ, the Holy Spirit, feels grace, in the same way, any magician or Satanist hears within himself the voice of the devil, the voice of temptation, and this voice is his master, because he himself allowed the devil to work within him.”

According to Metropolitan Neophyte, there is another reason why churches in Ukraine are being destroyed, a socio-political one.

“The enemies know that Orthodox people, families, communities are uniting around the church. And they say: I destroyed the church, killed the priest, intimidated the bishop, and people will simply leave. When they don’t have a church, there will be no opportunity to celebrate the Divine Liturgy, they They will move to other places, safer. This is their plan. They do not want the presence of Orthodoxy in all of Western Ukraine, they do not want Orthodox people to live there. They want only Uniates to remain. And you will see that a structure will be created there, never before they want to set up some experience in Ukraine. They want to make the whole of Western Ukraine Uniate,” the hierarch said.

The bishop noted that “then our brothers from the Holy Mountain, the bishops who will now serve with the OCU, will be surprised. They will see that the Epiphanians will serve with the Uniates. And then they will have to think carefully. Maybe Onufry participated with them in some common event, but never in their liturgy, never took communion with them. It is impossible to imagine such a thing.”