An MP of the European Solidarity party, Mykola Knyazhytskyy, has said that although he is irritated by Pope Francis’ words about Russian imperialism, he considers the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to be the enemy of Ukrainians. About this he wrote on his own page in Facebook.

“Ukrainians are irritated by Pope Francis’ answer to a Russian’s question, in which he spoke approvingly of Peter the Great, Catherine the Great and Russian imperialism. I am annoyed too. However, I consider the enemy of Ukrainians to be the activities of the Russian Church in Ukraine, not the unacceptable mistakes of the head of the Catholic Church. Finally, the Pope is elected by the bishops, not the whole church. And they, too, can make mistakes. Just like the elected Pope,” the MP wrote.

He added that “most Catholics of the world support the Ukrainians. Polish Catholic Duda and American Catholic Biden are our biggest supporters among world politicians. Lithuanians are also Catholics. It is Lithuania that supports Ukraine wholeheartedly and faithfully. Ukrainian Catholics from Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytskyi to His Beatitude Lubomyr Guzar have been the real builders of our statehood. The faithful and priests of the UGCC are still defending Ukraine today.”

In Knyazhytsky’s opinion, “to identify Pope Francis’ spontaneous inadmissible statement with the position of the Catholic Church means one thing – to fully play along with Putin’s policy. This was once done by the Galician communist publicist Yaroslav Galan, who was commissioned by the Stalinist authorities to write anti-Church articles, the most famous of which was called “I Spit on the Pope.” Galan had the right to condemn the Pope, but his real goal was to help destroy the church that defended the dreams of Ukrainians for their state.”

“The OCU and the UGCC are Ukrainian churches of Kyiv baptism, and the task of the state in order to protect national security is to do everything for their development, cooperation and common future after our Victory,” the MP emphasized.