Expert: the aim of the West is to undermine the unity of the Orthodox world

Actions of the Ukrainian Parliament remind of the worst deeds of the Bolsheviks, said the director of the Kiev Center for Political and Conflict Studies Mikhail Pogrebinsky to a UOJ correspondent. So he commented on the appeal of the Verkhovna Rada to the Patriarch Bartholomew to grant autocephalous status to the Ukrainian Church.

The political analyst notes that some of the initiators of the appeal do not have any relation to Orthodoxy: half of them are Greek Catholics.

"I’m not saying that the appeal itself directly violates the Ukrainian Constitution, which prohibits interference of the state in the affairs of the Church, – says Mikhail Pogrebinsky. – It can only benefit those who do not want peace in the country, who are trying to turn Ukraine into a uniform anti-Russian outpost, drawing on the ideas of Ukrainian integral nationalism. It is no coincidence that the list of those who put forward this initiative is headed by Paruby, who directly and clearly said that only the people of the Western and Central Ukraine have rights. And Easterners have no rights, because they are "alien". This is all, of course, a lie. But it does not prevent him to be the speaker of the Parliament, although saying so he violated the Constitution and must be legally responsible."

The expert hopes that Constantinople will not agree to take an illegal decision on granting autocephaly to the Ukrainian Church. Nevertheless, there is cause for concern.

"The Patriarch of Constantinople is known to be keenly listening to the wishes of the Western establishment, he is close to the ideas of ecumenism, – says the analyst. – Many experts believe that the West supports him to undermine the unity of the Orthodox world, and to gain control over the part of Orthodoxy that does not go for the Russian Orthodox Church. This is an improper role that can be played by Bartholomew and which, ultimately, can lead to the fact that the Ecumenical Patriarchate can generally lose any authority in the Orthodox world."

Recall that the draft resolution on the appeal to the Patriarch of Constantinople received 245 votes of the people’s deputies on 16 June. Among its initiators are the authors of anti-clerical bills Viktor Yelensky, Andrei Levus and Sergei Vysotsky, as well as Speaker Andrei Paruby.

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