Poroshenko: Ukrainians will not ask Putin which Church to go to
President Petro Poroshenko said in the United States that Ukrainians would not ask permission from Putin which Church they should go to.
The head of state sees his task in protecting Ukraine from the "foreign Church". Petro Poroshenko said this at a meeting with representatives of the Ukrainian community in the United States, reports the press service of the President of Ukraine.
"I am reproached for the fact that in the present state the Church must be separated. I fully agree with this. Especially if this state is foreign," Poroshenko said.
"It is our task to protect Ukraine from that foreign Church. Because we are the largest Orthodox country in Europe," he said, adding: "The Church should be one – Ukrainian."
Petro Poroshenko explained: he is pleased that among the "good ambassadors of the Ecumenical Patriarch, the Exarchs who were appointed by His Holiness," there was Archbishop Daniel of Pamphilon from the United States.
As the UOC reported, earlier the Chancellor of the UOC Metropolitan Anthony of Borispol and Brovary said that President Petro Poroshenko denied the believers of the UOC the right to be Ukrainians, and with his statements about the Church the President could plunge the country into real chaos.
