Metropolitan Neophytos: Orthodoxy is now being destroyed in Ukraine

Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou (the Orthodox Church of Cyprus), commenting on the situation around the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, said that Orthodoxy is now being destroyed in Ukraine.

During a conversation with the believers of the Cypriot Church, Metropolitan Neophytos said that "Satan's servant states are ganging up to destroy Orthodoxy".

Vladyka said that the most dangerous period in the history of the Cypriot Church was the period when Catholics dominated Cyprus for 300 years and the Cypriot bishops commemorated the Pope.

"The most dangerous period for Cyprus?  It was not a period of Turkish domination. Nor was it a period of British domination. It was a period of Latin domination, the whole 300 years," he said.

"It was the destruction of Orthodoxy. The same thing is happening now in Ukraine," Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou emphasised.

At the same time, he compared the actions of the Ukrainian authorities in ordering the monks to leave the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra to what is happening now in Turkey.

"Exactly the same way Erdogan did with Hagia Sophia. They have one goal, to make money. The monks should leave," the Cypriot hierarch stressed.

"What would we do if we were told that there would be no more liturgies in the Kykkos and Stavrovouni Monasteries and that the monks should leave these monasteries and that there would now be museums?" he asked the audience.

As earlier reported, Metropolitan Neophytos told Cypriots about what is happening to the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.