Ukrainian Orthodox Church (MP) Metropolitan Antoniy (Pakanych) continues the disinformation campaign aimed at international organizations. After Pakanych complained to the president of Ukraine and EU ambassadors about the actions of local authorities, on June 21 he sent similar letters to the heads of local churches, the UOC-MP press service reports.
Pro-Russian Hierarch Antoniy, who tried to block changes to the UOC-MP’s charter and called his Moscow handlers, now said that “unfortunately, the difficult situation in the country continues to be exploited by various anti-church forces.” That is, manipulating the truth, Pakanych brands the Ukrainian government “anti-church.” With the same success, the ban on the pro-Russian forces could be called a “fight against political parties.”
Pakanych said that in his diocese, decisions of five city and village councils banned or terminated the activities of the UOC-Moscow Patriarchate in their respective communities. In total, there are 36 such cases in Ukraine.
At the same time, Antoniy wrote nothing in his letters to the heads of the Local Churches of how the UOC-MP continues to cooperate openly and covertly to the detriment of Ukraine and Ukrainians. Of course, such facts where hierarchs and priests of the UOC-MP flip to the side of the Russian invaders would give a better understanding of why the Ukrainian government is banning the UOC-MP in Ukraine.
Pakanych also said nothing of how he personally called Moscow and apologized for failing to block the UOC-MP meeting, which cleared references to Russia from the church statute.
Instead, in his letters to the heads of the Churches, Metropolitan Antoniy (Pakanych) focused on lies. So Pakanych lied about the “capture” of temples. In fact, parishes decide to join the Orthodox Church of Ukraine at meetings, and these decisions are sometimes even supported by parish priests. There can be no question of any captures because the parishioners do not seize churches but vote for the change of subordination from the Moscow to the Ukrainian Church.
Nevertheless, Pakanych acknowledged that there were 53 transitions and allegedly 250 seizures.
However, this does not prevent Antoniy (Pakanych) from calling the parishioners’ will a “church raid.”
In addition, Pakanych believes that it is the transitions to the UOC that make it impossible for the UOC-MP to have a dialogue with the UOC, and not the outrageous demands of the UOC-MP made at the Council on May 27. Then the UOC-MP stated that it did not recognize the ordination of the OCU.
Pakanych further stated that uniting believers in the single Orthodox Church of Ukraine is a bad thing and is being done to (!) “sow division and enmity between Ukrainians on the ground and provoke them to violent conflicts, thus undermining the integrity of our country from within.”
That is, according to Pakanych, the existence of two Churches in Ukraine, the UOC-MP and the OCU, is not a split, but the parishes joining the OCU “sows division.” All in the best traditions of propaganda: black is white, and “the Russians defend themselves, not attack anyone.”
Antoniy also admitted that he had not received a response from the Ukrainian government to his false appeals. A few days ago, he threatened destabilization in the region if the president of Ukraine did not intervene. “The situation needs your immediate intervention to maintain peace and stability in the country,” Pakanych threatened.
By manipulating the facts and portraying Ukraine in a negative light before the European institutions, the pro-Russian hierarch claimed that the Ukrainian government was fighting a faith or religion that was in fact contrary to international human rights conventions and other international instruments. However, this is not true. In fact, Ukraine is struggling with the harmful effects of the propaganda and destructive ideology of the “Russian world” that Russia has promoted in Ukraine through the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate.
It should be noted that Metropolitan Antoniy (Pakanych) is the leader of the pro-Russian wing in the UOC-MP. According to a spokesman for the OCU, Pakanych demonstratively commemorates ROC leader Cyril (Gundyaev) as his “master and father.”
After the change of the statute, Antoniy (Pakanych) during one of his sermons spoke of autocephaly with the words “a sin that divides each of us.” According to religious expert Oleksandr Yefremenko, shortly before the UOC-MP meeting in Feofania, Onufriy removed Pakanych from their organization, as the latter regularly received instructions from Moscow on how and what to do to prevent the UOC-MP from breaking up.
Author: Spiritual Front of Ukraine
