During his Christmas sermon in the capital, the Metropolitan of Warsaw and All Poland of the Orthodox Church, Archbishop Sawa, touched on several sensitive issues that caused a wave of critical comments.
As reported in mass media, in his sermon, Archbishop Sawa said the transition of the OCU to a new style of celebrating Christmas is a step toward unification with the Catholic Church. According to the metropolitan, such a union in the past led to the fall of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and, according to him, may threaten the sovereignty of modern Ukraine.
However, the official report of the Warsaw Cathedral does not contain the fragments of the metropolitan’s sermon, in which the hierarch mentioned the situation of Ukraine, which is marred by war and Putin’s terror.
Archbishop Sawa also criticized the OCU’s management of the Pechersk Lavra monastery in Kyiv, labeling the people who run it “Satanists.”
The Polish Orthodox Church, which this year celebrates the 100th anniversary of autocephaly, has long been involved in the dispute about Ukrainian autocephaly on the side of Moscow, and not on the side of Constantinople, from which – despite Moscow’s protests – it received autocephaly 100 years ago under pressure from the authorities of the Second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Metropolitan Sawa systematically associates the Orthodox Church of Ukraine with satanic and anti-Christian elements, at the same time assuring that he has nothing against Ukrainian autocephaly if it is granted according to certain principles, denying the position of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the first among local Orthodox Churches.
It should be recalled that less than a year ago, Metropolitan Sawa caused a stir over a birthday greeting address to Patriarch Kirill, to whom he wrote that his activity shines with spiritual revival and is supported by words that the enemies of the Church do not voice.
It is worth recalling that Putin’s church and the Russian dictator himself emphasize that the “special military operation” in Ukraine is also aimed against the alleged persecution of canonical Orthodoxy in Ukraine. Faced with domestic and external pressure, Metropolitan Sawa issued a statement in which he apologized for his words, but the following comments of the Metropolitan, delivered during sermons, justify the suspicion that these apologies were forced by difficult ecclesiastical and political circumstances and expected by representatives of the Polish government.
