Patriarch Kirill: Metropolitan Onufry Didn’t Say a Single Bad Word about Anybody

Those fighting for the autocephalous Church in Ukraine are ready to use violence in order to achieve their goals, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church said.
Pravmir.com team | 11 December 2018

Proponents of the creation of an “independent church” in Ukraine are filled with anger and use the language of force, unlike His Beatitude Onufry. This was declared on December 9 by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus in his sermon after the Liturgy in the church of St. Tatiana, reports the Telegram channel of the press service of Patriarch Kirill.

“Listen to those who are fighting for the so-called ‘independent united Church’, listen to the intonations, listen to the words,” said the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church. “What anger and hatred can be heard in those speeches! And can malice and hatred come from God? No! Therefore, all those who are striving today to establish the so-called “independent Church” and who are ready to destroy the lives of other people, ruin their church life, break into temples and monasteries, capture them by force – can they be children of God?”

Patriarch Kirill stressed that the leaders of the split are filled with hatred, and only talk about light, in fact being in darkness.

“Just listen to His Beatitude Onufry, the hierarch of our Church, who never says anything bad even about schismatics,” noted Patriarch Kirill. “They pray, they cry that there is a split. But no one, after all, offers the state to overcome the split by force, and they don’t even speak harsh words about the dissenters. This is simple: some assume the heritage of the saints in the light, while others fall into the power of darkness.”

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church noted that “it’s not about the Church’s to-be-or-not-to-be in Ukraine, as the campaigners of the Church’s independence say, but it’s about what the Church’s in Ukraine should be: the Church of God following God’s will, or the false church serving the devil and only clad in light clothes.”

Earlier, Patriarch Kirill said that President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko violates the Constitution of his own state when he intervenes in religious issues and tries to manage Churches and the religious process.

Since you are here…

…we do have a small request. More and more people visit Orthodoxy and the World website. However, resources for editorial are scarce. In comparison to some mass media, we do not make paid subscription. It is our deepest belief that preaching Christ for money is wrong.

Having said that, Pravmir provides daily articles from an autonomous news service, weekly wall newspaper for churches, lectorium, photos, videos, hosting and servers. Editors and translators work together towards one goal: to make our four websites possible - Pravmir.ru, Neinvalid.ru, Matrony.ru and Pravmir.com. Therefore our request for help is understandable.

For example, 5 euros a month is it a lot or little? A cup of coffee? It is not that much for a family budget, but it is a significant amount for Pravmir.

If everyone reading Pravmir could donate 5 euros a month, they would contribute greatly to our ability to spread the word of Christ, Orthodoxy, life's purpose, family and society.