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Patriarch Kirill: onslaught on Ukraine Church "global crackdown on Orthodox Christianity"

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia said that the "tragedy of religious divisions in Ukraine goes beyond political boundaries"

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia Valeriy Sharifulin/TASS

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia

© Valeriy Sharifulin/TASS

MOSCOW, October 30. /TASS/. Politicians’ struggle against the canonical church in Ukraine goes beyond the framework of intra-religious relations, this is the global crackdown on Orthodox Christianity, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia said on Tuesday answering questions from participants in the Faith and Word festival of Orthodox media.

"The stakes are very high, and the order for the destruction of our Church’s unity is the order, which has a global dimension. This is not just the fight for jurisdiction. This is the fight for the destruction of the world’s only powerful Orthodox Christian force," he stressed.

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"[There are] 150 mln Orthodox Christians who are trying to live in accordance with Orthodox laws. Look at the development of the modern civilization. Our values do not fully correspond to what the world imposes on them. Undoubtedly, someone wanted to deal a blow to this ‘island of freedom,’ because we are free from the dumbing-down," he added.

According to the patriarch, "amid global information influence on people with very specific goals, we continue to be free as well," and that’s "the reason why the ideas of weakening the Russian Orthodox Church and dividing it have emerged far beyond Ukraine’s borders."

"The tragedy of religious divisions in Ukraine goes beyond political boundaries, it has a mystical dimension, and we should see it that way," he concluded.

Ukraine’s church crisis

On October 11, the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople decided to proceed with granting autocephaly to the Ukrainian Church. It revoked the 1686 decision on transferring the Kiev Metropolitanate under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate and announced plans to bring it back under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. It also reinstated the heads of two non-canonical churches in Ukraine, Filaret of the Kiev Patriarchate and Makariy of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Church, to their hierarchical and priestly ranks.

On October 15, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church said in response to that move that full communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople was no longer possible.

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