MOSCOW, June 29. /TASS/. The Kiev regime’s initiative to move Christmas festivities in Ukraine to December 25 continues the policy of Russophobia and "spiritual genocide" against Russian Orthodox believers in Ukraine, head of the African Patriarchal Exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church Metropolitan of Klin Leonid told TASS on Thursday.
He pointed out the absurdity of this proposal because there is a separation of church and state in Ukraine.
Earlier, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky introduced a draft bill to the Verkhovna Rada on moving the Christmas holiday from January 7 to December 25. An explanatory note to the document asserted that "Russian ideology in many spheres of life has been imposed on the Ukrainian people for a long time, including the observance of the Julian calendar and the celebration of the birth of Christ on January 7," while the majority of Orthodox Christians celebrate it per the Gregorian calendar on December 25.
"The level of incompetence and Russophobia in Ukraine nowadays is off the charts. <...> On January 7, in addition to the Russian Orthodox Church, the Infant Christ is honored by the Orthodox Churches of Jerusalem, Georgia, Macedonia, Serbia and Poland and the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia," Metropolitan Leonid pointed out.
That said, he noted that the Ukrainian president was only concerned about "traditional Orthodox dates," that is, those marked by the canonical church. "What the state has to do with this is unclear, because in Ukraine, church is separate from state. Just as it is unclear what President Zelensky himself has to do with Orthodoxy," Metropolitan Leonid said.
Overall, he stated that nowadays in Ukraine, Orthodox churches are destroyed and pillaged, holy relics desecrated and priceless icons taken abroad, while the rights of priests are violated and regular believers are dehumanized as if their opinion does not matter at all.
"Not only physical but also spiritual genocide of the people is underway. This policy is promoted by the so-called organization under the sign of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and nationalist groupings. <...> Ukraine’s future seems obscure and vague. One can patent borscht as ‘Ukrainian’ at UNESCO venues but it is impossible to replace the nation’s spiritual core with a fake imitation," Metropolitan Leonid concluded.