Paul
Goble
Staunton, June 20 – Patriarch
Filaret, the head of the Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate, has reacted
strongly and angrily to suggestions by Patriarch Kirill of the Moscow
Patriarchate that the Ukrainian people has no independent existence or right to
“real statehood, sovereignty or independence.”
Instead, the Ukrainian church leader
says, Kirill continues to “propagandize the idea of a ‘Rusian world’ in which
Ukraine is only a constituent part and subordinate to Moscow” and to seek to
justify “the interference of the leadership
of Russia in the internal affairs of Ukraine” (cerkva.info/uk/patrposlannia/5033-govorite-pravdu.html).
Filaret’s open letter appeared a day
after the Moscow Patriarchate released Kirill’s latest declaration about the “Russian
world” and the events in Ukraine, a declaration that has received attention
because of the Russian cleric’s call for a peaceful resolution of the Ukrainian
crisis (patriarchia.ru/db/text/3675015.html).
But as the Ukrainian churchman
points out, peace and an end to hostilities are not the same thing: “Occupation
will bring a cessation of military activities but it is not a true peace.” And “therefore,
as long as Russian forces remain on Ukrainian land and Russian does everything
to support armed actions on Ukrainian territory, a true and just peace cannot
be established.”
The kind of appeal Kirill is making
in the name of a “Russian world,” Filaret continues, is exactly equivalent to
the use of the term “Slavic world” by “apologists of the Russian empire” to justify
“the seizure and dismemberment of Poland and the bloody suppression by Russian forces
of the struggle for the re-establishment of Polish statehood.”
Using such rhetoric, the Ukrainian
patriarch says, undercuts what Kirill claims to be promoting: Its fundamental
implications mean that it will “not promote an end of military operations, the
restoration of peace or the overcoming of the ever-growing hostility in
relations between Russia and Ukraine.”
As a Christian and leader of the
Moscow Patriarchate, Filaret says, Kirill has “a responsibility to speak the
truth” to President Vladimir Putin and to declare that “the Church does not
approve Russia’s aggression against Ukraine,” something the Russian churchman
has not only failed to do but in fact has done the reverse.
If Putin ordered an end to Russian
aggression, the conflict in Ukraine would quickly be solved, Filaret continues. But tragically, the Kremlin leader has done
just the reverse and the consequences of his action are spreading throughout
Russia, promoting “aggressive nationalism, xenophobia, and inter-ethnic
hostility.”
Kirill’s failure to speak out
violates not only the principles of Christianity but also the declared doctrine
of the Moscow Patriarchate, the Ukrainian churchman says. That doctrine holds
that the Church will not take sides in inter-ethnic conflicts “except in cases
of obvious aggression of injustice by one of the sides.”
“The entire world condemns Russia’s
aggression against Ukraine,” Filaret says, “but You,[Kirill,] remain silent
either to please the earthly powers or out of fear of them and do not stop the
Russian leadership as the aggressor.”
Filaret says that he “certainly
desires that Ukraine and Russia should live in peace and mutually useful
cooperation and that the Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox Churches should be in
communion.” But that will be possible, he continues, “only when Russia stops
viewing Ukraine as part of its territory, the Ukrainian people as part of the Russian
people, and the Ukrainian Church as part of the Moscow Patriarchate.”
Regardless of what the Kremlin or
the Moscow Patriarchate want, Filaret says, “Ukraine is not Russia, the
Ukrainian state is an independent and sovereign one, and the Ukrainian people
is a self-standing political nation.” Kirill shares responsibility for
ending the bloodletting in Ukraine if he does not speak out.
No comments:
Post a Comment