Vadim Novinsky: UOC is the fifth column of Ukrainian people, not Kremlin

Vadim Novinsky. Photo: NASH.MAXI-TV

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church keeps out of politics and continues to worthily serve its ministry despite the fact that in recent years it has been involved in political processes and called the “fifth column of the Kremlin,” said Vadim Novinsky, head of the Opposition Bloc faction. This was said by the MP in an interview with Dmitry Gordon.

“The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is the Church of the Ukrainian people, flesh of their flesh,” said Novinsky. “Ukrainian priests serve there, and Ukrainians go to the UOC temples.” Therefore, this is the fifth column of the Ukrainian people, I think. It has been carrying out its ministry with dignity for more than 28 years since it received the status of self-governing Church with the right of broad autonomy.”

The Parliamentarian stressed that although Petro Poroshenko “had tried for five years to involve our canonical Church in the political process, thanks to the firm, courageous position of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry, he failed to do this. The Church has other goals, other tasks.”

In his opinion, Poroshenko betrayed the UOC – the Church of the entire nation, trying to create a pseudo-church serving only one part of this nation.

“The Church has its own laws and traditions, on the basis of which everything should develop,” he said. “We have never opposed the granting of autocephalous status to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, but this status should be granted according to church laws, not in the way Poroshenko and Patriarch Bartholomew did. When this is done in such a mercantile way, it will not lead to anything good.”

Novinsky noted that “the Ukrainian issue has caused a very serious crisis in the whole system of world Orthodoxy, when diplomatic relations between the Churches are now broken, speaking in secular language”.

“The effects of granting the Tomos are so that the split in Ukraine was not and will not be eliminated in the coming decades, it will only deepen. The schism in the Church is a bleeding wound on the body of the Church and in general for Ukraine. Instead of overcoming it, politicians did everything to deepen it so it can hardly be healed in any way. Patriarch Bartholomew always added to this problem with his position when he did not speak out against, although at all church events he used to support His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry and say this is the only Metropolitan (...) Thank God, Primates of the Local Churches, unlike Patriarch Bartholomew, strictly observe church canons and church traditions, they understand their responsibility before God, before people and think about eternity, rather than about some of their own recognitions and preferences in this life,” added Mr. Novinsky.

Earlier, the head of the Opposition Bloc faction, Vadim Novinsky, spoke about the importance of the peacekeeping potential of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

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