Poroshenko believes Sheptytsky to be one of the main creators of Ukraine

Petro Poroshenko at the unveiling of the monument to Metropolitan of the UGCC Andrey Sheptytsky. Photo: Poroshenko's Facebook page

Former President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko considers Metropolitan of the UGCC Andrey Sheptytsky as one of the main founders of our state.

“This Great Ukrainian took the lead in creating a state and consolidating Ukrainians into a single nation. Not without reason, even during his lifetime, many called him the Ukrainian Moses,” Poroshenko wrote on his FB page.

The politician believes that the hierarch of the UGCC “created a prototype of the Ukrainian national organism” on the basis of the religious organization.

“Ukraine used to be divided between neighbors, de jure it hadn’t been born yet. But de facto the state existed. It existed exactly within the same boundaries as the Greek Catholic Church,” said the former president of Ukraine.

In his opinion, Sheptytsky showed fearlessness and became an role model of "unflinching imitation of Christ" during the terror against the people and the Church.

Earlier the Israeli Memorial Institute of Holocaust and Heroism "Yad Vashem" recalled that Sheptytsky welcomed the Nazi occupiers.

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