Drabinko: Polish Church has already forgotten what they decided on the OCU
In an interview with the Polish radio station Polskie Radio, the “hierarch” of the OCU, Alexander (Drabinko), stated that the Polish Orthodox Church does not change its opinion about the OCU, “but they don’t remember which one.” According to Drabinko, Poland has been saying for many years that the Ukrainian Church deserves autocephaly, and now they are acting contrary to their words.
“I personally know His Beatitude Savva and a lot of bishops of the Polish Orthodox Church, because I was the secretary of Metropolitan Vladimir for 16 years,” Drabinko told the audience. “We have repeatedly concelebrated and talked on this issue. I know Bishop Georgy and Bishop Abel well. At one time, we would frequently speak on this issue, and it was they who said that 'you are a powerful Ukrainian Church of the times of St. Vladimir, you must be autocephalous.' That is, the very idea was supported by the Polish Orthodox Church.”
At the same time, Drabinko stated that the Polish bishops allegedly supported Filaret’s aspirations: “I understand that the Polish Church today is ready to recognize not so much the status of the Local Church of Ukraine, but the process that has been taking place in Ukraine since the 90s under the leadership of former Metropolitan of Kiev Filaret."
Drabinko lamented that Filaret had fallen into pride and drew parallels with the Polish bishops.
“This pride is just an obstacle, and this is all clearly visible from the side of the Polish Orthodox Church, which was always there and watched it all,” said the “hierarch” of the OCU. “After all, it was possible to start some kind of dialogue, negotiations, set some conditions for recognizing the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Church. So far it's only the words being repeated from synod to synod: ‘We reaffirm our position, which was announced earlier.’ Apparently, this position has already been forgotten, but ‘we still support it’."
Recall that quite recently the hierarchs of the Polish Church appealed to Phanar with a protest about Drabinko's visit to the country, but he explained that he went to the Poles on an allegedly private visit. Simultaneously, he managed to visit the Consulate General of Ukraine in Krakow, as reported on the official website of the diplomatic institution.
Earlier, the UOJ wrote that the Polish Orthodox Church considers Epifaniy Dumenko a layman.
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