OCU cleric calls UOC an “enemy” and urges unity with Greek Catholics
An OCU cleric said the presence of the UOC in Ukraine amounts to the “presence of the enemy” and called for unification with Greek Catholics.
OCU cleric Ivan Rybaruk, rector of the Church of the Nativity of the Theotokos in the village of Kryvorivnia, Ivano-Frankivsk region, said that the presence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the country is in fact the “presence of the enemy.” In a video address published on Independence Day by FM Halychyna radio, he explained how, in his view, the struggle against the UOC should be conducted.
In his remarks, Ivan Rybaruk said that the “Moscow church masquerading as the UOC” preaches not the Gospel but the idea of the “Russian world,” which he called the heresy of ethnophyletism, allegedly condemned at the Council of Crete in 2016. According to him, the fight against this “internal enemy” should be waged primarily in the information sphere in order to convince Ukrainians of the need to rally around a “Ukrainian church.”
The OCU cleric also explained why he considers unity between the OCU and Greek Catholics important in this “spiritual struggle.” In Rybaruk’s view, Ukraine’s independence will become truly complete only when the country has a “single Ukrainian Church of Volodymyr’s Baptism that has nothing to do with Moscow.”
As the UOJ reported, the OCU has permitted its faithful to attend Uniate churches.
