Filaret: Poroshenko said to me – OCU will be led by you

The head of the UOC KP Filaret Denisenko, Petro Poroshenko and Marina Poroshenko. Photo: Glavcom

The head of the Kiev Patriarchate Filaret reported the words of Petro Poroshenko, whereby the President promised the “patriarch” that he would lead the OCU in the same way as he had previously led the UOC KP. He said this in an interview with Glavcom publication.

Commenting on the statements of Epiphany that there was no agreement between them on who would head the OCU, Filaret said, “The fact is that we talked about this with the former president in the presence of Epiphany before the Unification Council. The President said to me then, “You will lead the Church just as you did it before, while Epiphany would represents the Church from the outside.”

At the same time, Filaret claims that Poroshenko had his own interests in the process of obtaining the Tomos: “Because Ukraine was waiting for the Tomos on autocephaly, our church was living with this dream. Poroshenko on this wave thought that he would secure the Tomos and this would increase the authority of the head of state at the elections. And it did push up his rating.”

In addition, the head of the UOC KP reported that Epiphany did not participate in the negotiations regarding the Tomos and was always in the role of a statistician at the meetings: “He did not take any part. He accompanied me at some meetings with the president. And when Poroshenko told me that the condition of the Ecumenical Patriarch for getting the Tomos is my opt-out of the nomination to the post of Primate of the Church, then I suggested Epiphany.”

He is confident that officials from the administration of the former President of Ukraine continue to influence the "hierarchs" of the OCU so that they support Epiphany Dumenko, but in relation to Filaret himself these officials "behave as if I did not exist."

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that the head of the UOC KP stated that Poroshenko had lobbied Simeon for the post of head of the OCU and believes that 13 "hierarchs" of the UOC KP at the "Council" voted for him at the behest of the former President.

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