Ambassador of Ukraine to Montenegro: UOC’s property should be given to OCU

The Ambassador of Ukraine to Montenegro talked with representatives of the Montenegrin media. Photo: rtcg.me

All church property, "nationalized and transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church", from the tenth century has belonged to the "Ukrainian Church", and such a church in Ukraine after receiving the Tomos is the OCU, said the Ambassador of Ukraine to Montenegro Natalia Fialka in an interview with Montenegrin media, as reported by the rtcg.me website.

All statements that the OCU is non-canonical are untrue, and “in Ukraine we consider this Church to be our national Church,” the publication cites the Ukrainian Ambassador.

She noted that “the Russian Orthodox Church has a large number of parishes in Ukraine”, but this is due to the fact that in the Soviet period it was given the church property of the “Ukrainian Church”, which was banned several times in the twentieth century.

“During the Soviet Union, all the property of the Ukrainian church was first nationalized and handed to the Russian Orthodox Church for management,” the publication cites the words of Natalia Fialka. “We know that in the days of the Soviet Union, only the Russian Orthodox Church functioned. It was known as a major ally of the then Soviet, and now Russian authorities. Church property in Ukraine, which now belongs to the Russian Orthodox Church, belonged to Ukraine and its church since the 10th century, the Ukrainian Church at that time was in eucharistic unity with Constantinople. After the occupation of Ukraine by the Russian Empire, all church property was forcibly transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church.”

We recall that on February 27, the Ukrainian Embassy in Montenegro published a provocative statement against the UOC, in which the Primate of the UOC was called "Metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church in Kiev, Bishop Onuphry", who does not have the authority to "express the opinion of the majority of Orthodox believers in Ukraine or the Orthodox Church of Ukraine".

On February 28, during a press conference in Podgorica, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine refused to comment on the scandalous statements of the Ukrainian Embassy.

The UOC Department for External Church Relations found the misconduct of Ukrainian diplomats unauthorized and called for bringing those responsible to justice. Also, a collective deputy request was sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to withdraw the provocative statement of the Embassy of Ukraine about the Primate of the UOC.

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