Ljubljana, Slovenia, April 1, 2019
Photo: Facebook
As OrthoChristian has reported, the schismatic so-called “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” (OCU) has repeatedly violated the terms of the tomos given it by the Patriarchate of Constantinople, notably including the refusal of many of its parishes abroad, in Greece, Russia, Moldova, America, and other countries, to move under the jurisdiction of Constantinople. Though the tomos demands that the territory of the schismatic church be limited to Ukraine, “Honorary Patriarch” Philaret Denisenko and the parishes themselves have simply declared that they won’t move.
And news from yesterday, the third Sunday of Great Lent, shows that the OCU has stepped up its insubordination, having formed a new parish community in Slovenia. According to the website of the Ukrainian embassy in Slovenia, Archpriest Vasily Kuchirka served the first Liturgy in the Catholic Church of St. Urkha in the capital city of Ljubljana for the local Ukrainian community.
Furthermore, the embassy reports that the Liturgy was served with Slovenian priest Ales Tomashevich, who is the rector of the neighboring Catholic church of St. Lenart in Sostro.
Photo: Facebook
At the Great Entrance, Vasily Kuchirka commemorated Patriarch Bartholomew and OCU head “Metropolitan” Epiphany Dumenko and prayed for the authorities and army of Slovenia and Italy.
The video below shows that the Catholic priest stood at the altar table with the Ukrainian priest throughout the service and addressed the people following the Gospel, where the homily is appointed to be given:
Recall that the Ukrainian schismatics and Ukrainian Uniates have openly spoken about their dream of uniting into one church that will be recognized by both Constantinople and Rome, and one OCU hierarch recently declared that he will serve funerals even for Catholics, against the ecclesiological teachings of the Orthodox Church.
Speaking of the OCU’s tomos at a recent clergy conference, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine said: “But there is another prospect for this comedy—there will be a unification with the Greek Catholics, under the omophorion of the Pope of Rome, and further—some other dark prospects. Why do we need all of this?!”
Follow us on Facebook!
