Kiev, July 5, 2019
Photo: spzh.news
The self-declared “Patriarch of Kiev and all Rus’-Ukraine”, and Honorary Patriarch of the schismatic OCU, from which he himself is now in schism, awarded members of the ultra-nationalist militia C14, claiming it was for their “good deeds” as the Union of Orthodox Journalists report.
Among the “illustrious” deeds of the (in)famous group include church seizures, vandalism, and attacking minority groups.
In fact, the group is even acknowledged to express Neo-Nazi views in an article which appeared on the website of the American government owned Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
And so how did Philaret respond, when questioned by Ukrainian media, about the less than friendly behavior of the Neo-Nazi battalion? Simple: He simply denied any knowledge of them committing any bad deeds.
“I award those whom I award for good deeds, not for bad deeds. I awarded them for the fact that they defended the Ukrainian land, the Ukrainian state. I did not know about any bad deeds.” The UOJ quoted Philaret as saying.
That excuse is about as strong as a Nazi SS officer shrugging and saying he was “just following orders”. Moreover, it is almost impossible to believe a high-ranking member of society is unaware of the extremist activities of a militia group whose members he is awarding, when even the American media is fully aware of it.
As we reported, Philaret himself blessed a so-called icon, which openly displayed neo-Nazi symbolism, depicted Saint George killing a Byzantine Eagle (a symbol used by the Ecumenical Patriarchate!), Kalashnikov assault rifles, and what appears to be the burning ruins of Donetsk airport with people in the fire.
Earlier, the UOJ quoted Philaret as saying:
“War is evil, which brings suffering and death. But it also revealed the best features of our nation. Did you fight? You fought! Could you die? You could! Like your comrades and friends. The warriors who defend their homeland embody the main commandment of God about love’ he said at the same time to those who were awarded.”
The way Philaret attempts to twist a fratricidal war into fulfilling a commandment of God is as terrible as when one of his priests, known for posting speeches of Adolf Hitler on Facebook, “enlightened” his flock on how to “forgive” your enemies.
And how did Kiev Patriarch “Priest” Alexander Dedyukhin teach people how to forgive their enemies? His advice would have put many bloodthirsty pseudo-Christian medieval warlords at ease. According to the “good father”, you can forgive your enemies by simply killing them. The Kiev Patriarchate cleric was quoted as saying:
“Forgiveness comes in different forms. There is forgiveness through the scope of an automatic—that is how to forgive an aggressor, sending him 6 to 12 grams of love to one of his vital organs. This also frees us. The main thing is not to forget the simple truth: A dead enemy is no longer an enemy. A dead enemy is just a corpse. And we gain freedom by forgiving as much as we can;”
That may not even be the most sinister statement this “cleric” has made. He also advocated for terrorism, and made a strange correlation between gifts of the Holy Spirit and Molotov cocktails. He also managed to be given an award, not by his patriarch Philaret, but by Patriarch Bartholomew himself.
To be fair, it is very likely Patriarch Bartholomew was not informed of the priest’s statements, as his ravings are largely untranslated from Russian—oddly, the Ukrainian nationalist cleric posts in Russian on his Facebook page.
Nevertheless, the Orthodox world at large was certainly warned by everyone from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, to the Moscow Patriarchate itself, to this website, of the alarming extremist tendencies of these schismatics. When Philaret regularly associates with these types of people, it is effectively unbelievable that he is unaware of their actions; and if he truly is unaware, it is willfully so at best.
While analyzing Philaret’s words, his peculiar speech pattern reminded us of something else.
Earlier, Philaret said to the fighters: “Did you fight? You fought! Could you die? You could!”
He used this same speech pattern when enlightening the world about how the people of Donbass (his birthplace) apparently committed the dangerous sin of “voting for federalization1”. This is the first time “federalization” has ever been described as a sin. Philaret explained how the people of Donbass sinned with the same odd style of speech, saying: “Did they vote? They voted. Did they sin? They sinned!”
And how did Philaret recommend the people of Donbass atone from the first ever recorded sin of voting for federalization? Through the canon of repentance, through confession?
No, Philaret explained the people of Donbass are “guilty in their suffering, and must expiate their guilt through torment and blood.” (See this video).
Taken all together, it seems completely irrelevant now if Philaret knew, or did not know, about the actions of the specific people he awarded. He appears to share their ideology.
Matfey Shaheen
