Kiev, April 10, 2023
Photo: society.novyny.live
Despite inflammatory media reports, the primate of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church holds only a Ukrainian passport, the Church emphasizes.
In an attempt to discredit the hierarchs of the UOC, the outlet Ukrainska Pravda recently published a report claiming that His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine and several other hierarchs are Russian citizens with Russian passports.
The UOC characterizes this report as “unreliable and manipulative,” noting that, in fact, some of the bishops mentioned were recently deprived of their Ukrainian citizenship without justification and therefore had to file lawsuits to get it back, since they have no other citizenship.
Furthermore, the Ukrainian Security Service has “repeatedly stated that it checked all bishops of the UOC for dual citizenship, and did not cancel the Ukrainian citizenship of other bishops mentioned in the story,” therefore “the information provided in the video cannot be true.”
Met. Onuphry also issued his own clarifying statement, explaining that, in fact, he holds only a Ukrainian passport, and that as a Christian, he won’t condemn everything about Russia, including the God-bearing elders he has known, although he condemns the war:
In response to the statement of the correspondent of the publication “Ukrainska Pravda,” Mikhail Tkach (dated 4/7/23) that I have Russian citizenship, I would like to immediately state that I do not consider myself a citizen of Russia. For a more detailed explanation, allow me to recall the background of my life.
In 1969, I completed three years at Chernivtsi State University. Since I was the son of a priest, I had a strong desire: to leave the University and go to a seminary to become a priest.
In the Soviet Union at that time, there were three theological seminaries: Moscow, Leningrad, and Odessa. As a Ukrainian, I wanted to enter the Odessa Theological Seminary, but I was refused, because I had left the University and this, it seems, would be a stain on the Ukrainian atheist society, which even in the university didn’t raise up the spirit of an atheist in me. Then I secretly went to Russia, to Zagorsk, where the famous Trinity-Sergius Lavra and the Moscow Theological Academy and Seminary were located. They didn’t reject me there as they had in Ukraine, but accepted me into the second year of the Moscow Theological Seminary. I, a sinner, am infinitely grateful to St. Sergius, the founder of this holy monastery, for accepting me when my own people turned away from me, when I was on the verge of despair.
I graduated from the Seminary and then from the Theological Academy. While in my third year at the Seminary, I entered the brotherhood of the Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra and in 1971 I took monastic vows. I spent nineteen years in the Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra. Those were the best years of my life. In the theological schools I was taught by wise and famous theologians, and in the Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra I met wonderful highly spiritual elders, such as: Archimandrite Kirill (Pavlov), who was an earthly angel and a heavenly man, Archimandrite Naum (Baiborodin), Theodore (Andryuschenko), Pimen (Nikitenko), Vissarion (Veliky-Ostapenko), Bartholomew (Kalugin), and others who were a living example for me of Christian love and humility. Our monastery was international. People of different nationalities labored there: Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Moldovans, Georgians, Armenians, Jews, French, Tatars, Mordvins, and many others. We had a wonderful spiritual family, and we respected each other, cared for each other, and helped each other. I was happy and dreamed of living in the holy monastery my whole life. However, God judged differently. In 1988, I was transferred to Ukraine to the Holy Dormition-Pochaev Lavra, and later, in 1990, to my native Bukovina.
At this time, the Soviet Union collapsed and I, being a de facto citizen of Russia before that (because I had a permanent residence permit in Russia, which in modern terms meant citizenship), took a Ukrainian passport. At the same time, Russian citizenship was automatically renewed, but I wasn’t interested in it and didn’t use it, it didn’t matter then, and no one persecuted me for this. There were good fraternal relations between Ukraine and Russia. When these relations began to deteriorate, especially in the last ten years, I dropped my Russian citizenship. I don’t have a Russian passport. This was especially confirmed when I spoke out against Russia’s war with Ukraine and condemned Russian aggression. I consider myself a citizen only of Ukraine.
I will reveal the main reason why I didn’t pay attention to Russian citizenship at the time. I, a sinner, lived in the Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra for 18 years, where I took monastic vows, where I was born for a new life in Christ, where I touched living holiness, those people who were the embodiment of Divine humility and love, and I desired to end my life among such people of God, and citizenship opened up the opportunity for me to realize this dream.
Unfortunately, the bad relations between Russia and Ukraine, the collapse of the CIS, and especially Russia’s war against Ukraine have destroyed my hope, and now I don’t consider myself a citizen other than of my native land—Ukraine. I don’t know what politicians consider me, but that’s how I consider myself. I don’t have a Russian passport.
But I’m not Ham. I won’t spoil a barrel of honey with spoonful of tar, as they demand of me—I separate the tar from the honey, evil from good. I condemn Russia’s war against Ukraine and consider it a disgrace to angels and men, but I am deeply grateful to those Russians who accepted me when my Ukraine turned its back on me. I am grateful to God that in Russia I met kind, sincere and God-loving people, whom I still want to be like today. The world lives on such people. I know that even today in Russia, as in Ukraine, there are many kind and wonderful people who don’t profiteer on the war, but sincerely condemn it as a phenomenon that doesn’t bring people closer together, but rather divides them. Let there be more such people than those who approve of war or warm their hands on it. May the Lord forgive us all, bring us to reason, and bless us all.
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