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16 January 2019, 16:11Metropolitan of Zaporozhye accuses Ukraine of attempt to 'drag God by his beard'
Moscow, January 16, Interfax - Metropolitan Luka of Zaporozhye and Melitopol says that Ukrainian politicians will face disgrace for their attempts to subjugate the Ukrainian Church.
"By reviving the medieval principle 'cuius regio, eius religio,' you are trying to 'drag God by his beard' down to the feet of your masters to toady to them. Remember that no joy can come from causing grief and that everything bad returns a hundredfold to the person who commits evil deeds," the metropolitan wrote in an open letter to Vladimir Grianistyi, the head of the Novonikolayevka District State Administration.
A public post does not turn people into gods and does not exempt them from observing the Constitution, he wrote. "Your actions to force the clergy of Novonikolayevka of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church's Zaporozhye Diocese by means of persuasion and intimidation to incline them to schism through the betrayal of the Mother Church, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which birthed them as priests, fully contradict this article, which is a breach of the oath of a public official," the metropolitan wrote.
History has witnessed many attempts by politicians to destroy or subjugate the Church: Nero, Maximilian I, Robespierre, Stalin, Hitler, and Khrushchev all tried to do so, but "God destroyed all their vain attempts," and the Church "is still standing," he wrote. "What did the people's memory preserve about those persons? Disgrace and the people's condemnation. History is now adding the names of those who dared to lay their hands on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to this list," Metropolitan Luka wrote. |
