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07 November 2005, 12:25Ukrainian Orthodox public accuses U.S. of campaigning to tear off the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from the Moscow Patriarchate
Kiev, November 7, Interfax - Head of the Union of Orthodox Citizens of Ukraine Valery Kaurov accused U.S. of supporting church schism in his country.
Speaking before the participants in the action dedicated to the 62th anniversary of the liberation of Kiev from fascist occupants, Kaurov said that U.S. have set out for informational-political campaign to weaken the Russian Orthodox church, to separate the Ukrainian Orthodox church from the Moscow Patriarchate with the help of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, and prevent the reunion of the Moscow Patriarchate and the Russian Orthodox church outside of Russia.
‘These efforts, however, will be counterproductive. We see who harm the cause of the church, and we shall become even more consolidated. We shall not allow non-Orthodox Americans to intervene in our church affairs’, Kaurov said.
Head of the Union of Orthodox Citizens called upon his supporters to come to the meeting in Kiev on November 20 ‘to celebrate in our own way an anniversary of ‘Orange revolution’ that has led to a new persecution of the Church and turned Ukraine into anti-Russian state’.
Taking part in the action were some five thousand supporters of the Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine (PSPU), All-Ukrainian public organization ‘The Gift of Life’, the Crimean youth association ‘Breakthrough’ and other organizations.
Columns of demonstrators went from the Independence Square to the grave of General Nikolai Vatutin. They carried flags with PSPU symbols, slogans ‘Hands off Ukraine, Orange Nazism!’ ‘Union - yes, NATO - no!’ ‘OUN-UPA - butchers of their people.’
The car with veterans of the Great Patriotic War headed the column.
PSPU Chairman Natalia Vitrenko said that ‘Orthodox unity, unity of the Russian Orthodox church and ideology of fraternity between the Slavic people and antifascism form the basis for reestablishing of unity between fraternal people baptized in the Kiev font: Russians, Ukrainians and Byelorussians’.
According to information from the Union of Orthodox Citizens, there was a fist-fight between the participants in the procession and ‘nationalist-minded citizens’ near the monument to General Vatutin. Some 10 people were injured and got abrasions. Four people were detained and brought to militia post.
Center for public relations of Kiev main directorate of the ministry of internal relations did not confirm to Interfax-Ukraine that the fight took place and the injured applied to law enforcement. |
