Diaspora protests: Moscow Patriarchate received financial aid from the Catholic Church of Portugal for the needs of Ukrainians

This is reported by the website of the Union.

Taking advantage of the low awareness of Western societies about hybrid Russian religious schemes in Ukraine, pro-Russian bishops received material assistance from the Catholic Church of Portugal, as if for the needs of Ukrainians.

The bishops of the UOC MP who visited Portugal were accompanied by the priest of the Russian Orthodox Church in Portugal - Volodymyr Piskunov, a member of the Coordination Council of Russian Compatriots and the Russian Peace Foundation.

The full text of the appeal is given below:

To the President of the Bishops' Conference of Portugal,

To Don José Ornelas Carvalho

First, we want to thank you for all the support the Catholic Church in Portugal has given the Ukrainian people since the first days of the Russian military invasion of sovereign Ukraine.

In Portugal, we feel the support and care of the Catholic Church every day in our needs caused by Russian aggression.

The aggressor - the Russian Federation - had been preparing for this war for years, including ideological preparation. The current Russian government does not recognize Ukraine as an independent state, as it does not recognize our history, our culture and our religion.

An important element of the ideological preparation for military aggression was the blessing by the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) led by Patriarch Kirill of the Russian soldiers who invaded Ukraine. Unfortunately, a branch of the Russian Church still exists in Ukraine (it was the only one not banned by the Soviet authorities).

Even before the declaration of independence, in 1990, with the assistance of the Soviet authorities, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate was registered as a legal entity.

Despite being called "Ukrainian", this Church (UOC MP) is an integral part of the Russian Orthodox Church, that is, the politics of the Russian world.

There is a separate decision about this conflict by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, which recognizes the UOC as a denomination with the center in the country of the aggressor - the Russian Federation, and the members of the UOC are therefore subject to the restrictions of martial law, first of all, the ban on the clerics of the UOC to perform their duties chaplain in the Armed Forces and other law enforcement agencies.

In the current situation, the Security Service of Ukraine initiated 33 criminal cases against priests and bishops of the UOC MP. Bishop Jonathan (Yeletsky) was arrested. In the territories occupied by Russia, all clergymen of the UOC MP cooperate with the invaders. Two bishops of this Church have already fled from the territories liberated by Ukrainian troops to the Russian Federation.

We have information that the mission of the UOC MP bishops who visited the countries of the European Union (EU), including Metropolitan Meletius, was to spread "hybrid" propaganda among Ukrainian refugees, to collect information about NATO countries, and on other issues of interest to the Russian Federation. This was confirmed by the fact that the bishops of the UOC MP who were in Portugal were accompanied by the priest of the Russian Orthodox Church - Volodymyr Piskunov, known in Portugal as a member of the Coordination Council of Russian compatriots at the Russian Embassy.

Who is Metropolitan Meletius Yegorenko of the "UOC" who visited Portugal and accepted help from the local Catholic Church?

Meletius Yegorenko is a bishop of the Moscow Patriarchate with a seat in the city of Chernivtsi. Ecumenical Orthodoxy DOES NOT RECOGNIZE his status on the territory of Ukraine. He is an impostor per the categories of the Orthodox Church.

Meletius Yegorenko graduated from the Moscow Theological Seminary in 1986 and, as a citizen of Ukraine, graduated from the Moscow Theological Academy in 1996.

Back in 1987, he was sent with the knowledge of the KGB of the USSR to the Pochaiv monastery in the west of Ukraine to prevent the spread of the autocephalous movement and to work in the interests of the special services.

During the time of President Yanukovych, he was especially honored for the spread of "Russian peace" in Ukraine - he personally received the Order of Serhiy of Radonezh from the hands of Kiril Gundyaev.

MOST IMPORTANTLY, now Meletius heads the center of the Russian Federation's Russian church residency of the FSB in Ukraine, which is called the Department of External Relations of the "UOC MP". This is traditionally the fiefdom of the special services used for intelligence work in European countries. That is, Meletius is the HEAD of the church intelligence of the Russian Federation in Ukraine.

Meletius NEVER condemned the Russian aggression against Ukraine in 2014 or 2022. He is committed to the misanthropic ideology of the "Russian world".

We understand that the reception of the bishops of the UOC MP by the Catholic Church of Portugal was an act of "welcoming with open arms" aimed to help and minimize the suffering of the Ukrainian people, yet we have a moral duty and a civic responsibility to inform the Conference of Bishops of Portugal and Portuguese society that, unfortunately, the name "Ukrainian" does not automatically mean pro-Ukrainian content. Moreover, it is often used by special programs of the Russian government to mask the goals of their invasion of Ukraine. Just as the Christian Church and Christianity defend life, human values, equality and freedom, so, unfortunately, the Russian Orthodox Church defends dictatorship, aggression and death. We, as Ukrainians and integrated Christians who are also part of the Portuguese community, have a duty to inform and warn about this serious situation when the government of Moscow, through the Russian Orthodox Church, is trying to distort the truth about this so unjust war.

Sincerely,

The head of the Union of Ukrainians in Portugal, Pavlo Sadoha