Metropolitan Agafangel of UOC-MP Asks Viktor Yanukovych to Return the Institute of Ground Forces to Odesa

ODESA – Metropolitan Agafangel of Odesa of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate forwarded an open letter to Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovych asking to settle the question of returning the Institute of Ground Forces to Odesa from Lviv, reported UNIAN.

The hierarch backed his request with the following statement: "The western region of Ukraine is a center of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, which is under the influence of the Roman Pope. The Catholic Church for centuries has sought and done its best to capture lands populated by Orthodox Christians with arms and forced imposition of the Catholic faith. In the territory of the Academy of Ground Forces (city of Lviv) is the Greek Catholic Church, which influences the worldview and moral and spiritual values of the future officers of the Ukrainian army. There is an Orthodox Church in the Odesa Military Institute."