Patriarch Kirill accuses Ukrainian Greek-Catholics of Russophobia

“The Ukrainian Greek-Catholics Church is engaging in direct political activities, unfortunately, using sharp Russophobic slogans and statements and making sharp statements against the Russian Orthodox Church in its public declarations,” the patriarch said at a meeting in the Russian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday.

Patriarch Kirill said “a very sad shadow” has been cast on the relations between the Russian Church and the Vatican.

The Greek-Catholics (Uniates) were earlier criticized by Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations.

“Being represented by the Supreme Archbishop Svyatoslav Shevchuk and former Archbishop Lyubomir Guzar, who is now at rest, they took a very clear stance at the very beginning of this civil conflict, which unfortunately led to a military conflict,” Metropolitan Hilarion said on Rossiya 24 channel in March 2014.

Metropolitan Hilarion said the Uniates did not just call for European integration, “but even called on the Western countries to get more actively involved in the situation in Ukraine.”

“Archbishop Svyatoslav Shevchuk and false patriarch Filaret (Denisenko) even went to the U.S., went to the offices of the Department of State, and asked the U.S. to intervene in the Ukrainian affairs,” Metropolitan Hilarion said.

Archbishop Svyatoslav Shevchuk, the head of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholics Church, has recently made very sharp statements about Russia.