“Protests near our church in Donetsk is an attempt to scare the faithful” – Greek Catholic bishop

Donetsk bishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Stepan (Meniok) commented on the recent rally in occupied Donetsk, where protesters demanded to ban the UGCC and other "sects." According to the bishop, this action reminded him of the events of the totalitarian past, when Soviet repressive machine has driven Greek Catholic Church to the catacombs and also called it a sect.

"As the official purpose of the so called rally near the church of the Holy Virgin organizers named the fight against sects. But real purpose was to intimidate our faithful. Church repressed by the Bolsheviks is named a sect. A church that was more than forty years in the underground and survived, and that gave a large number of martyrs and confessors of the faith, known to the whole civilized world, named such that preaches heresies "- he said.

Bishop Stepan said that in Donetsk Greek Catholics were actively engaged in charity.

"I think that everyone who came to worship of our church in Donetsk can testify that our sermons were apolitical. And a charitable assistance was given to everyone who asked a priest. I, personally, wanted to introduce Liturgy in Russian language for the local people to be fully engaged"- stressed the bishop.

As RISU informed earlier on January 29 in Donetsk there was held a rally against "the destructive activities of a number of sectarian religious organisations, aimed at inciting inter-confessional conflict and the destabilisation of the situation in the People’s Republic of Donetsk".