The Russian media did not ignore the meeting of the Head of the OCU with the Pope in Rome.
This was reported by the Voice of America.
The state-run TASS news agency wrote that Pope Francis received the head of the “schismatic” Ukrainian Church, but did so in the Library of the Apostolic Palace, where meetings with official delegations are held.
Meanwhile, the Tsargrad TV channel, owned by the sanctioned Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeev, commented on Pope Francis' meeting with Metropolitan Epifaniy, saying that “the pontiff dropped the mask of a peacemaker, and the Vatican supported the destruction of canonical Orthodoxy in Ukraine.”
According to Vatican researcher, Pavlo Smytsniuk, director of the Institute of Ecumenical Studies of UCU (2019-2022), this was an expected reaction given Moscow's previous 'remarks' about the Ukrainian Church.
“It is possible that their propaganda, quite senselessly, will begin to accuse the OCU of being a Uniate project and a Catholic Trojan horse for Orthodoxy in Eastern Europe,” Smytsniuk emphasizes.
The researcher noted that the meeting between Pope Francis and Metropolitan Epifaniy “shows that the OCU and the Vatican are paying less and less attention to what Moscow thinks.”
According to him, this meeting is important for strengthening the authority of the OCU in the world.
“The Vatican or the Catholic Church does not have any procedure for “recognizing” other churches or church communities. As a rule, everything starts with informal meetings, correspondence, agreement to participate in joint events, etc. Therefore, today's meeting is very important,” explains Smytsniuk.
He says that in the past, the Vatican did not show openness to communicate with the predecessors of the OCU, Orthodox Churches that withdrew from subordination to Moscow but were not canonically recognized by other Orthodox Churches.
“With the creation of the OCU, the situation has changed greatly: the OCU is recognized as canonical by the Patriarchate of Constantinople, with which Pope Francis has good relations, and several other autocephalous Churches. Yet, since the majority of Orthodox Churches have not yet recognized the OCU, the Vatican has to be careful not to be drawn into an intra-Orthodox conflict,” explains Smytsniuk.