Posted on 05/20/2018 1:25:06 PM PDT by Berlin_Freeper
Ukrainian officials have petitioned Orthodox Christian leaders to allow them to create a national church independent from Russia — in a bid to end more than 300 years of Moscow’s influence over religious affairs in their country.
To the plan’s supporters, this creation of an “autocephalous” church would be a major step in Kyiv’s campaign to break free from Russian hegemony.
“We see the restoration of neo-imperial ideas in Moscow,” said Archbishop Yevstraty Zoria, spokesperson for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate, to Euronews.
But critics warn that such a move would risk greater division in Ukraine and throughout the Orthodox world.
(Excerpt) Read more at euronews.com ...
An unbelievably painful history.
Ukrainians are Catholic. Russians are Russian Orthodox.
And in a nutshell, you just described the war in Ukraine.
One of the reasons it was so easy for Putin to grab the Crimea is because most of the population there is Russian Orthodox.
Actually less than 10% of Ukrainians are Catholic (mostly Greek-Catholic Orthodox). Most Ukrainians are Ukrainian/Kievan Orthodox or simple Eastern Orthodox. Also a lot of Moscovian Orthodox — I presume they would mostly be aligned with the Russian Orthodox but I don’t know.
Nonsense, if religion is so important why is not all of Donbas and all of eastern Ukraine under Russian control? After all they are mostly Orthodox.
I am Byzantine Catholic, and if Father is gone and no other priest is available, the Ukrainian Catholic priest comes and fills in for him.
The Crimea is mostly inhabited by ethnic Russians. They want to be part of Russia.
Ping.
Into Crimea, there were forced relocations for the Tatar people. Tatars, being followers of Mohammedism, fear the Russians more than Ukrainians.
“At that time the Orthodox clergy were essentially licensed liturgists working for the KGB.
Some version of this is occurring now with China choosing bishops.
It isn't a "done deal" yet, and we can hope and pray it never becomes a "done deal."
The latest I read was this from Cathnews.com, May 14 (LINK).. There was no signing of an agreement, and no furthers talks scheduled.
Apparently the Vatican really wanted it, but the ChiComs are stalling. Thanks be to God. Such a deal --- according to its main opponent, retired Cardinal Joseph Zen from Hong Kong --- would be putting the wolves in charge of the sheep. A disaster for the Chinese Catholics.
“Ukrainians are Catholic.”
Well, some. Certainly not all.
It is a time for choosing.
There was a time +20 years ago, when China began the Three-Self Patriotic Movement, which attempted to control churches.
This forced many churches underground, rather than comply with the state.
Persecution is constant even today.
The fruit is that there are now estimated to be +100 million Christians worshipping in these underground house churches... and growing.
One article about this, as an example: http://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/cwn/2017/march/brave-chinese-christians-still-attend-underground-churches-despite-risk-of-persecution
To georgia girl - that's not correct. The religious difference between Ukrainians, Russians and Bialorussians is slight, just as the language difference is slight. The reason is that they are all Orthodox Eastern Slavs derived from Kievan Rus - with the Russians taking after the Mongol Khans, the Bialorussians after the Lithuanians and the Ukrainians as a frontier between Catholic-Orthodox-Islam.
the very people of Ukraine are mostly East Slavics who moved away from the Moscow dominated serfdom and the Polish dominated Commonwealth
When Left bank Ukraine (west of the Dnieper) came under Polish-Lithuanian domination it was mainly Orthodox, but due to the prestige of Polish, most of the lords and nobility became Polonized (ie started speaking Polish, became Catholic -- this indicates how little difference there really is between the slavic peoples)
Later under the treaty of Breszcz, the Uniate church was formed to make sure the peasants stayed loyal to the commonwealth (because Moscow at that time was playing the "we will reunite the Rus i.e. the Orthodox East Slavs together under the Grand Duke of Moscow"
But after the Commonwealth was torn apart, there was forced Russification and that went hand in hand with destroying the Uniate Church
Today ukraine is a nation that was aborted still-born. it never had the chance to distinguish itself from its neighbours and still does not. Pessimistically I believe it is too late for the nation to be born.
This was a Soviet policy to ensure that Ukraine never felt close to Poland.
Also, the atrocities committed by Stefan Banderas Ukrainian patriots mean that that link was destroyed
The war in ukraine is because the Russians feel that the Ukrainians need to be absorbed (and they have a point -- as I said above, the Ukrainians are East Slavs who didn't get polonized or russified, but they never were allowed to create their own identity) while western ukrainians think they can create their own identity and eastern ukrainians aren't sure
The reason Putin grabbed Crimea is not because most of the population there is RO but because most of the population identified as being Russian.
in the Donbas reagion people are not sure - some feel strongly Russian but many don't feel either way.
ukraine as a state has failed to build its own identity (not completely due to inability)
Ummm... no. About 2/3 of the country is Orthodox. Appx 7% is Catholic (Mostly Greek Rite).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.