We did not think that the struggle for the destruction of the UOC reached such extreme limits - Bishop of the Bulgarian Church

The clergy and the Orthodox community in Bulgaria had no idea of the true scale of the persecution of the canonical Church in Ukraine. The hierarch of the Bulgarian Patriarchate, Metropolitan Gabriel of Lovech, announced this in a letter to Metropolitan Luka of Zaporozhye and Melitopol, who published it on his Telegram channel on March 19, 2023, Pravlife writes.

“I received your brotherly letter, which touched us with pain to the depths of our souls. We were aware of the enormous problems in the life of the fraternal canonical UOC, but we did not at all think that the struggle for the destruction of your holy Church had reached such extreme limits,” Metropolitan Gabriel wrote.

He said that the letter translated into Bulgarian by Metropolitan Luka was published by a number of church and public media in Bulgaria and caused a wide resonance in society.

“There were a lot of comments from readers who, first of all, were very surprised that this is possible in such a democratic country as Ukraine, and expressed great sympathy and support for the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church,” the Bulgarian bishop noted.

According to him, the UOC is the “spiritual salt” of its Fatherland, “the grace of the Holy Spirit dwells in it to the fullest extent,” and it also “day and night prays to God for peace, prosperity and God’s blessing” for Ukraine and the whole world.

“Therefore, any war against the UOC is a war against the Shepherd and Savior of the Lord Jesus Christ,” Metropolitan Gabriel stressed. In this regard, he recalled the words of the Son of God about the Church spoken in the Gospel: “He who falls on this stone will be broken, but on whom it falls, he will be crushed” (Matt. 21:44).

According to the Facebook page of the Lovchan diocese, on March 15, 2023, a diocesan meeting was held, during which Metropolitan Gabriel and the clergy of the Lovchan diocese expressed “concern and fraternal sympathy for the misfortune of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, headed by His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry” and hope for “an early and just peace in fraternal Ukraine».