Metropolitan Luka: Every sane person can see where the Church of Christ is in Ukraine, and where is the lair of bandits

Metropolitan Luka of Zaporozhye and Melitopol gave an interview to the ethnos portal. gr, in which he noted that “every war brings death, tears and suffering to people. People are divided by war and propaganda, and this is reflected in the life of the Church.”

The bishop told the publication about the situation with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in general and the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra in particular.

“This was not the case even in Hitler-occupied Kyiv,” say the monks of the Lavra, who refuse to leave, and Metropolitan Luka supports them.

“Despite the active work of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church for the benefit of the Ukrainian state and society, they continue to deliberately label us as “Kremlin agents” and create a legal basis for an unconstitutional ban on the activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The wave of persecution against our Church is constantly growing. At the moment, the monks and clergy, who with their labors and work revived the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra after the destruction of the Second World War and the period of Soviet persecution, are being expelled from this ancient monastery, this spiritual heart of our Church. The media has already gone so far as to allow entertaining comedy shows to vilify our clergy using profanity, all sorts of insults and curses, and openly call for violence,” the hierarch said.

The bishop also spoke about interfaith relations in Ukraine. He is sure that if the representatives of the OCU “had at least something to do with Christ and the Gospel, they would have helped us all unite around a common misfortune, and not use the war as a means of self-affirmation and raids on our churches, during which they beat our parishioners and cynically desecrate holy things. There is only one positive moment in all this: now every sane person can see with his own eyes where the Church of Christ is in Ukraine, and where is the lair of bandits.”

He added that “every government wants the Church to support its ideology and state policy. This is especially important for her during the period of active hostilities. They are trying to make our Church an instrument of political or ideological struggle, to use it for their own purposes.”

However, the bishop noted, “we, as before, call people to follow Christ, we ourselves live in the name of Christ and preach to the world Christ, who taught love, not hatred, and never, nowhere said that people should kill each other. That is why we are being driven from all sides.”