In an unsigned text, the Digital Forensic Center (DFC) referred to the text of the rector of the Cetinje seminary, Gojko Perović, published in "News" on the occasion of the arrival, as he announced, of the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Onufrije, who will lead the procession in Podgorica on Saturday, February 29.
The DFC states that they noticed certain claims and sentences that, as they said, do not correspond to the factual situation, stressing that "the man who comes to Montenegro is the Russian Metropolitan in Kyiv, not the Metropolitan of Kyiv and all of Ukraine."
"Metropolitan Onufrije, whom the SPC and in this case Gojko Perović represent as the Metropolitan of Kiev and the whole of Ukraine, since the recognition of the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church by the highest authority in Orthodoxy - Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, actually holds the title of Metropolitan in Kiev of the Moscow Patriarchate. Grammatical of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I addressed to Onufri, on October 12, 2018, he was informed that the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which is also a part of the territory of Ukraine, revokes all his titles and designations, so that since then he is the Russian Metropolitan in Kyiv. and all of Ukraine, also by the charter of the part-patriarch Bartholomew I, was given to Metropolitan Epiphanius on December 15, 2018. Therefore, the man who comes to Montenegro is the Russian Metropolitan in Kiev, not the Metropolitan of Kiev and all Ukraine," the DFC stated.
The text states that Onufrije, accompanied by several Ukrainian bishops, will lead the procession, which is not actually the case, the response added.
"It is not about the Ukrainian bishops, because they do not come from the autocephalous and recognized Orthodox Church in Ukraine, but about the bishops of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine. According to the Schematism of Orthodoxy for 2020 (an annual publication of the Ecumenical Partyarchy), their titles and designations have been abolished. In in the same publication, the above-mentioned Metropolitan Onufrije is treated only as the Metropolitan of Kyiv, because according to the Orthodox canons, there can be only one bishop in one diocese, not two or more, which in this case is Metropolitan Epiphanius, Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine", according to the of DFC.
Perović, as they add, calls the autocephaly of the PCU earthly political intrigues and thus "calls into question the order of the Orthodox churches which reads: 1. Constantinople 2. Alexandria 3. Antioch, 4. Jerusalem, 5. Moscow. 6. Belgrade……..15. Kiev, as well as the authority of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, i.e. its thousand-year-old and exclusive right to give and receive autocephalies". The same right, they add, that the SPC used when it received autocephaly from the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 1922.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, added the DFC, is not the successor of the ancient Kiev Metropolitanate, which was an integral part of the Ecumenical Patriarchate from its foundation until the granting of autocephaly to Kyiv. "In 1686, it was given to the administration of the Moscow Church with the obligation to mention the Ecumenical Patriarch as the Head at all liturgies. In addition, the Moscow Patriarchate could not independently choose the Metropolitan of Kiev, but with the permission of Constantinople, it is stated in the reaction.
"The autonomy that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UPC-MP) now has is not the same as that granted to it by Russian Patriarch Alexei II in 1990. Its autonomy at that time was fundamentally changed by the decisions of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church on amendments to the Charter of the Russian Orthodox Church and other documents of the Russian Orthodox Church, held from November 29 to December 2, 2017. Amendments to the Charter of the RPC, which was the proposal of the then Metropolitan Onufrio of Kiev and All Ukraine, needed the maximum shortened the already existing autonomy, and some of the changes were as follows: 1) at all liturgies, as an obligation, the name of the Russian patriarch is mentioned; 2) decisions on the creation and abolition of dioceses of the UPC-MP are made with the approval of the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Church; 3) all decisions of the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Church are binding on UPC-MP; 4) UPC-MP receives holy peace exclusively from the hand of the Moscow Patriarch; 5) The Archbishop's Court of the Moscow Patriarchate is the supreme church judicial instance of UPC-MP.Suma summarum, from the great autonomy it had, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate now receives approval and orders from Russia on all important decisions," the Digital Forensic Center states.
They add that the extent to which the ties between the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate and the Russian Orthodox Church are actually administrative, that is, few, are again told by the decisions made at the same Holy Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church in 2017. "In the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, Bishop Onufrije takes second place, while the first belongs to the Russian Patriarch, now to Kirill. Also, the Russian Bishops' Court is the supreme court for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, which again shows that that church does not actually have autonomy, or more precisely that its autonomy from 1990 was revoked."
"According to a public opinion survey on the loyalty of the majority Orthodox "life" in Ukraine, the situation is as follows: 34% of Orthodox support and identify with the PCU, 14% support the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, while 27,6% say they are Orthodox Christians, but that it doesn't matter to them which church they go to," the DFC points out, adding that the Russian church in Ukraine does not use Ukrainian as a liturgical language, but the Russian version of the Church Slavonic language.
As for significant Ukrainian Orthodox monasteries or churches, they are, as they note, the property of the Ukrainian state, which cedes them for use by the churches there. "Likewise, Bishop Onufri's residence in Kiev, the famous Kiev Lavra, is the property of the state, used by the Moscow Patriarchate."
The Orthodox Church of Ukraine, as they conclude from the DFC, is called so by the decision and tomos of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and not because of alleged political declarations and goals. "It should be pointed out that the Ecumenical Patriarchate has the sole right to sovereignly grant autocephalies, as was the case in 1922 with the SPC, and the non-recognition of that sovereign right of the Ecumenical Patriarchate has consequences for the issue of churches on the territory of Macedonia and Montenegro," it concludes. in the announcement of the Digital Forensic Center.
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