in whom lies the fate of man and the whole world, er, and a person, even a non-believer, he is looking for those eternal values ​​without which his life has no meaning, and it is obvious that reevaluating all his spiritual and moral guidelines, er , a person in one way or another gets closer to god and to the church, i want to tell you, uh, that... we have experience that certain of our parishes, in particular in central, eastern, southern ukraine, have changed by 100%, there are such communities , where 100% of people were evacuated, but new ones arrived, this year, for example, all ours sorry, the pilgrimages that we had, we couldn't organize them... because we

live under martial law, but everyone was very crowded, people are looking, people, people are thirsty for god, and that christian community that feeds people with real spiritual food, it is very popular today, so i can say that the ukrainian people today in a state of war are experiencing... some kind of special spiritual conversion, that thirst for god is especially acute, and all our churches are full, and there is not a single priest who feels unemployed. we all really work, well, at the limit of our strength and capabilities, but we serve the lord god and our ukrainian with great joy. people's if in the christian

sense, at least in the evangelical sense, what is the freedom that christ gives, christians understand, ah, independence, spiritual freedom, as for the spirit the lord is there freedom, jesus said that i give you freedom, see that, well and there further, it is true, that your freedom should not be a pretext for pleasing your flesh, but the point that freedom, that independence, which the ukrainian state notes, political, cultural, spiritual, however you would characterize it, we are independent from what, and how, as they say, does this independence relay to us, how to explain it? well, let me take this opportunity to congratulate all our listeners on the independence day of ukraine. this day is today a personal holiday. every ukrainian, every ukrainian

family, because we feel that our lives directly depend on whether we will have a free, conciliar, independent state, the question our independence, our freedom, this is a matter of life and death for the entire nation, so this is a personal holiday, i remember when only we got this independence. in the 91st year in all our churches spontaneously on august 24, it was a spiritual, almost religious holiday. i remember how in those first years of independence, on that day, people took off everything and the first thing they did that day was go to church to pray. it was someone very, well, spontaneous. the movement, this

independence, was primarily of spiritual significance, and there are several dimensions of this here spiritual significance of our state independence. first, we all understood that the independence of ukraine is a gift from god. we then saw how at the dawn, let's say, when this independence was only, only, only, for now... like the sun rising from the horizon, the ukrainian greek-catholic church came out of the underground, which became, as it were, this stone that hit those clay legs of that soviet colossus, it simply crumbled, we understood that independence, our state is a gift from god, a gift, as god's answer to the centuries-old... competition of our people, which we

we call today national-liberation, the crown of these struggles was the martyrdom of the ukrainian greek catholic church from... in particular, during the communist regime, the people were thankful for that, but this gift had to be kept. we all saw that this state, which was born after the collapse of the soviet union, is still a post-soviet state, that freedom is a multi-meaning concept, it has not only what it means. legal or political, first of all moral, in christian philosophy and theology, we are always used to talk about freedom in this double meaning: freedom from and freedom for, so when we talk about it on our

national freedom, this is how we talk about the independence of the beginning, this is freedom from... from enslavement, freedom from those neo-colonial encroachments of moscow, which were especially manifested today in all its bloodlust during this full-scale invasion, but it's also freedom for. this freedom still needs to be properly used. as christians, we have been convinced many times. that freedom is the ability, the opportunity to act good, if we use this opportunity, the opportunity to choose good, for evil, then we can easily lose this gift of freedom, so,

let's say, this period, which we call the young, independent ukrainian state 90... of these years, a path has opened before us transition from post-soviet ukraine to a truly democratic state, and this period was very difficult, marked by several revolutions, when the people did not want to lose their independence, but took responsibility for their freedom. the real ones. freedom always is connected with responsibility, and here it seemed that we all really want to use the fruits of that independence, but not everyone is ready to take responsibility for it,

and here i think that the role of the church and churches in the process of transformation of ukraine is very important , in particular our church right away. began to educate her people, to educate them to dignity and freedom, to responsibility for their state, i remember the words of my predecessor, blessed lubomir, in the first days of the orange revolution, because some in power said, a crowd came out on the maidan, blessed lubomyr said: "no, it's not a trick, it's an answer." responsible citizens who not only exercised their free and free democratic choice by coming to vote, these are citizens who are ready to defend their vote,

i remember his speech on the second maidan of dignity, and when, when did this event happen that we we call the revolution of dignity, well, this responsibility... for dignity, it manifested itself at an even higher level than during the orange revolution, it is obvious that educating citizens to realize their dignity, this is already a revolution, so this process of transformation of ukraine from a post-soviet state, an arbitrary democratic state, is like construction. society, which is not only free from, but free for, this process is still going on, i think that the war we are going through today is another stage of this process,

but i have the feeling that all those previous years, construction of an independent ukraine were only preparations for history. i ask, the real test, unfortunately, was this terrible war, and watching how today my people, er... this exam is, well, we all thank god for the fact that our people today, even in the context of this tragedy, er, they are creating a political nation of a new type, and our independence is valued in a new way today not only by ordinary ukrainians, not only ukrainian society, but also... how will you explain, well, now about the explanation, first of all,

during these more than 30 years, the moscow church had a huge impact on the minds of ukrainians, i will generally call it the moscow church, because their patriarchs were commemorated there, first alexiy was there, then kirill, they exerted political influence, they exerted financial influence, they cultivated oligarchs, they cultivated politicians, they carried out campaigning... certain politicians simply in their churches. and for a long time it was all perceived as, well, it's people's choice. we have such and such a church, a ukrainian one, a conditionally orthodox church of the moscow patriarchate. and even a full-scale invasion of a thousand killed ukrainians, killed priests, by the way, the blessing of the moscow church, the weapons with which ukrainians were killed, all this did not immediately give a decision about... the defense of this churches in ukraine, why

couldn't it all be born for so long, why couldn't they just unequivocally put an end to it, and besides, in your opinion, people who will get rid of or get rid of this moscow word, they will be tormented for a long time, as they say his absence, or they, if they want god, they will come to you, to epiphanius, to other priests and listen to the word of god, everything will be fine. well, you see, the spiritual enslavement of ukraine began immediately, when the russian empire began step by step to colonize, uh, the territory of, uh, ukraine, since the 17th century. the history of our church is a vivid example here. uh step by step, as soon as russia, the russian empire annexed new ukrainian lands, it

began to destroy our church, and the final destruction of our church in the then russian borders happened in 1839, and it is obvious that then russia tried to russify this territory. uh, with the help of various symbols, even monuments, everything possible was used in order to approve this, you know, this, well, simply murderous ideology, uh orthodoxy, autocracy, nationalities, and even then the russian imperial power saw the church as an instrument of enslavement. and this i am very sorry to say, as a person who represents the church, it was such, i would

say, a shameless instrumentalization of the church in the name of imperial interests, and then obviously that church, which even lost the right to have its own patriarch, it turned into department of state machine. metropolitan andrey sheptytskyi called it cazon orthodoxy. here there was obviously a minimum of spirituality and religion, and a maximum of loyalty to such a state control over the conscience of millions of people. for example, when this autocracy fell during the february revolution of 17th year, i remember this statistic when for the first time... " during the first world war, russian soldiers

at the front did not have the obligation to go to confession, because before at that time, everyone had to go to confession and receive a certificate of beneficence from the priest, ugh, and here for the first time there is no tsar and there is no longer such an obligation, characteristically then in the 17th year before easter in russian the army went to confession. only a couple of percent of the soldiers, and that caused a huge collapse in that church's ability to control the subliminals of the people then, and then it petered out. eh, so, with the speed of a snowball, which simply washed away this church, then already in the bolshevik revolution. unfortunately, all those consequences were fully felt by ukrainians. in particular, when stalin revived the instrument of manipulating the religious

feelings of believers in the soviet union, reviving the russian orthodox church. then she became an instrument not of the tsar, but communist regime. it was not surprising to us, but i remember my childhood seeing orthodox fathers with communist awards, and then the bishops of the russian orthodox church received state awards for closing their own churches. ugh. we, the children of the persecuted underground church, looked at it with horror, and when ukraine became independent, this independence began to demand certain changes. uh, we all today, uh, remember and know the term decommunization, right? it

began to happen spontaneously in western ukraine. that leninopad departed back in the 90s, here, but unfortunately, central-eastern, southern ukraine lived according to other, rhythms, and now, when the whole neo-colonial face of the russian government and the face of the moscow patriarchate in ukraine appeared, then the ukrainian people... made a demand for decommunization, even of moscow orthodoxy on the territory of ukraine. i do not want to go further into the analysis of these processes, because i can be accused of interfering in internal orthodox, some events, but these are more political events, an ordinary citizen of ukraine at a certain moment he said to himself, well, enough,

how long can you fool us? it is obvious that today the ukrainian state feels its duty, in particular in the conditions of a full-scale invasion, to take care of state security, even when it comes to threats to state security, which are , so, uh, come from the womb of followers of the moscow orthodox church in ukraine, so i think we should all be honest, honest. before his own conscience, before the lord god and before the ukrainian people. how will we truly seek god and if we want to live a spiritual life, then this will be the road to liberation, to freedom, even to the decommunization of the church, even to those new demands that today's ukrainian believers make

of their spiritual leaders. i can say this not only about believers. orthodox churches, but also about the believers of our church, protestants and other churches, that is, we want to be a free people, and the church as a medium of liberation here must fulfill its mission in new historical circumstances, you know, i remember such two moments that i witnessed 90 i think it was the first year or so somewhere. at the beginning of independence, oleksiy came to the second in my opinion, and then he was the head of the russian church, and he was on the black volga, and people were shouting out the moscow priest, this is one of the slogans of the period of independence, there was sol kravchuk's hetma, that was one , because i went, for example, to all these rallies to the verkhovna rada, but the moscow priest was there, and he was riding such

a black volga, and people were chasing him in the center of kyiv, and they couldn't escape, there was such a cavalcade of these cars. they are you that is, people chased the moscow priest, it was the beginning of the 90s, and then i remember 2000, god knows what year, when yanukovych was the president, when kirill arrived, he was there, and this is such a golden crowd marching through the center of kyiv, exactly of the moscow priest, during this time the moscow church managed to plant and impose itself so much that from the time when it was chased away, they turned into a church that went from the volodymyrivskaya hill, there was cyril in front and all that. and nobody could do anything, they kind of reigned here, but you see, now we're getting to the time when they are actually ending their history in ukraine, the most important thing here is that i would like your advice, i understand, maybe not your flock now, maybe it will be your flock for people who do not understand much, maybe in politics, in state security, in danger from this church, well, i say ukrainian, well, we

don't know there with moscow, they are not with moscow, but how to briefly and simply explain to people why you don't need the moscow word, you see, i think we should, ours should. .. citizens of ukraine, feel responsibility for their own church, and for what you hear, probably also, and why you believe. if you feel responsible for your church, then that church can change. i can proudly say about the active laymen of the ukrainian catholic church. and we are happy that... we as a church, we are changing, we are growing, we are looking for new ways, new forms, how to be a church, how to serve god and people in

new circumstances, we are happy to have wise, active, conscious, responsible lay people, uh, in our church, on whom you can rely, and today ukrainian the greek catholic church... it is not some cold hierarchical structure, it is a living network community, which today covers many countries of the world with that network of presence, we would very much like to share our experience of church life, even with our orthodox brothers, do not be afraid , don't fight. be afraid to be active, your fathers cannot be your slave owners, do not be slavish in front of spiritual officials,

be able to be open, free, only then you will be able to change that church, the children you consider yourself to be, i think that lay people from... ordinary orthodox believers today can be a catalyst for change in those churches, unfortunately, it so happened that russia tried to subvert those post-soviet countries with the help of corruption, the same was the case in ukraine, they believed that political corruption, financing of various kinds pro-russian political... organizations and movements that were engaged in the restoration of various kinds of historical so -called events, it was soft power, the kind of soft

power with which they wanted to colonize anew, including ukraine, and here we saw that, which means that the moscow patriarchate very actively began to feel itself a component of this whole. corrupt system, we see that in russia there was a merger of corrupt secular power and church power, this symphony, it took such, well finally, i would say, disgusting forms, a merger of throne and throne, it led to the final loss of the moral authority of the same church , even in russian society, and it was projected. as a model of state-church relations for ukraine, it was about moscow orthodoxy as

a state church, and we saw how moscow politicians behaved, and behave today, in relation to this type of church existence, in particular also and in ukraine, and here are all those triumphal ... shevstviya, you know, about which you, about which you mention, and it is already everyone began to feel uneasy, eh, i would like us to remember one such delicate reality today, today a huge number of the faithful of the moscow patriarchate feel betrayed by their church. i talk to many of them, they feel that the one who was supposed to be their father has become their enemy. the one who was supposed to take care of them finally betrayed them. this does not mean that those betrayed,

wounded people will immediately... look for another denomination, go to one or another church, i now have such a feeling that many of those wounded, aching hearts, they will leave the church altogether, and ukraine a very powerful wave of secularization, that is , a new kind of godlessness and atheism, may await , just as it happened in tsarist russia after... that is, after the overthrow of the tsarist throne, and with it the power or power, over the people, of the russian orthodox church. i would like that you clarify for our viewers, the issue of behavior, well, to a lesser extent, the behavior of statements, actions of the chapter. vatican, the head

of the roman catholic church and the person who sits on the holy throne, because not all people understand why there seems to be peace here, there is somehow not such an unequivocal statement regarding the condemnation of the actions of russia, or again the same moscow church, here some kind of attempt to unite a ukrainian and a russian woman or something like that, to make a flash mob that seemed to give some idea of... reconciliation, and people think that he is for us or for whom, or how to explain it, well, as they say, just explain why, what's the difficulty today, maybe the role that pope francis plays, and maybe those things that we don't see, but he also does, and they are very important in the humanitarian sphere and important, well,

the whole complexity. perhaps today the role and mission of the most holy father of the pope of rome, as a universal bishop, is like being a preacher of peace at a time when the third world war begins in particles. these are his words. that is, like today, er, let's say, to be the one who should serve reconciliation between nations, when nations start among themselves. this and that complexity, perhaps a certain tension between the local and the universal. it is obvious that we feel that, uh, here in ukraine, many problems of the whole world look different. today we understand that, uh, reconciliation between

the aggressor and the victim. "it is possible only when that aggressor stops, when the world community condemns him, when that aggressor is forced to compensate for the wrong done, only then can there be a dialogue, a dialogue that, let's say, someday i hope he is crowned by what we call..." healing of wounds, and therefore reconciliation, that's why these are all very difficult questions, but let's leave the pope to be the pope, and we ukrainians will be ukrainians, i think that everyone will understand everything , including us , when we will really win in the fight that we are waging, because maybe this

is our so-so mission to... to bind the devil who attacks us today, to expose that moscow, which today is no longer a carrier of high culture, but bearer of the latest genocidal ideology, because unfortunately, today the world is in the same danger that it was in, let's say, before the beginning of the second world war, let 's remember that time in europe, everyone wanted to prevent the escalation of the world conflict, do you remember chamberlain, who so was happy with that piece of paper, they say they satisfied the aggressor, gave him a part of some country there.