It’s a great sin to make a business on God …

It had been a state policy of Ukraine to support schisms in Orthodox Church for all 18 years before Victor Yanukovich was elected as the President. These cleavages were created by the power with a criminal intent … Mikhail Mikhaylov, a correspondent of the Internet portal “The World and we” has learnt what the Ukrainian Orthodox church thinks of these problems. Vasily Anisimov, the reviewer of the Head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the head of UOC press-service kindly agreed to answer all his questions.

- What has changed in the position of excommunicated Mikhail Denisenko (Philaret) and his schismatic structure with the change of power?

-- Creation and support of schisms in Orthodoxy was a state policy of Ukraine for the last 18 years. Russian Orthodox Church today unites two thirds of orthodox believers of the world and it also underlies the Eastern-Slavonic Orthodox civilization we call the Russian world. After the collapse of the Soviet Union there was a natural desire to break into conflicting parts all other ties and relations connecting the historical space of Russia.

And first of all it concerned its spiritual basis, Russian Orthodox Church. This is why union was revived; pseudo-orthodox schismatic pseudo-churches were created which together with the power began dividing Orthodoxy in Ukraine. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church which is a part of the Russian Orthodox Church (its second name is Moscow Patriarchy, according to the place where the Patriarch is residing) was declared antinational, anti-Ukrainian, and union and schisms – Ukrainian and patriotic. Being under Kravchuk, the members of the Uniat Church and dissenters took by storm almost all orthodox churches in Galicia. Kuchma organized the Pope’s “planetary visit” to Kiev, which Vatican called “a historical revanche”. Yushchenko moved the members of the Uniat Church’s residence from Lvov to Kiev, and made lots of efforts to tear off the Ukrainian Church from the Russian one.

Today there is another policy. Why Philaret is now writhing in hysterics? Because he cannot count on God any more, only on the authorities. Schisms were created by the power with a criminal intent. And the power had been naturally supporting them, helping them to parasitize on the church property, on the people’s faith. State Committee on Religion that carried out that policy is now abolished. And now we can see absolutely different from the point of view of common sense and the law, normal relations between the power and the church. But from the formal point of view of the dissenters they say, "Oh, my God what is going on there!” You can see what howl was set up by the members of the Uniat Church and dissenters on all websites: after all they stopped all that hype about Philaret the impostor as a "patriarch"!

The state should not encourage deceit of the people. If the next man is promoted on all channels as an apostle and the patriarch, and if he is registered like that and treated like that and addressed "your apostleship", “yours holiness” etc., it’s nonsense! But unfortunately we were lived in that nonsense. Philaret, after all, was not recognized as the patriarch, a bishop or even a priest, he is an excommunicated layman with one foot already in hell …

- So it turns out that his position was created and supported by the state?

-- Certainly. And the state thus violated the rights of believers. There is a thousand-year old lawful church recognized all over the world. If you took any “Horns and hoofs" company and call it patriarchy, it would be a violation of human rights. Here we have a lawful president of Ukraine, and we can say that we have ten more around. And can just say that this one is a president, and that one is a president, and that lame one is also a president. We have a democracy here, you see, and treat everyone alike. But the church does not do it that way … Timoshenko, for example, did not recognize her defeat. And what would we have if the church did not recognize its defeat? And would interfere in the internal affairs of the state? It would be a crime … And when the state does the same, when it calls fugitives, excommunicates and simply mad people as "patriarchs" and registers their organizations as orthodox "churches", when the state spin-doctor them on TV? It is also a crime.

-- Is it is possible to say that the State Committee on Religion is a mechanism which allowed to go on with it?

-- The State Committee on Religion was established by Lenin’s government. At first it was called a Committee on Russian Orthodox Church’s affairs. Its goal was to carry out the policy of militant atheism and to destruct the Orthodox faith and other religions. Militant and then scientific atheism was a state policy in the Soviet Union until 1990. Yeltsin abolished this Committee in Russia at once, and nobody burst into tears on the occasion. And we protected it for 18 years … But for what purpose?

The State Committee on Religion is a government tentacle in the Church, crooked, corrupted and criminal. They have registered a whole bunch of sects, like "The Christ Church of the left coast", Mormons, Scientologists, all kinds of Pagans. For example, you have decided to create such "church" … You make an application to Anatoly Kolodny to the former Institute of Atheism, which is now called the Institute of religion studies. They examine it, and they even have a special service “to prepare your doctrinal statements”... You do not yet know what to believe in? We can easily help you. You see, you need a hierarchy here, a religious doctrine (you should be worshippers of, say, the Mauritians oak), and your church hierarch should be like this and that. They just created "religions and denominations" (confessions), then they registered them. And thus they have created about fifteen hundred sects. It is not free of charge at all, because all their examinations and help are paid services.

-- As for the number of parishioners - how many of them are there now in Kiev Patriarchy and in the UOC?

- If we judge by parishes – there are officially 12000 parishes, 200 monasteries, and about 3000 in Philaret’s schism. But Philaret each time lies in a different way. For example, they refer to polls. Those polls have been denounced many times already. For example, they have a question – are you for Moscow church or for Kiev one? Surely for Kiev, because the Archbishop in UOC is from Kiev. Then they ascribe it all to themselves and tell scary stories. Thus it turns out that in Crimea all people are for Kiev church though there isn’t a single Philaret’s parish there. He just needs to survive somehow, he is a thief …

- Are there any facts of conflicts, churches appropriation by the members of the Uniat Church?

-- The members of the Uniat Church seized 600 churches at the beginning of 1990s. What is left there to take away? Do you know on what grounds they took away our churches? Because UOC was then headed by Philaret (Mikhail Antonovich Denisenko), a former KGB agent with a nickname Comrade Antonov, a holder of the order of Red Banner. And now Lvov and Ternopol regional councils make appeals to the president: “Do not touch Philaret - he is a national hero …” Has he taken off his KGB shoulder straps and the order? No, he hasn’t. When in 1992 after all exposures he was removed from his post for all his crimes against the Church, he was unfrocked and expelled from the Church, he seized up the church cash and rushed to his best friend Leonid Kravchuk (who before his presidency had supervised atheistic work in the Central Committee of Communist Party of Ukraine for 20 years).

Kravchuk consoled him, “We will make you another church, not a plain one, but a gold one, national-liberation one!” But there is no congregation, no churches. So they promptly seized Vladimir cathedral and the exarchate building on Pushkin Street. Philaret did not give back the documentation or the money. And what about congregation? So there was an order to all governors – to give one ancient church per regional center to the new structure and to create schismatic communities. People come to be registered, and they say to them, ”we will register you, if you go under Philaret, and if you want to be under Moscow not in a hundred years.” This is how it was under Kuchma. And under Yushchenko.

Philaret is a political puppet. When the orange came to power, he danced on the marketplace and called his former patrons, Kuchma and Kravchuk “old evil power”. After that disappointed Kravchuk held a press conference and suggested that he should not try to jump out his KGB riding breeches, "because he knows too much” about some security officers who stayed in the church after they performed their tasks.

- There is an opinion that when Philaret passes away, this project of Kiev patriarchy will end and this organization will cease to exist together with him …

-- I have known Philaret for a long time and we want him to live as long as possible. The Church, after all, fights with a sin, not with a sinner. God forbid that he dies unconfessed. We have been exposing him for so long, wasted so much paper, urging him to return to the true way, to reject lie? And the main thing for the church is that person should repent his sins.

- What are the prospects of Kiev patriarchy under the new power?

-- All dissenters have only one prospect - repentance. And the state should not drag all Philaret’s followers to the church by the hair. It should not lie. People come to church not for a theatrical show, we have theaters for that. A person cannot give more than he has. If he does not have the divine grace of the Holy Spirit, and it is passed through apostolic ordination, he cannot perform a religious rite. It is a sacrilege. And if we are religious people, we should understand it.

- What weight do you give to foreign influence in kindling of such conflicts in Ukraine, what is the role of the members of the Uniat Church in it? Maybe the Roman church has some strategy they are following here with the help of the members of Uniat Church, maybe they create those conflicts artificially?

-- Our schisms were always supported by the members of Uniat Church. To divide, to split up, to organize pseudo-hierarchies these are their actions. And Philaret with the uniat cardinal Guzar are now like twin brothers. Though the members of Uniat Church are a part of Catholic church … ROC and the Catholic church recognize each other’s sacraments and prohibitions in each other’s religious rites. If any priest is excommunicated in the Catholic Church, we will never recognize him as a priest. So if a person is excommunicated here, he is excommunicated in the Catholic Church also. And here they walk around as a couple – this one is a "patriarch" and that one is also a "patriarch". Guzar calls himself a cardinal, a patriarch not to confuse people. They both keep stirring upthings, organizing provocations together. The union was created for abduction of the orthodox believers. The Orthodox Church treats it like heresy that, according to Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, has no right to exist in Christianity.

- But it is supported by the Roman Catholic Church, probably pursuing its own interests?

-- Well, what kind of interests. They are janissaries who created the appendicitis in the Orthodox church and it is suppurating there. They have 70% in Galicia, the others are dissenters. They are even in Kiev, where Zaporozhye Cossacks kicked them out from, today they have plans for St. Sofia cathedral, a thousand-year residence of Orthodox Kiev Archbishops, because "it must not be given back to the orthodox church, because we are from here ourselves!” How come you are from here? Here it the union’s policy to you …

- Did President Yanukovich make any statements about the members of the Uniat Church and KP? Did he express his point of view?

-- He does not express his point of view he shows it in his actions. The matter is that both Guzar and Philaret during pre-election meetings agitated for the orange. And they called Yanukovich evil, slavery. But here Philaret did not guess right in his old age. He made a wrong bet, miscalculated. Anyone can make a mistake. Also now he wants Yanukovich to treat him kindly. The new power says that "Donetsk does not need empty stock". And the president needs to adhere to it. All those impostors and Philaret, should be left in the past like an empty stock.

- And is the power now taking any steps to restrict Philaret's activities?

-- To tell the truth, it cannot take any action under the law. We have a democratic legislation. But we must not popularize lies. And if there is a devotee, and next to him there is a crook and a criminal, how can we treat them alike? The state must not popularize "МММ" pyramids. The state must show that this is reliable, it is guaranteed, legal, and those are crooks.

- It is a pity that there are no legislative methods to limit it somehow. All it is obvious that this is fraud …

-- Actually everything is always obvious to everyone. It is pure corruption, a pure crime. And it must be investigated. Just imagine, what would happen, if the Italian government made on more Pope today. If they first excommunicated some crook and then the government registered him and here you go, one more Pope for the whole of Italy. Or in Poland, for example. This is nonsense!

And we have patriarch Philaret, patriarch Guzar, patriarch Polycarp (Ogurtsov), Moses (Kulik), even one Universal Avatar of sorts on Klovsky descent. And all of them are registered and have all kinds of deputies and crooks in their teams, because church organizations have many opportunities. They are a protection racket for business, avoid taxes. Philaret has millions. Ordinary business structures cheating people, that's all. If you want to deceive people, to create some any sect, you will only have problems. And so they claim that they are "orthodox". What kind of orthodox? I just registered as "orthodox" … "True-orthodox church", " Kiev patriarchy", "Autocephalous  orthodox", "Cathedral  orthodox" etc. – it turns out that all of them are "orthodox” churches …

- It’s absolute chaos. And there is no legislative base that could adjust it?

-- This is why the authorities here want to change the laws. And Philaret started howling because of it. The matter is that people, basically, can do everything they want, but there must be some organizations for cultural studies. And they for some reason just want to parasitize on faith. And there is another financial source for Philaret: they promptly opened their spiritual "schools" on all eparchies. Nobody knows who teaches there. But they can free from army service. And this is why people who do not want to give bribes to military registration and enlistment offices, run to Philaret, and there is this corruption...

And then they train those poor children, so-called "priests", who can hold neither a cross, nor a censer, who want to eat, crippled lives... They just walk around ready to seize churches, hunt  all cemeteries trying to find a chance to read a burial service, to consecrate a car or an office. Kiev authorities have recently forbidden Philaret followers and other pseudo-priests to read burial service to Kiev people and banished them from Kiev cemeteries.

And as for the foreign support. Look, who congratulates Philaret? The first one always is the ambassador of the USA. And the support comes from there. Where does Philaret go all the time? To America, to his money. His manager told how they tried to place 500 million dollars there. A criminal case was opened – the Americans thought that they were laundering drug mafia’s money. And there was a scandal in Ukraine. But, since all the right people were then in the power, the case was quickly hushed up …

- Will it be possible for Yanukovich to change the situation?

-- Yanukovich has a lot of his own things to do. It is just as it was early under Kuchma. Kuchma also said that he would expel Philaret with a foul broom. And Philaret with the opposition, with the secret services brought people to the streets in 1995, organized that black Tuesday. Somehow Kuchma stayed in power, decided that it would be better not to touch Philaret and to be friends with the anathema. And he finished his presidency in shame. And it can be the same with Yanukovich. He and Azarov congratulated Philaret upon his 82nd anniversary, "To the patriarch, the lord!" Well, what kind of lord and patriarch is he?

It is easy to get off to the path of lie way, it is difficult to find the right one again.