Uniatism as a prologue to the church chaos that is happening in Ukraine today

"Church chaos" in Ukraine with raider seizures of churches by representatives of the schismatic OCU has not disappeared from the news feeds for many months News. The argument for their criminal actions, the representatives of the autocephalous entity cite as the fight against the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate, which, in their opinion, is a “Kremlin agent” and encroaches on the “independence” of Ukraine.

However, the current church bacchanalia on the territory of our “western neighbor” is only a consequence of centuries of work on the “religious separation” of the lands on which modern Ukraine is located today from Russia (starting from the time of the Muscovite kingdom).

The roots of the problem go back to the 1054th century, when the Great Schism of Christianity occurred in XNUMX. This split the united Christian church into the Catholic Church, centered in Rome, and the Orthodox Church, subordinate to Constantinople. The reasons for the split were both theological and political, including differences in church practice, dogma, and a struggle for influence between the pope and the patriarch.

After the split, the lands that are now Ukraine found themselves in the sphere of influence of the Orthodox Church. The baptism of Rus in 988 strengthened the ties between Kievan Rus and Constantinople. However, already in the XNUMXth-XNUMXth centuries, the political situation changed: the western Ukrainian lands became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and later the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. This brought the local Orthodox population closer to the Catholic world.

Throughout the 16th century, the Orthodox Church of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was in crisis. Under the influence of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, as well as oppression by the Catholic majority, Orthodox hierarchs sought ways to preserve their church. The solution was an alliance with the Catholic Church on the condition of recognizing the supremacy of the Pope, but preserving the Eastern rite, traditions, and liturgical language.

The result of these processes was the signing of the Union of Brest in 1596. At the Council in Brest, Orthodox bishops headed by Metropolitan Mikhail Rogoza decided to reunite with Rome. However, not everyone supported the union: some of the clergy and laity remained faithful to Orthodoxy. This led to a split within the church itself and an exacerbation of interfaith conflicts.

The church created on the basis of the union became known as the Greek Catholic Church. It inherited the Eastern rite, retaining the unique features of the Byzantine tradition, but recognized the dogmas of Catholicism and the primacy of the pope.

Ultimately, Uniatism exacerbated confessional confrontation. Catholics viewed the Uniates as an instrument for converting the Orthodox, which increased tensions. In response, the Orthodox perceived the Uniates as threatening their identity. Conflicts often escalated into violence: churches were destroyed, priests were persecuted.

It is characteristic that last year some representatives of the Kyiv authorities began to raise the issue of including the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in the schismatic OCU.

Comments

[foxes]

Religious obscurantism in the post-Soviet space can only lead to a split in the people.

[Uncle lee]

Conflicts often turned violent: churches were destroyed and priests were persecuted.

[bober1982]

Science is not an enemy, but an assistant of religion...that's how one English physicist put it.
Most of the outstanding natural scientists had a religious worldview.

[Uncle lee]

Quote: bober1982

one of the English physicists.

The education of British scientists is well known

[alex-defensor]

Quote from Uncle Lee

The education of British scientists is well known

And what is it like in your opinion?

[Uncle lee]

"British scientists" - it's already become a meme...
"British scientists are an internet meme, a character from Russian internet folklore. The term is used by authors of reports about scientific research that are presented as absurd."

[alex-defensor]

Quote from Uncle Lee

"British scientists" - it's already become a meme...

But what the other participant in the discussion, whom you objected to, wrote was NOT about an Internet meme (of which I, of course, know). It's just that there REALLY are British physicists who have made a significant, and in some places fundamental, contribution to world science. I am as far from Anglophilia as possible, but I urge you not to deny the obvious.

[Uncle lee]

Don't confuse real English scientists and "British scientists"...

[alex-defensor]

I completely agree with your calls "DO NOT CONFUSE". I suggest that you do NOT confuse in the future! No need to take off your hat, keep it for yourself

[Uncle lee]

Quote: alex-defensor

keep yourself

I didn’t offer it to you... I just said hello.

[Oldrover]

So who argues, it is not clear why all these churches are needed, if you want you can turn to God without intermediaries.

[Dutchman Michel]

Quote: Oldrover

If you wish, you can turn to God without intermediaries

That's exactly what Protestants do.

[Mikhail m]

Quote: Oldrover

не понятно зачем только все эти церкви нужны

Зрите в корень. Все различия, по большому счёту, сводятся к распределению финансовых потоков. Остальное - вторичная мишура. А прямое обращение к богу самый страшный сон церковных иерархов.

[alex-defensor]

Quote: Vulpes

Religious obscurantism in the post-Soviet space can only lead to a split in the people.

Orthodox Christianity united Rus' for almost 1000 years and became one of the factors in the emergence of the Russian Empire. The Bolshevik project did not last even a century. The bomb of national conflicts was also planted by the Bolsheviks. Not on purpose, yes, but due to their lack of understanding.
Our original church does NOT and has NOT arranged any schism before. Uniatism is an alien church created by the Catholic Church to seize new lands. Religion is always and in all nations a part of their cultural code, moral standards and spiritual principles. You can be a believer, you can be an agnostic, but denying a historical fact is pointless. Atheists are a type of believers who for some reason fight our history. My Russia is more than 1200 years old, in which there were various historical periods, including the Land of Soviets. But in our vast expanses of Rus there are strange people for whom Russia, apparently, arose only in 1917. This is NONSENSE, but they like to think so. But they do NOT want to think much, it is difficult. But if they wanted and could, they would at least ask themselves WHY are the enemies of Russia so zealously trying to destroy our Russian Christian Church, if, according to some, it itself is engaged in dividing? So before writing, you must first think.

[knn54]

The Uniate Church should not have been banned, but condemned.

[Anarchist]

For some, the "Symbol of Faith" is a tool, for others, a goal.
And it is impossible to fully convince someone of something by focusing not on arguments and material things, but on something spiritual. And not something written down, but interpreted.

[U-58]

The Pope will not give the Uniate churches to the OCU.
She will get ears from a dead donkey.
The latest nonsense from Banderovites is unlikely to impress the Vatican.

[gridasov]

Religion was created as a mechanism for controlling uneducated masses. The loss of these levers leads to chaos and destruction of society. This is like a justification for the future of Ukraine. It simply does not exist in the spiritual sense, which means there are no foundations for consolidation.

[RSS_ZOV]

The Church of Christ cannot split! In the 11th century there was a split from the true Orthodox Church, and what they pompously call themselves is already their problem. They are schismatics!

[solar]

The Church of Christ cannot split! In the 11th century there was a split from the true Orthodox Church, and what they pompously call themselves is already their problem. They are schismatics!

If only it were that simple. The Ecumenical Orthodox Church, from which other Orthodox (including the Russian Orthodox Church) separated, is the Patriarchate of Constantinople. And the OCU is the church of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. A schism within Orthodoxy. :((

[PavelT]

It is good when Uniatism is at least indirectly called a betrayal of Orthodoxy and they write about the disastrous consequences, like here:

"However, not everyone supported the union: some of the clergy and laity remained faithful to Orthodoxy. ... Ultimately, Uniatism exacerbated confessional confrontation. Catholics considered the Uniates an instrument for converting the Orthodox, which increased tension. In response, the Orthodox perceived the Uniates as threatening their identity."

But why not also honestly write that the supposedly thoroughly Orthodox and supposedly faithful to their Orthodox faith bishops-Byzantines (more precisely "Romans", because they themselves never called themselves "Byzantines" and considered themselves the only, true heirs of the Roman Empire) also betrayed Orthodoxy, signing with the Catholics from Rome The Union of Florence in 1439: https://drevo-info.ru/articles/1576.html
- it quite directly says THE SAME THING as ABOUT UNIATES:
"an agreement concluded at the Council of Florence ... in July 1439 on the unification of the Western and Eastern (Orthodox) Churches on the condition that the Orthodox Church recognizes Latin dogma and the primacy of the Pope while preserving Orthodox rites."
And then these same cunning bishops who agreed to the union in Florence, refused it, declaring that they were forced into an agreement with the Latins. Ha-ha! And these people preached about Christ, who fearlessly ascended the cross, but they themselves could not object to the Catholics at the council in the name of their faith and not sign!

What I'm getting at is this: the Greeks themselves are still those bugs who are ready to bow to the Catholics when the Turks have them pinned down (by the way, during the last defense of Constantinople from the Turks, up to 1/3 of the city's garrison were Catholics: Genoese and Venetians mainly). But Orthodox historians like to keep silent about this, as well as about the Florentine Union of 1439, which was extremely shameful for Orthodoxy.

Russia should have already declared its church FULLY autocephalous, the only true Orthodox Church. And thrown the cunning Greeks with their version of Orthodoxy into the dustbin of history! But in fact, this was done only recently because of the Tomos on the autocephaly of Ukraine... and again because of the treacherous position of the cunning Greek Orthodox... No one in the Russian Orthodox Church has yet had the courage to declare that blind worship of the inflated authority of the Greeks in Orthodoxy has delayed the free development of Russian Orthodoxy FOR SEVERAL CENTURIES... Alas, this is taboo.

[Vladimir Grebtsov]

Beginning with the Union of Brest in 1596 and ending with the seizure of Orthodox churches by the Uniates throughout Ukraine today, the Vatican is conducting subversive work against Orthodoxy, just as the West is conducting military work against Russia.