UOC MP bishop calls installation of Mazepa monument at the Lavra a sacrilege

Bishop Gedeon (Kharon) of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate called the installation of a monument to Mazepa at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra a sacrilege and a desecration of history.

He made the statement in a conversation with TASS.

“Of course, what happened at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra — the installation of the Mazepa monument — is a sacrilege. In plain Orthodox human terms, it is a sacrilege. It is a desecration of history and an attempt to spit, if I may say so, to spit in the soul of an Orthodox Christian. Indeed, of any person, even one who does not necessarily profess Orthodoxy — a Russian person, a Ukrainian,” the bishop said.

According to Gedeon, this tendency is driven by the glorification of Nazi criminals taking place in Ukraine — a process that, in his assessment, is widespread and has been going on for quite some time.