Legoyda: Pain for brothers in Ukraine more important than travel to Athos

Head of the ROC Synodal Department for the Church’s Relations with Society and Mass Media Vladimir Legoyda

The pain for brothers in faith in Ukraine is much more important now than the possibility of travelling to Athos, said Vladimir Legoyda, the head of the ROC Synodal Department for the Church’s Relations with Society and Mass Media, on the radio “Vera”.

“Our prayers, our pain is now primarily with our brothers in Ukraine. This question is the main one rather than the question whether people will be able to travel to Athos, with all the understanding of its importance for the world Orthodoxy and worship of the Athos’s shrines and practice of spiritual life,” said Legoyda.

He stressed that he expresses his point of view, “without having in mind any disrespect neither for the people who make these pilgrimages nor, of course, for Holy Mount itself, but in a situation when our brothers in Ukraine are under attack, to ask if I can go to Athos is a shame.”

Legoyda noted that one should not forget about the real threats and pressure on the parishioners of the UOC.

“You can only pray that it will not come to clashes, especially since the President of Ukraine still in words guarantees the safety of the Ukrainian Church, although other speakers say that the Moscow Patriarchate has nothing to do in Ukraine. We will see what will happen in practice,” the ROC spokesperson concluded.

Earlier, Petro Poroshenko said that Vladimir Legoyda believes the future fate of the UOC faithful today is a much more important issue than the possibility of pilgrimage to Athos.. At the same time, according to experts, Ukraine faces the prospect of large-scale church raiding.

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