SCHISMATIC PRIESTS PROUDLY SING: “BANDERA IS OUR FATHER!” (+VIDEO)

Drogobich, Ukraine, October 29, 2021

Photo: ytimg.com    

In a video published earlier this week, a group of “priests” from the Patriarchate of Constantinople’s schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” proudly proclaim in song: “Bandera is our father!”

The men in the video are chaplains of the Drogobich-Sambir Diocese of the schismatic organization, singing a popular nationalist song against the backdrop of the monument to the Nazi-collaborator and war criminal Stepan Bandera in Drogobich:

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The chaplains dedicated their performance to Chaplain’s Day, celebrated on October 25, thus joining in a social media flash mob that has swept through Ukraine.

In the song, the “priests” proclaim that “Bandera is our father, Ukraine is our mother!”

Their admiration for Bander is not surprising, as the head of the schismatic OCU himself, “Metropolitan” Epiphany Dumenko, has talked about how the OCU is proud to be called Banderites.

During a visit to the Lvov National Agrarian University in April 2019, the fake metropolitan told students: “Among the graduates of the university, it is worth noting and remembering the genius of the Ukrainian national and nation-creating spirit Stepan Bandera. He is a glorious graduate of your university, and when we are called Banderites, we are proud of this.”

The men in the video finish with the exclamation, “Glory to Ukraine! Glory to our heroes!”—a slogan the nationalist schismatics often shout to drown out the prayers of the faithful of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church at public events and confrontations. It was also shouted inside the church after Patriarch Bartholomew signed the so-called tomos for the “Orthodox Church in Ukraine” in January 2019.

Last month, the OCU signed a cooperation agreement with the Youth Nationalist Congress, which openly describes itself as followers of Bandera.

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Stepan Bandera (1909–1950) was a leader of the Ukrainian nationalist movement in Galicia, now western Ukraine, but during his lifetime part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and later the Second Polish Republic. His Ukrainian independence movement collaborated with the Nazis during World War II, and his followers were responsible for atrocities against Jews and Poles in Galicia and Volhynia. His memory is currently an inspiration for Ukrainian nationalists and Neo-Nazi parties in Ukraine today.