The Russian Orthodox Church says a Ukrainian Orthodox baptism is not a baptism. Fr. Jason Charron, a Ukrainian Catholic priest, joins Joe on what Moscow just decreed. What it means for “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” — and for the Catholics of Ukraine who live next door to it.

On October 22, 2026, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church approved guidelines for receiving people from what it calls “Ukrainian schismatic structures” — the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, the Kyiv Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. Anyone baptized in those bodies must be baptized to enter the Russian Church. Clergy ordained there come in as laymen. Communities that join must worship in Church Slavonic and may not ask for their own liturgical order. Anyone who criticized the Church online must sign a renunciation of his “former errors.” Moscow calls it canon law; Kyiv calls it rebaptism. And a Ukrainian Catholic, baptized in communion with Rome, is received differently than a Ukrainian Orthodox baptized two streets away.

Fr. Jason Charron is pastor of Holy Trinity Ukrainian Catholic Church in Carnegie, Pennsylvania, a married father of seven, and a former seminary professor who led a rescue of Ukrainian orphans the day after the 2022 invasion. He joins Joe at 4:30 ET.

Also today at 4:14 ET: Nick Kerasotes of iCatholic Mobile, America’s only Catholic 5G wireless carrier, on how the company started and why a phone company gives part of every dollar to Catholic media and traditional religious orders.

SCRIPTURE (Douay-Rheims):

• Ephesians 4:5 — “One Lord, one faith, one baptism.”
• Colossians 3:11 — “Where there is neither Gentile nor Jew… but Christ is all, and in all.”

SOURCES:

• Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, “Guidelines for the reception of persons from Ukrainian schismatic structures wishing to join the Russian Orthodox Church,” October 22, 2026 (Journal No. 83) — Russian original https://patriarchia.ru/article/123509
• Christians Against War (@shalt_not_kill), October 23, 2026 https://x.com/shalt_not_kill/status/2113608539167989982

FR. JASON CHARRON:

• Patreon — https://www.patreon.com/FrJasonCharron

iCATHOLIC MOBILE:

• https://www.icatholicmobile.com

A Catholic Take is sponsored by CatholicMatch, sponsor of the Station of the Cross Catholic Media Network and the Joe McClane YouTube channel.
https://www.catholicmatch.com/

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