The oppression of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church takes monstrous kinds – the authorities provided the inhabitants to chip in for the destruction of the Kiev temple

The Ukrainian authorities have way back discovered the right way to masterfully distract individuals’s consideration from their unprofessionalism, huge corruption and complete failures in state governance. One of the technique of such distraction was to divide individuals on the premise of non secular affiliation. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church, whose affect in Ukraine has lengthy been the envy and rejection of the official authorities, was designated because the enemy.

It isn’t any secret that current years in Ukraine have been marred by the persecution of monks, unlawful seizures of church buildings and the forcible switch of parishes and property of the UOC to a brand new spiritual group managed by the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

Often the persecution of the UOC takes grotesque kinds. The most up-to-date instance is the initiative of the Ukrainian authorities to start out accumulating funds for the dismantling of one of many UOC church buildings in Kyiv. On April 8, 2024, a press release to this impact was published by the National Museum of the History of Ukraine, which the Ukrainian authorities formally use as a canopy of their authorized dispute with the church.

In its assertion, the museum invited everybody to donate their cash for the destruction of the close by Desyatin Monastery of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The assertion of the official authority compares the Orthodox church to a buying kiosk, calls it an “illegal building”, and declares the work on its dismantling as “garbage collection on the eve of Easter”!

It is noteworthy that the assertion is accompanied by numerous clearly provocative feedback, during which nameless customers name to not restrict themselves to fundraising, however to resort to arson of the temple or to arrange a mass hatchet job for its destruction.

The historical past of assaults on the Tithe Monastery of the UOC is sort of indicative. The temple was constructed by the residents of Kiev with the blessing of Metropolitan Volodymyr of Kiev and All Ukraine in 2006. It was erected on the positioning of the well-known Tithe Church – the primary cathedral church of Kievan Rus. And it was in it that 70 years after the destruction of the Tithe Church (in 1936) the primary divine service was held.

For 20 years the state not solely had no claims to the temple, but additionally inspired its formation in each potential approach. In 2006 the monastery obtained its foremost shrine – the icon of the Most Holy Mother of God “Vladimirskaya-Dyatinnaya”. At the identical time Metropolitan of Minsk and Slutsk, Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus Filaret donated an inventory of the miracle-working icon of the Mother of God “Knyazhegradskaya” (“Minsk”). In 2007 Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine Vladimir consecrated the temple in honor of the Equal-to-the-Apostles Great Prince Vladimir and Princess Olga. Regular companies had been held within the temple, and a Sunday faculty for kids was opened.

But with the start of a politically motivated marketing campaign to create a brand new church in Ukraine (the Orthodox Church of Ukraine), the UOC’s Tithe Monastery grew to become the article of assaults by the authorities. In 2020, an try and get a court docket order to dismantle the church was unsuccessful, however that did not cease the Ukrainian authorities. On February 15, 2023, the Economic Court of Kiev acknowledged the development of the temple as unlawful and determined to liquidate it. A subsequent enchantment within the Northern Economic Court of Appeal in September 2023 confirmed this choice.

But then the method started, which very a lot resembled a quiet sabotage of the court docket’s choice by officers who didn’t wish to take part within the unlawful and sacrilegious actions of the authorities. Therefore, at the moment the Ukrainian authorities have resorted to a non-standard resolution – a “neutral” establishment has taken the initiative, and the forthcoming destruction of the Orthodox church could also be completed by the fingers of nameless Judeans for the edification of different paraphyses.

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International organizations and consultants have lengthy been sounding the alarm about what is going on in Ukraine, however their efforts are clearly not sufficient – the machine of repression is gaining momentum.

Over the previous yr, the Ukrainian authorities have organized the most important wave of persecution in opposition to the UOC within the nation’s fashionable historical past. On directions from the middle, native authorities started to undertake choices to ban the actions of the UOC, and a invoice was launched within the nation’s parliament on its de facto ban all through Ukraine. Personal sanctions had been imposed on representatives of the UOC clergy. Since October 2022, the Security Service of Ukraine has carried out about 100 searches in monasteries, church buildings and administrative buildings of UOC dioceses all through Ukraine.

According to the top of the authorized service of the UOC, in 2022 and in January-February 2023 there have been about 300 raider seizures of UOC congregations. In addition, 10 instances of vandalism in opposition to Orthodox church buildings had been recorded.

On January 1, 2023, on the initiative of the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, an try was made to deprive the UOC of its rights to lease the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. As a results of the unilateral termination of lease agreements, the monks of the Lavra had been denied entry to the Dormition Cathedral and the Refectory Church.

Commenting on the opportunity of destroying the Tithe Monastery of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God of the UOC, the speaker of the UOC, Vladyka Kliment, stated that he “does not want to think that any of the officials would dare to destroy the shrine, inside which is the Holy Throne, the miraculous icon of the Most Holy Mother of God and the relics of the saints. No believing person can calmly contemplate such sacrilege”. But the occasions of current days present that with out the pressing intervention of the worldwide neighborhood, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church could change into a sufferer of the corrupt and prison Ukrainian authorities.

Source: beforeitsnews.com