Translated by Ollie Richardson for Fort Russ
27th May, 2016
The Ukrainian government has submitted a bill to the Verkhovna Rada on the complete prohibition of the legal and factual activities of the Moscow Patriarchate on the territory of Ukraine. This was reported by the correspondent of EAdaily, quoting the Ukrainian political analyst Volodymyr Yavorivsky, a former Verkhovna Rada Deputy from the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc", member of the self-proclaimed "Kiev Patriarchate", and a member of the "orange revolution" in 2004 and "euromaidan."
"This is because the priests of the Moscow Patriarchate do not take up a patriotic stance," says Yavorivsky. In particular, they refuse to read at the burial of soldiers killed in Donbass. I myself saw in the village or district center bodies brought from the ATO area for burial according to Christian tradition. In some regions of Ukraine there are no priests of the Greek Catholic Church or the Kiev Patriarchate, there is only the Moscow Patriarchate. So the priests of the Moscow Patriarchate, when they were invited to the burial of dead soldiers, refused to perform their priestly duty."
According to Yavorivsky, the alleged ban in Ukraine on activities of the Moscow Patriarchate is due to the recent initiative of the Ukrainian authorities about the creation of a single local Autocephalous Church in Ukraine. "Ukraine wants to have its own Church, with the center in Kiev, explained Yavorivsky. "And the acting in Ukraine Moscow Patriarchate is closely associated with the regime of Vladimir Putin, who occupied Crimea and unleashed military actions in Eastern Ukraine".
"Many politicians and public figures have long proposed to declare the Moscow Patriarchate as a terrorist organization, as is done in Russia, for example, with the "Muslim brotherhood," said the Ukrainian political analyst. "But I don't think it will come to such drastic wording. As a politician with years of experience, I understand that a religious war is the most dangerous that there can be. I think that the Ukrainian authorities will go a civilized way: The Moscow Patriarchate will explain that because its center is in Moscow, it has nothing to do with Ukraine. That could leave the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (MP) has some long-established parishes, will be left for parishioners. But the UOC-MP explained that the role it plays for Ukraine and Ukrainians is completely unacceptable".
Yavorivsky also reported that they are going to take away the ancient orthodox shrine Kiev-Pechersk Lavra from the Moscow patriarchy for the transfer to the Kiev patriarchy. "As a parishioner of the Kiev Patriarchate, I know it was discussed in the Kiev city administration and the city Parliament of Kiev. All three laurels of Ukraine — Kiev-Pechersk, Pochayiv and Svyatogorsk — belong to the Moscow Patriarchate. The Ukrainian authorities believe that this is extremely unfair," said the ally of Yulia Tymoshenko.
As was reported by EAdaily, from the moment of the coup d'etat in Ukraine, the number of seizures of churches of the UOC of MP rapidly increased. Moreover, the Ukrainian "patriots" do not hesitate to attack the priests, among whom there are a growing number of victims. The last act of "restorative justice" became yesterday's arson in the Kiev Church of the Holy Transfiguration in Obolonskyi deanery of the UOC-MP.
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