Post by Deleted on Aug 5, 2023 9:00:13 GMT
I have probably said this before, but I shall say it again: I truly, genuinely, and seriously believe that the persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is one of the gravest issues of our time.
This Church has 12,000 parishes, 53 dioceses, over 100 bishops, and is by far the largest religious organisation in Ukraine. It is being brutally persecuted. Its bishops are being thrown in prison and those that remain free have had economic sanctions and sanctions on movement placed upon them. Its churches are being confiscated, often violently. Churches are being confiscated by throwing liquid acid on priests and lay people, beating up clergy during the liturgy, and barring lay people from entering.
Metropolitan Pavel - one of the most prominent bishops in Ukraine - is languishing in a prison cell despite being a 62 year old diabetic. The elderly Metropolitan of Tulchin in western-central Ukraine is currently facing 6 years in prison.
In western Ukraine - the regions where our own Church, the Catholic Church predominates - the UOC has been banned and has been systematically liquidated. Just a couple of days ago, in the Catholic region of Ivano-Frankivsk, a small group of UOC believers gathered in a private home after their church was confiscated. The authorities found out about this, dispersed the gathering, and stated they are preparing relevant procedures to ensure that UOC believers can never gather in the region again. In Catholic Lviv, the last remaining UOC church was demolished by a digger on the orders of local government. The UOC's Lviv Diocese once had 1,500 parishes. Now, it has none.
The fact that the worst persecution of the UOC goes on in the Catholic regions of Ukraine makes me personally feel ashamed. His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the deeply-respected head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, has not condemned any of the violence, or the persecution. He made a comment earlier this year that it would be unwise to ban the UOC only because it would give it "the palm of martyrdom". His Beatitude has advocated confiscating the Pochaev Lavra from the UOC and giving it to the UGCC. I love the UGCC, I attend UGCC liturgies whenever I can, but this behaviour really makes me sad.
This persecution occurs in spite of the fact this Church supports the Ukrainian Army, and condemned the invasion into Ukraine by the Russian Federation, even going so far as to formally separate from the Moscow Patriarchate.
The Ukrainian government continuously threatens the UOC with a permanent ban, which has not been enacted largely because a tiny chorus of voices in the West criticise the repressions and I suspect they Ukrainian government fears losing support of countries like Germany, where many Catholic voices have spoken against the persecution of the UOC, including the Bishop of Magdeburg.
The most disgraceful thing is that practically nobody in the West speaks about this or criticises it. They do not criticise when elderly women whose sons have died at the front defending Ukraine are thrown out of their churches. The whole world is silent when the main religious denomination in a European country of 30 million people is being systematically persecuted and even liquidated by the Ukrainian government. To add to that, huge numbers of the UOC's churches have been destroyed by Russian shelling and thousands of its believers have died either defending Ukraine or as innocent civilian victims of Russian attacks.
The fact that there are Catholics willing to defend all this boggles my mind. I cannot fathom it. It is abundantly clear that the false accusations of the UOC being "pro-Russian" are no longer believed by anybody. The smaller, government supported Orthodox Church of Ukraine's (OCU) bishops have admitted that they understand UOC is not pro-Russian but the OCU still supports a legislative ban on the UOC on the basis that it will forcibly unite all the Orthodox parishes in Ukraine into the jurisdiction of the OCU.
The reason I am so vocal about this evil persecution is because I am personally horrified and deeply disappointed that so few others talk about it. I do not pretend to have some sort of special ability or knowledge. I merely read the facts. And the facts tell me that one of the most scandalous persecutions in Christian history is taking place right now in the heart of Europe. I can't remain silent on this.
"Let the lie come into the world, let it even triumph. But not through me.' - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
P. S. - my profile picture is an image of Cardinal Ratzinger meeting the late head of the UOC, Metropolitan Volodymyr (1935-2014).
This Church has 12,000 parishes, 53 dioceses, over 100 bishops, and is by far the largest religious organisation in Ukraine. It is being brutally persecuted. Its bishops are being thrown in prison and those that remain free have had economic sanctions and sanctions on movement placed upon them. Its churches are being confiscated, often violently. Churches are being confiscated by throwing liquid acid on priests and lay people, beating up clergy during the liturgy, and barring lay people from entering.
Metropolitan Pavel - one of the most prominent bishops in Ukraine - is languishing in a prison cell despite being a 62 year old diabetic. The elderly Metropolitan of Tulchin in western-central Ukraine is currently facing 6 years in prison.
In western Ukraine - the regions where our own Church, the Catholic Church predominates - the UOC has been banned and has been systematically liquidated. Just a couple of days ago, in the Catholic region of Ivano-Frankivsk, a small group of UOC believers gathered in a private home after their church was confiscated. The authorities found out about this, dispersed the gathering, and stated they are preparing relevant procedures to ensure that UOC believers can never gather in the region again. In Catholic Lviv, the last remaining UOC church was demolished by a digger on the orders of local government. The UOC's Lviv Diocese once had 1,500 parishes. Now, it has none.
The fact that the worst persecution of the UOC goes on in the Catholic regions of Ukraine makes me personally feel ashamed. His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the deeply-respected head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, has not condemned any of the violence, or the persecution. He made a comment earlier this year that it would be unwise to ban the UOC only because it would give it "the palm of martyrdom". His Beatitude has advocated confiscating the Pochaev Lavra from the UOC and giving it to the UGCC. I love the UGCC, I attend UGCC liturgies whenever I can, but this behaviour really makes me sad.
This persecution occurs in spite of the fact this Church supports the Ukrainian Army, and condemned the invasion into Ukraine by the Russian Federation, even going so far as to formally separate from the Moscow Patriarchate.
The Ukrainian government continuously threatens the UOC with a permanent ban, which has not been enacted largely because a tiny chorus of voices in the West criticise the repressions and I suspect they Ukrainian government fears losing support of countries like Germany, where many Catholic voices have spoken against the persecution of the UOC, including the Bishop of Magdeburg.
The most disgraceful thing is that practically nobody in the West speaks about this or criticises it. They do not criticise when elderly women whose sons have died at the front defending Ukraine are thrown out of their churches. The whole world is silent when the main religious denomination in a European country of 30 million people is being systematically persecuted and even liquidated by the Ukrainian government. To add to that, huge numbers of the UOC's churches have been destroyed by Russian shelling and thousands of its believers have died either defending Ukraine or as innocent civilian victims of Russian attacks.
The fact that there are Catholics willing to defend all this boggles my mind. I cannot fathom it. It is abundantly clear that the false accusations of the UOC being "pro-Russian" are no longer believed by anybody. The smaller, government supported Orthodox Church of Ukraine's (OCU) bishops have admitted that they understand UOC is not pro-Russian but the OCU still supports a legislative ban on the UOC on the basis that it will forcibly unite all the Orthodox parishes in Ukraine into the jurisdiction of the OCU.
The reason I am so vocal about this evil persecution is because I am personally horrified and deeply disappointed that so few others talk about it. I do not pretend to have some sort of special ability or knowledge. I merely read the facts. And the facts tell me that one of the most scandalous persecutions in Christian history is taking place right now in the heart of Europe. I can't remain silent on this.
"Let the lie come into the world, let it even triumph. But not through me.' - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
P. S. - my profile picture is an image of Cardinal Ratzinger meeting the late head of the UOC, Metropolitan Volodymyr (1935-2014).