Department for External Church Relations
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His Holiness Patriarch Kirill: Anti-Church persecutions have become a part of the political ideology of the Ukrainian State
DECR Communication Service, 19.07.2023.
On July 19, delivering a report to the plenary session of the Bishops Conference of the Russian Orthodox Church, which took place in the St. Sergius Lavra of the Holy Trinity, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia spoke about the persecutions carried out by the Ukrainian State against parishioners of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church and about the role played by the Patriarchate of Constantinople in organizing these persecutions.
“It is quite evident that the Ukrainian authorities have proceeded to the liquidation of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church by completely ignoring the so-called European values presuming among other things the freedom of faith and respect for human rights”, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church said.
“We have seen the arrests and cases of bittering of God’s servants and the defilement of shrines. Legal actions have been initiated against several hierarchs. Growing are the cases of banishment of Orthodox communities from their churches. The old Kiev-Pechersk Lavra is under the threat of closure. Its major churches - the Cathedral of the Dormition and the Refectory Church have been confiscated from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to give them to the schismatics. The monastery buildings have been confiscated one after the other”, His Holiness Kirill stated with bitterness.
“The father superior of the Lavra, Metropolitan Pavel of Vyshgorod and Chernobyl, after three months of home arrest on some far-fetched pretexts and on the basis of false accusations, has been put into an investigation cell. His Eminence, who is 62, is suffering from serious diseases including insular diabetes. His life is under threat”, the Primate added.
His Holiness stressed once again that in the present moment it is a matter of war against Universal Orthodoxy because it cannot but weakens it. According to His Holiness, in this case, Fanar is an instrument in the hands of capable manipulators and he has been such for not a one year now.
“We can recall the support given by the Patriarchate of Constantinople to the renovation schism of the last century 20s; the schismatic actions in Estonia in 2000 when we made a certain compromise for the sake of church unity”, Patriarch Kirill said.
“We can see how this year the same pattern, just as it was used in Estonia, is being built in Lithuania. The Soviet authorities in Latvia, inspired by the situation of their neighbours, have decided to go on and themselves proclaimed the false autocephaly of the Church of Latvia. Perhaps, Fanar failed to hit upon such an idea, though it is its example of trumping upon the canonical truth that the new persecutors of Orthodoxy imitate”, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill said in conclusion.
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