Statement by Department for Church’s Relations with Society and Mass Media concerning detention of Metropolitan Arseny of Sviatohirsk, abbot of Sviatohirsk Lavra

DECR Communication Service, 24/04/2024

The Synodal Department for Church’s Relations with Society and Mass Media issued a statement concerning the detention of Metropolitan Arseny of Sviatohirsk, abbot of the Holy Dormition Sviatohirsk Lavra.

Pursuing their unlawful policy of persecution against the faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the Ukrainian security services have carried out yet another act of intimidation by detaining Metropolitan Arseny, abbot of the Holy Dormition Sviatohirsk Lavra, under the pretext that seems fictitious even to many public figures in Ukraine.

The Sviatohirsk Lavra on many occasions provided refuge to the local citizens who suffered in the conflict, fulfilling the humanitarian mission of indisputable importance, and now it has been blocked by security and law enforcement agencies, the Ukrainian mass media report.

We point out this new fact of violation of the religious freedom committed by the Ukrainian state and call on international human rights organizations to take necessary measures in order to document this breach of law.

We also emphasize that violations of the rights of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s faithful have become overt and large-scale, directed against its clerics and laypeople whose only guilt is that they do not want to join the quasi-religious body called “Orthodox church of Ukraine” created by the Ukrainian authorities with the support of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

Print publication

Statement by Department for Church’s Relations with Society and Mass Media concerning detention of Metropolitan Arseny of Sviatohirsk, abbot of Sviatohirsk Lavra

Patriarch

Department Chairman

Sermons

Patriarch

Department Chairman

Sermons