Department for External Church Relations
The site uses cookies to help show you the most up-to-date information. By continuing to use the site, you consent to the use of your Metadata and cookies. Cookie policy
His Holiness Patriarch Kirill: Violations of the rights of the faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church have been noted in reports by international human rights organizations.
Communications Service of the DECR, 20.12.2034.
On 20th December 2024 in his speech at the Hall of Church Assemblies in the Christ the Saviour Cathedral at the annual diocesan clergy assembly His Holiness the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill spoke of the worsening persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the total terror shown towards it by the Ukrainian authorities, reports patriarchia.ru.
“The persecution of clergy and laity in Ukraine is acquiring the features of complete terror which include the closure and seizure by schismatics of church buildings and monasteries of the canonical Orthodox Church, reprisals against bishops, clerics, monks, nuns and lay men and women, as well as the blocking of information resources that speak the truth about persecution,” said His Holiness the Patriarch.
“Repressive measures are being enacted against those who attempt to inform the international community of the violations of religious freedom and are organized in such a way as to suppress all public testimony to religious persecution in Ukraine,” the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church emphasized.
“Unfortunately, at present the situation with the canonical Orthodox Church in Ukraine is only getting worse,” His Holiness Patriarch Kirill noted.
“In spite of the unfavourable political situation in the West and attempts to pass over in silence religious persecution in Ukraine, the Primates of the fraternal Local Orthodox Churches, their Synods and individual bishops, and leaders of major world religious communities have repeatedly expressed their support for persecuted Orthodoxy in Ukraine and have openly condemned these persecutions. Violations of the rights of the faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and open violence against them have been noted in reports by international human rights organizations,” noted His Holiness the Patriarch.
Patriarch
Department Chairman
Sermons
24.01.2021
06.11.2020