Advertising
Representatives of priests and promised to forget about an eviction order.
Send a story to any friend.
As a subscriber, you have 10 gift pieces to offer per month. Everyone can read what you share.
By Matthew Mpoke Bigg
The Ukrainian government said it would use legal means to expel priests and priests from a complex of Orthodox monasteries in Kiev if they left before Wednesday’s deadline, arguing that their loyalty to a mother church in Moscow undermines Ukraine’s efforts to combat the Russian military’s invasion.
With representatives of priests and priests vowing to forget about the deportation order, Ukraine’s promise to legally expel them appeared to be an effort for a direct confrontation in Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, or Cave Monastery, the most respected site of Ukraine’s Orthodox. Church.
But it was unknown how the expulsion would take position, underscoring the confused position of the devout order in Ukraine amid the war.
Mykyta Poturaev, a senior Ukrainian lawmaker, said Wednesday that the government would be “very polite” and remove priests “judicially,” suggesting the case could be taken to court.
The monastery is partly controlled by the independent Ukrainian national branch of the Orthodox Church, although some of the priests and priests belong to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, which recognizes the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church. The head of this church has spoken out strongly in favor of the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Many Ukrainians claim that the Church has obviously not stated its position on the confrontation and is therefore compromised. Ukrainian security facilities went further, describing the Russian-aligned church as an incubator of pro-Russian sentiments and infiltrated through priests and priests who directly aided Moscow. war.
Dozens of priests and priests from the Moscow patriarchate have been arrested in recent months, accused of spying for the Kremlin and even helping direct Russian airstrikes. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the expulsions, of which about two hundred priests and three hundred apprentices are mandatory. for “spiritual independence. “
Last week, the Ukrainian government said Moscow-affiliated priests will no longer be in the caves beneath the monastery complex, which are filled with buried priests, devout relics and icons.
On Tuesday, priests and priests randomly loaded cars and trucks with devout and familiar items, adding candlesticks, televisions and photographs. At the front of the monastery site, police officers carried out what appeared to be superficial checks of vehicles.
But Metropolitan Clement, the spokesman for the branch of the church being expelled, said priests and priests were leaving, only “moving little things. “
“Everyone is Array,” he said. Everyone plans to come here. There is no legal basis to leave.
Some worshippers said the monks would do it. On Wednesday, many others braved the sleet to attend a normal candlelight service at the Church of the Ascension of the Cross in the monastery complex.
The monastery, whose origins date back more than 1,000 years, is a network of cathedrals, bell towers, stone fortification walls, caves and other architectural monuments perched on a steep hill overlooking the Dnipro River in central Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. . . Designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, it is the cradle of Christian Orthodoxy for Russians and Ukrainians, and vital for Eastern European Orthodox Christians.
Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 drew the government’s attention to sections of Ukrainian society perceived as disloyal to the state. Ukrainian teachers and members of other professions also did not help the state and those professions were not attacked.
He said the church had filed a legal challenge to the government’s order and argued that the case tested Ukraine’s prestige as a democratic and pluralistic society.
Pointing to many other people in Orthodox congregations, he said, “Our believers do not commit terrorist acts. His sons and daughters fought in the war. He added: “I am a Ukrainian citizen and I have supported Ukraine all my life. “
Advertising