Contrary to Petro Poroshenko’s assurances that the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine”, created on his initiative, is peacefully attracting new believers into its ranks, in reality, the parishes of the Moscow Patriarchate are being driven into the new church structure through physical pressure, blackmail, threats - in fact, churches are being seized.
The chairman of the Synodal Information and Educational Department of the UOC-MP, Archbishop Kliment (Vecherya), stated this at a press conference in Kyiv, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“It’s very strange to hear statements from representatives of the Ukrainian government that these transitions that are happening, or cases of conflicts around attempts at religious affiliation, are happening ‘peacefully,’” he said.
At the press conference, footage of the seizures was shown, in which believers were dragged away from the church building, beaten, church doors were cut out with a grinder, etc.
“This is called “peaceful transitions”! I want to emphasize that in almost all of these cases, in the video you can see representatives of the authorities, local administration at various levels, who take an active part in these events,” commented Archbishop Clement.
According to him, dozens of criminal cases related to violations of the rights of religious communities of the UOC-MP have already been registered.