At a meeting today, the State Council of Crimea adopted a statement against the persecution of canonical Orthodoxy in Ukraine.
After the seizure of the temple complexes and the expulsion of the brethren from the monasteries, the Ukrainian authorities will begin reprisals against believers who did not want to go over to the OCU, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
In its statement, the Crimean parliament emphasizes that more than 50 criminal cases have been opened in Ukraine against Orthodox priests, including against the abbot of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, Metropolitan Pavel (Lebed).
“Orthodox priests and believers are everywhere insulted, subjected to psychological and physical pressure, and are actually outlawed. The churches taken from them are desecrated and used to carry out parodies of worship that are offensive to the feelings of believers, the document states.
– In fact, purposeful, organized and coordinated by the authorities persecution of canonical Orthodoxy has been unleashed in Ukraine, which grossly violates the universal principle of freedom of conscience, the rights and freedoms of citizens of this state enshrined in the Constitution of Ukraine. In essence, we are talking about forcibly forcing people to change their religious and civilizational identity.”
The threat of persecution on confessional, ethnic, cultural and linguistic grounds hangs over the Orthodox. In fact, they are threatened with genocide, which must be opposed by all international organizations involved in the protection of human rights, all Orthodox believers and hierarchs of Orthodox churches, all people of good will who have not forgotten how to distinguish good from evil.
“The massacre of the Orthodox Christians of Ukraine will be a terrible crime that will leave an indelible stain on both its direct perpetrators and those who could, but did not want to prevent it,” the adopted statement emphasizes.