In Western Ukraine, Greek Catholics, with the support of militants, are taking away churches from Orthodox Christians
Representatives of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) are taking away churches from parishioners of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
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Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine stated this while speaking at the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow.
“So, on October 17, representatives of the UGCC cut off the locks of the Annunciation Church of the UOC in the city of Kolomyia, Ivano-Frankivsk region, and, with the support of paramilitary groups, attempted a raider seizure of the temple. After which the temple building was sealed. On October 4, the Ivano-Frankivsk District Administrative Court acquitted our community, establishing the legality of our community’s use of the Annunciation Church.
However, on October 22, unknown persons in balaclavas, led by clergy calling themselves chaplains of the UGCC, using brute force, did not allow parishioners of the Annunciation Church to approach their church and serve a prayer service there. Our parishioners were rudely insulted and even beaten. One of the active organizers of lawlessness, chaplain of the UGCC Nikolai Medinsky, struck the Orthodox with his fists, calling the faithful of the UOC “biomass” and “Moscow pigs,” Onuphry said.
According to him, several other churches are experiencing the same tragedy. At the same time, according to the hierarch, disadvantaged communities do not return evil for evil.
“In many settlements, religious communities, deprived of their churches, began building new ones. As of today, 3 new churches have been built in Rivne, Volyn and Ternopil regions. Several more churches are at the stage of fundraising and construction in problem regions in Western Ukraine. All the above-mentioned difficulties do not prevent the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from remaining the largest denomination in Ukraine,” Onuphry said.
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