Patriarch Kirill sent an appeal to the heads of the Orthodox Churches, the Pope, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterriu, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and a number of other leaders “in connection with pressure from the Ukrainian authorities,” a PolitNavigator# correspondent reports.
The website of the Russian Orthodox Church reports this.
“Recently, the interference of the leaders of the secular Ukrainian state in church affairs has acquired the character of brutal pressure on the episcopate and clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which allows us to talk about the beginning of full-scale persecution,” the patriarch stated.
As the document states, “in order to force the episcopate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to participate in this event, state authorities and law enforcement agencies of Ukraine are taking a number of actions that blatantly violate the constitutional rights and freedoms of citizens of Ukraine.”
In particular, the appeal says that clergy of the UOC are being summoned for questioning by the Security Service of Ukraine, the Metropolitan of Donetsk is being prohibited from entering the country, and they are trying to deprive the canonical church of its rights to the Kiev Pechersk Lavra.
“He (Kirill - ed.) appealed to religious and government figures, leaders of interstate organizations with a call to make every effort to protect the episcopate, clergy and believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from discrimination and pressure from the Ukrainian authorities, to defend the freedom enshrined in international law conscience and religion,” the Russian Orthodox Church said in a statement.
Let us remind you that the so-called The “unification council” will take place on December 15 in St. Sophia in Kyiv. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church will not participate in this event.