Marcel Gascon |
Kiev (EFE).- The priests of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, canonically subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate, who live in the Kiev Monastery of the Caves, addressed the Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelenski, this week to make it clear that they will fight.
“Once again we implore you to leave the monks alone,” said the metropolitan Pavlo on behalf of all of them, who appealed directly to President Zelensky using his patronymic and reaffirmed that they do not intend to leave the monastery as required by the Ukrainian government, which he accuses his church of serving the interests of Russia.
Metropolitan Pavlo said that the Ukrainian state is breaking the law and denied the charges: “We are not collaborators (of Russia), we are citizens of our state, we are people who have lived here since 1988, many have nowhere else to go.”
A few days before, the Ministry of Culture had set March 29 as the deadline for the priests to leave the premises, in the last of the State measures to end the Russian influence that this autonomous church has exercised in Ukraine for centuries but dependent on Moscow.
“The spiritual independence of Ukraine”
The Ukrainian state’s war against this church reached two of its peaks in November and December of last year, when secret service agents raided the monastery and several temples of this church, where, according to the Ukrainian authorities, Russian propaganda was found.
Ukraine has also sanctioned some of its leaders and has taken legal action against several priests in the congregation for spying for Russian troops or blessing the invading army from their pulpits.
President Zelensky frames these actions in the “struggle for the spiritual independence of Ukraine”, where in 2018 an autocephalous national Orthodox church was created, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, recognized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.
Public break with Moscow
The popularity of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate has suffered since Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula and ignited the separatist rebellion in Donbas in 2014.
However, many Ukrainians hostile to Russia remained faithful to this church out of adherence to tradition, something that for a large part of them ceased to be possible on February 24, 2022, when the Russian army began a large-scale war against Ukraine. blessed by the Russian patriarch Kirill.
Aware of the untenability of its position, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church publicly declared its independence from the Russian Orthodox Church, but many observers have questioned the authenticity of this break.
A vital center of orthodoxism
The Monastery of the Caves from which Zelensky wants to expel the supposedly pro-Russian priests was founded in the 11th century and is one of the most important in the Orthodox Christian tradition that both Ukrainians and Russians claim.
Following the controversy over the ownership of the monastery, the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, has denounced before the UN “the repressive policy of the Kiev regime” which, he said, would have the “objective of destroying the Ukrainian Orthodox Church”. .
Pope Francis has also spoken on the issue, asking the parties involved in the war in Ukraine to “respect places of worship regardless of denomination”.
Derussify but not liquidate
In an interview with the Religious Information Service of Ukraine, theologian Serhii Shumylo has criticized the lack of forcefulness of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in breaking all ties with the Moscow Patriarchate.
Shumylo alludes to the silence of the hierarchy of this church before the “road map” towards “total independence” from Moscow signed by 300 priests and more than a thousand believers. “They completely ignored her,” says the expert.
“Since many of its hierarchs do not want to change anything and would prefer that everything remain the same, the State will have an unappreciative role of ‘midwife’ that has just cut the umbilical cord” of the church with Moscow, says Shumylo.
The theologian is committed to de-Russifying this church but considers it “a mistake” to try to “liquidate” it, since many Ukrainians consider it theirs and identify with it.
