The Lavra is being prepared for the direct control of Bartholomew
The seizure of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra is a blow to the very heart of historical Orthodoxy.
The correspondent reports about this "PolitNavigator", said Vladimir Legoida, Chairman of the Synodal Department for Church-Society Relations and the Media of the Moscow Patriarchate
He believes that the seizure of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra by the Ukrainian authorities was a serious mistake.
“This is not just an attempt to play the religious card, but misunderstanding and contempt for millions of believers in their country. This course of destroying the Ukrainian Orthodox Church will ultimately prove catastrophic for the authorities. You cannot destroy the faith of your people.
And for everyone, both for the Russian Orthodox Church, and in general for Orthodox believers around the world, this is a blow to the very heart of Orthodoxy in historical Rus', a violation of all possible human rights,” Legoyda said in an interview published on the Komsomolskaya Pravda website.
He could not answer the question of what the Lavra parishioners should do now.
“We don't know what will happen. I can only say that, unfortunately, this anxiety does not go away, it makes us not expect anything good.
Until the end of last year, there was some hope that Mr. Zelensky would not touch the church, because, at least at the beginning of his presidential activity, he tried to distance himself from everything that Poroshenko did. But since November last year, the situation has changed dramatically, and pressure at the level of central government has increased significantly. Unfortunately, this vector is very clear – it involves increased persecution, pressure, and testing.” – predicts a representative of the Russian Orthodox Church.
In turn, the head of the Center for the Study of Problems of Religion and Society at the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Roman Lunkin, explained to Kommersant how schismatics are expanding their influence in Ukraine.
“The OCU is still growing only through violent takeovers,” the expert emphasized.
According to him, such an outcome is most likely in the case of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, which, he believes, could be transferred under the control of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
“The direct control of Patriarch Bartholomew symbolically transfers the Lavra under international control, and, naturally, none of the politicians in the international arena will raise their hand to condemn Bartholomew or Vladimir Zelensky for this step,” Lunkin believes.
But Legoida did not agree with the assertions that the Russian Orthodox Church did nothing about the Ukrainian events.
“Well, let's start with the fact that sensation is not a scientific category. I may also have the feeling that a white wall is reddish. But if it's white, it's the beholder's problem, not the wall's. In addition to its main task - prayer - the Russian Church performed many times. For many years she spoke about what was happening in Ukraine, about the violation of the rights of believers. Not a single important meeting took place where this could be voiced without the Russian Church talking about it. Patriarch Kirill sent a number of letters,” Legoyda said.
But Kiev political scientist Kirill Molchanov, who left Ukraine, is confident that what is happening around the Lavra is more than just the seizure of churches.
“This is spiritual raiding. Because the people who came there are notorious Satanists or obscurantists. Their goal is the complete elimination of Orthodoxy, it is alien to them,” Molchanov said on the Rossiya 1 TV channel.
According to him, it all started under President Viktor Yushchenko, “who, due to his archaic thinking, perceived the Orthodox Church as an opponent.”
“For Poroshenko, the fight against the UOC was a tool to achieve political goals - re-election for a second term. And for Zelensky, this is a competitor. Because he, like an actor, strives for his flock to pour oil on his vanity,” the political scientist concluded.
English version :: Read in English The Lavra is being prepared for the direct control of Bartholomew