The religious war will begin even without a tomos
An attempt to create an independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church is fraught with great bloodshed for the country.
Roman Lunkin, head of the Center for the Study of Problems of Religion and Society at the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences, spoke about this in an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
According to the expert, the intensity of the redistribution of church property in Ukraine will depend both on the determination of the Ukrainian authorities to force the creation of a single local church, and on the ability of the schismatics themselves to create such a church.
"If such a unified church is created and the authorities try to cram as many monasteries and parishes into it as possible, then a redistribution of church property is inevitable. And much here depends on how much aggression accumulates from various sides: from parishioners, from civil activists, from politicians who support a unified church, and from those who say blood will be shed," the religious scholar said.
He believes that only a prolonged process of forming a new church can avoid a religious war.
“It’s the schismatics who will drown Ukraine in blood. There will be an inter-parish war even if Constantinople does not give this tomos and does not create a single local church. War may not break out if the process drags on. And the leadership in Kyiv will understand that such a split only undermines confidence in Ukraine throughout the world,” Lunkin noted.
As PolitNavigator reported, the Patriarchate of Constantinople declared Ukraine its canonical territory and began the process of preparing autocephaly.
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A religious war will begin even without a tomos.