/ world today news/ The Ukrainian authorities are storming the Kiev-Pechora Lavra. There is a high probability that the monks of the canonical church will be expelled from the ancient monastery and schismatics will take their place. About the consequences of the campaign, which officials are in such a hurry to conduct, – in the material.
“According to the instructions”
“I’m not going out anywhere, I’m registered here. I have lived here for 22 years. Now they are chasing us. Line us all up against the wall, shoot us and that’s it. Why are you pulling away?” the monk shouted at the police.
“Twenty-first century, what human rights, you what?” jokes another monk.
Angle grinders cut locks. The leadership of the Kiev-Pechora Lavra reserve, accompanied by armed special forces, enters through the back doors. For those inside, Deputy Director Alexander Ovchar explains: everyone’s documents will be checked.
Such a procedure took place on the morning of August 15 in the 54th, 57th and 58th corps. Many pilgrims from all over the country and the brothers of the monastery live here.
So far, no one has evicted the residents. But the monastery introduced a special regime of access for residents: they can stay on the territory of the Lavra, but if they go outside it, then there is no return.
“If there are violations of this order, act according to your norms and instructions,” Ovchar told one of the police officers.
The monastery has been in a “special situation” since August 10: then the Kyiv Economic Court recognized as legal the termination of the lease agreement, based on which the UOC monastery used part of the structures, the so-called Dolna Lavra, free of charge.
According to the document, since 2013, 79 state-owned objects (buildings) have been transferred to the church for indefinite and free use. Here are located the residence of the Metropolitan of Kyiv, a theological academy and a seminary.
Earlier this year, the Ministry of Culture unilaterally terminated the contract. The reason, the department explained, was numerous violations in the exploitation of state property, committed by a religious organization.
The UOC appealed the decision, but Themis ordered not in favor of the canonical church. According to the court decision, a religious organization cannot interfere with the actions of museum workers. Thus, according to the lawyer of the Lavra Archpriest Nikita Chekman, the officials were given the green light to expel the monks.
Uninvited guests
Formally, the defense can still appeal to a higher authority. In addition, the judgment will not take effect until August 17-18, when the plaintiff and defendant receive the full text.
But, as it turned out, the management of the reserve is not particularly interested in the intricacies of the law. Already in the evening, at the end of the court session, police teams lined up at all entrances. Only the employees of the monastery and the clergy could enter inside.
Pilgrims, seminarians and students of the Theological Academy, who legally reside here, were denied entry. They were offered to spend the night in the small church “St. Agapit Pechorsky”, where, of course, there is nothing equipped for the purpose.
The next day, accompanied by special forces, a commission from the Ministry of Culture arrives to stamp state properties. The officials were in such a hurry that one building was sealed together with the people who were there – activists from the UOC parishioners.
Acting director of the reserve Maxim Ostapenko called them “provocateurs who have nothing to do with the monastery”. Monks and seminarians tried to pass water, food and medicine to the locked people. But the police did not allow it.
The management of the reserve also assured that they do not allow strangers on the territory of the Lower Lavra. Soon, however, officials of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) appeared. The religious organization, created in 2018 with the cooperation of the secular authorities, is the main opponent of the UOC.
For supporters of OCU, the ancient Kyiv-Pechora monastery was attractive from the very beginning. In December 2022, they even registered a monastery there, which existed only on paper. And they put a “deputy” in it – the former archimandrite of the Ukrainian Church Avraamiy Lotish.
But for a long time it was not possible to conquer a large spiritual center: there were no legal and canonical grounds. Now the judgment of the court has untied the hands of the schismatics. On the territory of the monastery they saw the same “deputy”.
Together with law enforcement officers and students from the Theological Academy of the OCU, he entered the 70th building, where the residence of the head of the UOC, Metropolitan Onufriy, is located. Then they started moving the furniture out.
Acting Director Ostapenko later explained to reporters that what was happening at the Lavra was a “spiritual counterattack to return the Ukrainian national shrine to Ukraine and Ukrainians.”
“Shot in the Leg”
Vladislav Petrushko, a professor from the Orthodox Saint Tikhonov Humanitarian University, believes that both the church and the state have chosen a non-radical path in this situation. On the one hand – soft resistance, on the other – gradual pressure.
“Unfortunately, for the UOC this option turned out to be less profitable than for the authorities. And most likely the politicians will achieve their goal on the principle of “slow cooking the frog”. The brothers are beheaded. It is possible that one of the monks, unable to withstood the psychological pressure to follow Lotish to PCU”, he continues.
At the same time, the expert points out, for secular Kiev, the fight against the canonical church, the largest community in the country, is a “shot in the foot”. According to him, by acting against the UOC, the authorities themselves are creating a crisis in their rear. Professor Petrushko in turn explains: politicians may understand that such a course is harmful, but it is too late to stop.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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