World Congress of Ukrainians supported liberation of shrines from UOC MP
The World Congress of Ukrainians (WCU) supported the Ukrainian government’s efforts to liberate the Ukrainian national shrines - Kyiv Pechersk and Pochaiv Lavra - from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC MP).
This is stated in the statement of the WCU, Censor.NET reports.
"We cannot allow the world community to become a victim of a new powerful wave of Russian disinformation, which claims that the Ukrainian authorities are allegedly "persecuting" someone because of their religious affiliation or religious beliefs.
Since Putin came to power, Moscow has turned religion into a weapon and used the Russian Orthodox Church to spread misinformation, hatred, and propaganda - above all, the toxic ideology of the so-called "Russian world", one of the leading ideologues of which was Patriarch Kirill, - said Stefan Romaniv. The first vice-president of the WCU.
The SCU calls the UOC MP an integral part of the Russian Orthodox Church and notes that Moscow has used it as a lever of soft power in Ukraine for decades. The UOC MP clergy, according to the diaspora, supported pro-Russian parties and promoted Russian culture, and since the beginning of the war, many UOC MP priests supported the Russian military.
"We support the words of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, who said that the Russian Orthodox Church "shares responsibility for the crime of aggression against Ukraine, as well as other crimes that resulted from it, such as, for example, the shocking kidnapping of Ukrainian children," Romanov added.
"Ukraine has always been a country of religious tolerance, where dozens of religious denominations coexisted in peace and fruitful cooperation. However, there can be no room for compromises when it comes to the law, national security, and Moscow's hybrid aggression," he concluded.
