BREAKING: Zelensky urges lawmakers to BAN Moscow-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church

[Right_in_Virginia]

BREAKING: Zelensky urges lawmakers to BAN Moscow-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church
The Post Millennial, Dec 2, 2022

On Thursday evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged lawmakers to pass legislation that would ban the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from the country.

"A meeting of the National Security Defense Council (NSDC) was held today. A meeting at which we examined numerous facts of the ties of certain religious circles in Ukraine with the aggressor state," Zelensky said in a taped statement.

"It is necessary to create such conditions in which any figures dependent on the aggressor country will not be able to manipulate Ukrainians and weaken Ukraine from within," he said.

"The NDSC instructed the government to submit to the Verkhovna Rada a bill on the impossibility of the activities of religious organizations affiliated with the centers of influence in the Russian Federation in Ukraine," he added.

"In addition, the state Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience has been instructed to ensure the religious studies examination of the Statute on the Management of the UOC (Ukrainian Orthodox Church) for the presence of a church canonical connection with the Moscow Patriarchate and if necessary, apply the measures provided for by law," Zelensky concluded.

According to the New York Times, Ukrainian officials have suspected that many priests within the church are collaborating with Russia and promoting pro-Russia views.

Zelensky’s request comes following a November 22 raid by Ukrainian security services at the Monastery of the Caves, a holy site for Orthodox Christians in Kyiv. Officials were searching for saboteurs and weapons.

Ukrainian officials have, as of last month, arrested 33 priests for assisting Russia throughout the country’s invasion of Ukraine.


https://thepostmillennial.com/breaking-zelensky-urges-lawmakers-to-ban-moscow-linked-ukrainian-orthodox-church?utm_campaign=64483

[Right_in_Virginia]

"Zelensky announces a decree banning religious organizations and churches in Ukraine with “ties to Russia.”  His government has also been raiding Ukrainian Orthodox churches and arresting priests." (Video)

https://mobile.twitter.com/greg_price11/status/1598723160228081664

[Timber Rattler]

Which makes perfect sense in wartime conditions when your country is invaded by Russia because Patriarch Kirill is one of Putin's old KGB cronies and uses the church for nefarious purposes.

Putin’s Powerful Orthodox Church Ally Helps Cement Russian Support for War

https://www.wsj.com/articles/putin-orthodox-church-ally-kirill-russian-support-for-war-11653495434

On a Sunday in early April, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church stood inside the Cathedral of the Russian Armed Forces outside Moscow and delivered a sermon endorsing President Vladimir Putin’s war. It was the same day Western leaders decried reports of a massacre of Ukrainian civilians in Bucha by Russian forces.

“It was we who broke the back of fascism, which would have conquered the world if not for Russia,” said Patriarch Kirill, flanked by uniformed Russian troops inside the grand building commemorating Russia’s victory over invading Nazi forces in World War II. “God will help us today, too.”

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, Patriarch Kirill, a crucial ally of Mr. Putin, has placed the moral authority of the Russian Orthodox Church squarely behind the president, giving him critical backing in a country where 63% of the population identifies as Orthodox.

(snip)

Born Vladimir Gundyaev, Patriarch Kirill is widely believed by many church historians to be a former agent of the KGB, where the president himself served. Mr. Legoida dismissed the allegations as false.

Under the patriarch, the church has backed Mr. Putin’s push to regain influence over territories Moscow controlled during the Soviet era, including the Crimean Peninsula annexed from Ukraine in 2014 and parts of eastern Ukraine taken over by Russia-backed separatists the same year.

[mountaineer]

Apparently, the church Zelensky has banned isn't Moscow-linked, after all. See this tweet from 12/23/22:

Rev. Ben Johnson
@TheRightsWriter
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which Zelensky proposes banning, does not answer to Moscow Patriarch Kirill. The UOC severed its ties w/MosPat on May 27 based on its “complete rejection” of Kirill’s stance on the invasion of their homeland.
7:38 PM · Dec 23, 2022

News report from May 2022 of the Ukrainian church's split from Russia, from Radio Free Europe: Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Loyal To Russia Since 2019 Schism, Now Cuts Ties Over War

I've revived this thread because Tucker Carlson mentioned the banning of the Orthodox church in last night's edition of his show.

[Kamaji]

Apparently, the church Zelensky has banned isn't Moscow-linked, after all. See this tweet from 12/23/22:News report from May 2022 of the Ukrainian church's split from Russia, from Radio Free Europe: Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Loyal To Russia Since 2019 Schism, Now Cuts Ties Over War

I've revived this thread because Tucker Carlson mentioned the banning of the Orthodox church in last night's edition of his show.

From what I can see through online research, that statement, taken out of context, and without qualification, is false.  No big surprise that the anti-Ukraine forces would tout falsehoods as truth.

The core issue is whether one is clear about whether one is discussing the "Ukrainian Orthodox Church" - which is a Moscow-affiliated organization - or the "Orthodox Church of Ukraine" - which was granted "autocephaly" or independence by the Patriarch of Constantinople in 2019.

There is a wikipedia article that summarizes some of the aspects of the grant of independence to the "Orthodox Church of Ukraine":  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autocephaly_of_the_Orthodox_Church_of_Ukraine

There is another wikipedia article that summarizes some of the facts about the "Ukrainian Orthodox Church" which is still actively affiliated with the Russian church:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_Orthodox_Church_(Moscow_Patriarchate)

In the speech Zelensky gave, he asked the Ukraine MPs to make it impossible for organizations affiliated with Russia - i.e., the "Ukrainian Orthodox Church", but not the "Orthodox Church of Ukraine" - to operate within Ukraine.

So, to the extent that people like Tucker Carlson are claiming without clarity that Zelensky is trying to prohibit an independent church from operating within Ukraine, those people are either brainless fools or people with ulterior motives who are spreading lies that they know are false - in either case, people whose statements should be taken with a large grain of salt.

Tucker Carlson is either a naive fool, or a propagandist with an agenda, if he continues to conflate these two distinct organizations.

[The_Reader_David]

This is a bad move.  The canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (as distinct from the "Orthodox Church of Ukraine", which Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholemew set up, which includes as a bishop, Met. Filaret, who had been correctly anathematized by the Patriarchate of Moscow for fomenting a schism, which act had been formally recognized by all of the Orthodox churches) headed by Metropolitan Onufriy has stopped commemorating Patriarch Kirill at the Divine Liturgy (meaning they do not regard him as an Orthodox bishop).

There may be parishes that are disobeying their local bishop and the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and still commemorating Kirill, in which case they probably are hotbeds of subversion and should be shut down.  But the "Moscow-linked" Ukrainian Orthodox Church is linked only in the sense that if a proper Orthodox bishop, rather than a pawn of the Russian state, were again Patriarch of Moscow, they would go back to being subject to him.  As it is the epithet "Moscow-linked" is inappropriate to the political situation, even if it in the long sweep of history is it canonically apt, and this action, if taken, would alienate Ukrainians currently supportive of the government in Kyiv.

[jmyrlefuller]

A friendly reminder: Zelensky is Jewish.

The UOC is the largest Christian church in the country. This would be the equivalent of Ruth Bader Ginsburg raiding the Catholic churches.

[Kamaji]

A friendly reminder: Zelensky is Jewish.

The UOC is the largest Christian church in the country. This would be the equivalent of Ruth Bader Ginsburg raiding the Catholic churches.

An even friendlier reminder:  Zelensky wasn't talking about prohibiting the Orthodox Church of Ukraine - which is the church which comprises 78% of the orthodox believers in Ukraine - which is an independent religious organization, Zelensky was talking about prohibiting the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - which is a Russian-affiliated church that comprises just 6% of the orthodox believers in Ukraine - and which is beholden to the Russian patriarch.

So it has nothing to do with Zelensky's jewishness, and nothing to do with opposition to religious freedom or practice, and everything to do with prohibiting agents-provocateurs of Russia from operating on Ukrainian soil under the cover of a putative religious organization.

[Timber Rattler]

A friendly reminder: Zelensky is Jewish.

Irrelevant.

The UOC is the largest Christian church in the country.

No, it's not.

This would be the equivalent of Ruth Bader Ginsburg raiding the Catholic churches.

Nonsense.

[Maj. Bill Martin]

A friendly reminder: Zelensky is Jewish.

The UOC is the largest Christian church in the country. This would be the equivalent of Ruth Bader Ginsburg raiding the Catholic churches.

There is admittedly a "Judean Peoples' Front/People's Front of Judea" (Monty Python reference there....) quality to the names of those churches in Ukraine, but the bolded statement is incorrect.

[sneakypete]

Which makes perfect sense in wartime conditions when your country is invaded by Russia because Patriarch Kirill is one of Putin's old KGB cronies and uses the church for nefarious purposes.

 

@Timber Rattler

EXACTLY!

"Russian Orthodox Priest" is an actual KGB career field. The Soviets left churches in the bigger cities open purely because of the intel they could get from the Priests via the confessional.

[Kamaji]

There is admittedly a "Judean Peoples' Front/People's Front of Judea" (Monty Python reference there....) quality to the names of those churches in Ukraine, but the bolded statement is incorrect.