Expert: Discrediting UOC contradicts Ukraine's national interests

Religious scholar Yuriy Reshetnikov. Photo: UOJ

Yuriy Reshetnikov, an expert on religion, PhD in philosophy and former chairman of the State Committee of Ukraine for Nationalities and Religions, said that the UOC is part of the system of values, which is formed during the war to strive for victory and for the renewal of the state and its formation as a European state, so its oppression cannot benefit the country. The religious scholar said this during a press conference on the oppression of the UOC held at the Kyiv-Pechersk Monastery on December 15, 2022.

"There is a purposeful, quite manipulative information campaign directed against the UOC faithful, which should present the Church as someone's branch or something else. <...> In this campaign, as a rule, the UOC is not called by the name with which it is registered in state institutions but sounds something else: 'Moscow Patriarchate', 'Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine'," Reshetnikov added.

"This manipulative campaign, for which no one is responsible, does not contribute to the unity of the Ukrainian society, contradicts the national interests of Ukraine and falls under the article of the Constitution 'Incitement of interreligious hatred'," the expert noted.

As a reminder, the UOC is holding a conference on the persecution and oppression of the Church.

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