DESS head: Activities of "vatnik" communities of UOC will be terminated
Head of the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience Viktor Yelensky. Photo: ukrinform.ua
Viktor Yelensky, head of the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience, said in an interview with ukrinform.ua that the activities of the parishes of the UOC, which he considers pro-Russian, will be stopped.
Answering a journalist's question about the possibility of terminating the activities of parishes with "vatnik" priests, the official said, "I know these parishes and I think that their activities can be and, obviously, will be suspended."
At the same time, he claims that “the absolute cessation of the influence of the Mospatriarchate is a process, perhaps not instantaneous but irreversible.” According to Yelensky, "the displacement of the MP is inevitable."
The head of the DESS also emphasized that the service he heads took part in the development of a government bill, which "is designed for an effective, predictable and incremental exclusion of the influence of the Moscow Patriarchate."
As the UOJ reported, the head of the State Ethnopolitics said that after the expulsion of the UOC monks from the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, the state could transfer the shrine to "another monastic community not associated with the Moscow Patriarchate."
Read also
U.S. House of Representatives passes ban on sex-change surgeries for minors
The lower house of Congress supported an initiative limiting medical interventions that could have irreversible consequences for the health of minors.
Armenian Church to appeal to international bodies over government pressure
The decision was made by the Supreme Spiritual Council in Etchmiadzin against the backdrop of criminal cases, pressure on the clergy, and the state's attempts to interfere in church life.
Pashinyan's supporters attempt to storm Etchmiadzin Cathedral in Armenia
The confrontation around the Armenian Apostolic Church intensified after rebellious hierarchs called for the Catholicos's resignation and attempted to exert forceful pressure in Etchmiadzin.
Persecuted community of Maliatyntsi celebrates first patronal feast after seizure
In Bukovyna, the faithful of the St. Nicholas community in the village of Maliatyntsi celebrated the Feast Day of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker of Myra in Lycia for the first time after the church seizure.
European authorities downplay scale of Christian persecution, report says
Human rights defenders reported an increase in attacks on believers in the EU and pointed out that official statistics do not reflect the real level of anti-Christian hostility.
Mukachevo Eparchy bishops congratulate orphaned children on St Nicholas Day
Metropolitan Theodore and Bishop Hilarion visited the “New Family” children’s shelter in Uzhhorod.