"La Repubblica": UOC becomes a "Martyr Church"

Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. Photo: Igor Kievsky's Facebook page

The foreign press again drew attention to the religious persecution of the UOC by the authorities: this time, an article in defense of Ukrainian believers was published by the Italian La Repubblica edition.

The publication notes that most Western media shamefully hush up the fact of the religious war in Ukraine, apparently considering it less significant in comparison with the theater of hostilities; however, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is exposed to real harassment from the Zelensky government.

La Repubblica emphasizes that at present the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra is the source of faith and spiritual life of the country, but the monastery, which is home to three hundred monks and more than four hundred students of theology, has become a center of violation of the believers’ rights. The authorities want to evict the monks by the end of the month, and some of the premises have already been leased to the schismatic OCU.

“This is a real persecution in which the monks are accused of being collaborators and Russian spies,” the article says.

“The Lavra, where they call for peace and call for an end to the war, has become a pretext for persecution by Zelensky. Thus, this Church <…> becomes a martyr's Church,” Italian journalists write.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that one of the U.S. magazines wrote about the situation in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra and called on Americans to oppose funding religious repressions in Ukraine.

Read also

Georgian Patriarch congratulates the world on Victory Day

Patriarch Ilia II recalled the feat of victory and called for peace for the sake of future generations.

Metropolitan to Cherkasy mayor: When justice returns – you will answer

"You could steal quietly and not fight against God," the UOC hierarch reminded Bondarenko of the well-known accusations against him.