UOC hierarch comments on "secret" documents of Ministry of Culture on Lavra

Metropolitan Clement. Photo: a screenshot from “Ukrainska Pravda”

The head of the UOC Synodal Information and Education Department, Metropolitan Clement (Vecheria), commented on the “secret” documents of the Ministry of Culture on the conclusions of the interdepartmental commission regarding the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.

In an interview with “Ukrainska Pravda” journalist Sofia Sereda, Metropolitan Clement noted that, “apart from the statements of the Minister of Culture and oral statements, I haven’t read a single document on the basis of which” it would be possible to break the lease agreement with the Lavra.

“Not only me but also the Ukrainian society would like to know what is the basis for the resettlement of the monks from the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra,” Vladyka emphasized.

Sereda replied that "the termination of the lease agreement is based on the conclusions of the interdepartmental working group of the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine".

“Have you seen these conclusions of the interdepartmental group? Did you have a chance to get acquainted with them? And I, for example, have information that those conclusions were not even signed by anyone. Because those who prepared this document understood that it was fictitious,” the bishop noted.

He also said that the lawyers of the UOC appealed to the Ministry of Culture with a demand to publish the conclusions of this commission, "to which the Ministry of Culture said that these conclusions were classified, they were marked for official use".

“Were they researching some kind of space technology there? It seems to me that when there is such a resonance in society, why not make these documents public for all of us?” asked Metropolitan Clement.

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