American media: What the Ukrainian govt is doing to the UOC is persecution

A woman walks out of the Holy Trinity Church during an Orthodox Easter service in Mariupol, Ukraine, on April 24, 2022. Photo: nationalreview.com

American journalist Michael Brendan Dougherty criticized his colleagues for choosing to neglect the persecution of the UOC, believing that silence plays along with the Russian Church.

In the article "The odious facts" published in the National Review, Dougherty writes that his colleagues either turn a blind eye to the persecution of the UOC or explain it as "the desire of the Ukrainian government to limit the influence of the ROC."

The author said that although Tucker Carlson is “going after Zelensky” for persecuting the UOC, it is difficult for him to resist such defenders of crimes against the Church as Michael Pence or the Ukrainian government.

We are talking about an interview by former US Vice President Mike Pence with TV journalist Tucker Carlson, in which Carlson accused the Zelensky government of persecuting the UOC, namely, “raiding convents, arresting priests, persecuting believers, banning an entire confession.” To which Michael Pence replied that he “spoke with a religious leader (obviously, leader of the OCU Epifaniy – Ed.), who assured me that none of this was happening!”

“Pence said he spoke to a religious leader in Kyiv who assured him none of this was happening. That's the whole point of his response, 'I talked to a guy'," noted the journalist.

Dougherty writes that his colleague Rothman defends Pence by saying, in effect, "Carlson is selling a false narrative." “What the Ukrainian government is doing," according to Rothman, is "to limit the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church and its Patriarch Kirill to destabilize the country from within.

Rothman lists a handful of discrete subversive incidents alleged against clergy or members of the UOC. One promoted Patriarch Kirill’s sermons. Others provided cash. A congregation sang a hymn. He further points out that the UOC is a minority compared with the entire body of Ukrainian Christians.”

Responding to Rothman's "accusations", Dougherty writes, "So what? If people break laws, they should be tried for their crimes… But, breathtakingly, we get an argument that we should accept the idea of collective religious guilt in Ukraine (in the case of the UOC – Ed.).”

Thus, Rothman concludes, "So, it’s not a religious persecution per se, just a political operation that cashes out in the legal suppression of an entire, discrete, long-historied religious communion."

“To dismiss this church entirely, as so many do, as a front for the Russian FSB, is — in my opinion — not just bigoted, but blind, and willfully so,” says Dougherty.

At the same time, he points to the position of the UOC, which the authorities ignore, and to specific deeds – the condemnation of Russian aggression by the hierarchs, humanitarian work throughout the war.

Doverty also writes that his colleagues in the American press “By conceding, against plentiful evidence, that the allegiance of UOC’s souls — somewhere between 6 and 12 percent of the country — belong to Moscow, I believe Rothman and others end up inadvertently taking the side of Kirill and Putin; joining their assertion that all these Ukrainian citizens spiritually and politically belong to Moscow in a way that effaces their Ukrainian nationality.”

“That would imply Moscow’s claim of responsibility to protect them has legitimacy,” Dougherty emphasizes, adding, “What the Ukrainian government is doing to the UOC is unjust, collective persecution.”

He reminded his colleagues that the United States officially “champions Ukraine as a bulwark of freedom, and funding their government. That comes with scrutiny and higher standards,” Dougherty said.

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that according to journalist Tucker Carlson, Zelensky arresting priests is an attack on religious liberty.

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