Seizure of OCCLS property by bishop who served with Dumenko reported online

Bishop Isaiah of Šumperk (left). Photo: pomisna.info

The cleric of the structure of the Patriarchate of Constantinople created in the Czech Republic, the vicar of the Olomouc-Brno Diocese of the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia (OCCLS), Bishop Isaiah (Slaninka) of Šumperk, illegally owns church property in the city of Most, reports the ikonapress.info resource.

The Czech bishop, known for the fact that in 2019, contrary to the ban of the Primate of the OCCLS, he concelebrated with the OCU, for several years has been using for personal purposes the church house in Most, which belongs to the local parish of the Prague Diocese of the OCCLS, and refuses to transfer it to its rightful owner.

“During the visit of the staff of the Prague Diocese and representatives of the Orthodox parish in Most to reach an agreement peacefully, they were rudely and vulgarly insulted, and even threats were sounded from Vladyka Isaiah and his staff,” the resource said. “The statement of Bishop Isaiah that this is ‘the archbishop's palace of the Olomouc-Brno Diocese’ is completely unfounded. We are clearly talking about the property of the church parish in Most and its unauthorized use. Vladyka Isaiah refused to leave, even on the basis of an official eviction order, and, according to documents received by the Diocesan Office in Prague, has been illegally staying there since July 12, 2014. There is not a single reasonable basis for the Olomouc-Brno Diocese to use the ‘archbishop's palace’ in another diocese."

The authors of the material clarified that Bishop Isaiah of Šumperk has enough places where he can reside: in addition to the church with adjacent buildings in Šumperk, he uses the residence of the Olomouc-Brno Diocese, the parish house in Brno, the monastery in Vilemov, and he also “gradually registered to himself as an official governing body the property of many parishes in Moravia".

But the transfer of some of these objects to the Bishop of Šumperk, representing the "Association: Holy Patriarchal Stavropegic Monastery of the Assumption of the Most Holy Theotokos", which is subordinate to the Patriarchate of Constantinople, was "very suspicious" and accompanied by intrigues and lies, the resource notes. And if it were not for the categorical resistance of Archbishop Michael of Prague and the Czech Lands, "church property would almost certainly be withdrawn from the Church" in favour of a parallel operating structure. In particular, it goes about the monastery in Vilemov and Moravia.

As reported, in 2019, the cleric of the structure of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in the Czech Republic, Bishop Isaiah (Slaninka) concelebrated with Epiphany Dumenko and the “hierarchs” of the OCU at St. Michael's Cathedral, despite the ban of the Primate of the OCCLS.

The UOJ also wrote that the bishop of the OCCLS, who served with Dumenko, is trying to seize the parish in Brno.

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