Expert: Authorities are wrong to think believers will get to OCU if pressed

Yan Taksiur. Photo: RIA Novosti Ukraine

The authorities are mistaken when they think that if they “put the screws” on people, they will run to the OCU. Ukrainian writer, poet and publicist Yan Taksiur said this at the round table "The Basic Law of Ukraine and its Application to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church."

“The authorities really believe that if they press down a little more, then (believers – Ed.) will run to the new Poroshenko-Bartholomew structure. I would like to say as the one who was nurtured in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church: they will not run, gentlemen,” the publicist noted.

He recalled there had been similar pressure in the history of the Church.

“Much tougher people were putting the Church under pressure – in the 20s of the last century the pressure was like God-forbid-you-to-commit-such-a-sin,” said Yan Taksiur, addressing those who today are trying to persecute the Church. “But nothing occurred: the faithful did not join the Renovationists, nor will they do it now. As the churches of the OCU are empty now, so they will be always empty."

He explained that in the case of the Church and its faithful, we are talking about a completely different reality and people.

“Believers approach their lives not in the financial plane, not in the context of earnings, but in the context of their relationship with their Creator, Whom they know. This is their paradigm. Therefore, these people are incorrupt. They can be offended, intimidated, but they cannot be bought, cannot be forced. In the overall mass – no. Traitors have always been and will be, this is clear, but the bulk of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church cannot be destroyed,” the publicist emphasized.

Let us remind you that earlier Yan Taksiur explained why the government would lose in the fight against the Church.

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