Article by U.S. professor on persecution of UOC believers published

Article illustration: The Postil

Professor Alexander Pavuk, PhD, Associate Professor of History at Morgan State University in Baltimore, USA, authored an article on the religious situation in Ukraine. In his piece, titled "The Other War in Ukraine Against Orthodox Christianity" and published in The Postil magazine, the professor discusses the persecution of UOC clergy and believers.

The historian provides an extensive analysis of the religious crisis and state terror affecting millions of UOC faithful.

The article begins with two quotes from Metropolitan Onufriy of the UOC and Epifaniy Dumenko of the OCU:

"No matter what they do to us, whatever decisions they make, we will still love everyone equally. We will love God, we will love our land, our people, our government, our army. We will love all people and pray for them. Because our Church is the Church of love. It was founded by God, Who Himself is Love (Metropolitan Onufriy Berezovsky, Primate of the UOC, Primate of Ukrainian Orthodox Church [UOC], October 22, 2023. Official UOC website)."

“When we are called Banderites, we are proud of it… For some, this name is offensive, but for us it is an honor. Because our land gave birth to such glorious heroes who once said that the time will come when one will say ‘Glory to Ukraine!’ and millions will answer ‘Glory to the Heroes!” (“Metropolitan” Epifaniy Dumenko, Head of the ‘Orthodox Church of Ukraine’ [OCU], April 11, 2019. Official OCU website).

In the article, Pavuk delves into Law No. 3894, which he says is aimed at the de facto prohibition and destruction of Ukraine's largest religious denomination. The professor highlights an analysis of the law by the Norwegian human rights organization Forum 18.

"On a day to day basis, little has changed since the law’s passage from what was already going on since the 2010s: Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) bishops, priests and parishioners enduring violent attacks and sieges on their parish churches without retaliation. The attacks continue to be led by internal forces tied since late 2018 to an entity styled 'The Orthodox Church of Ukraine' (OCU), a government-sponsored organization created in December of that year and addressed in detail below. Such attacks have been documented for years by Ukrainian journalists and others putting themselves at risk."

Pavuk mentions the violent seizure of the Archangel Michael Cathedral of the UOC in Cherkasy, stressing that it is just one of thousands of similar cases.

"As a history professor in the United States specializing in religion and culture, I have been watching the religious realm in Ukraine for a number of years and marveling at the extent to which a large swath of the country’s native citizens have been flatly denied their guaranteed free exercise of religion, more recently under the cover of a horrifying war," he writes.

The professor refutes manipulative narratives against the UOC and underscores that crimes against Ukrainian Christians are meticulously documented by the UN and other international organizations.

"As such, the UOC itself is made to collectively symbolize that other and, likewise, suffer the collective punishment meted out to scapegoats. Current punishment, thankfully, has not yet come in the form of physical extermination, but instead occurs though domestic terrorism, internet manipulation, and the postmodern genre of erasure and canceling, a de facto erasure given de jure status with Law No. 3894-IX," the historian asserts.

The American professor concludes that "ultimately, the broad story here is not just about what kind of religion millions of Ukrainians want to practice. It is also about what kind of Ukraine will emerge after this ghastly war ends."

He adds, "If something is not done soon, it may be too late for the people of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and, indeed, for everyone in Ukraine hoping to build a brighter future together. Either way, Metropolitan Onufriy’s words illumine the path out of darkness: 'No matter what they do to us, whatever decisions they make, we will still love everyone equally.”' 

The full article can be accessed via the provided link.

As the UOJ previously reported, Robert Amsterdam has once again submitted Law No. 3894 to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

Read also