Court in Lviv region sentences priest for constructing UOC monastery

Church in Radych. Photo: Zahid.net

The Turkiv District Court of Lviv Region found Archpriest Yaroslav Yavorsky, a cleric of the Lviv Eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), guilty of illegally seizing a land plot and constructing the Cyril and Methodius Monastery complex in the village of Radych, according to Zahid.net.

The investigation established that between 2012 and 2021, the priest unlawfully occupied a 1.23-hectare plot of land, where he built a church, a monastic building, a hotel, and other structures. During the trial, the priest claimed that the land belonged to his father, who had begun construction back in the 1980s. However, the court ruled that the land was appropriated unlawfully.

Judge Maria Volynets found Yavorsky guilty under Article 197-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine and imposed a fine of 21,300 UAH. Prior to this ruling, the UOC cleric had already paid approximately 40,000 UAH in court expenses.

As previously reported by the UOJ, Father Yaroslav Yavorsky had shared how challenging the construction of the church was. He noted that he personally began digging the church’s foundation. According to him, back in 2007, he was denied a construction permit by the Turkiv District Administration, but a session of deputies from the Ilnytsia Village Council on May 24, 2007, allowed him to continue the construction. The priest stated that he met with the deputies himself to convince them that he was building “not a bar or a house of debauchery, but a monastery where our souls would be purified.” Some deputies, however, said they would vote against it because “Orthodoxy is associated with Moscow.”

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