On the harassment of Metropolitan Longin

Metropolitan Longin with his children in Banchany. Photo: UOC press service

Unfortunately, we live in a terrible time when many people have long lost any moral "brakes" and they no longer function.

The hero of Ukraine, Metropolitan Longin, is known not only in our country but also far abroad. A person who has adopted and raised many hundreds of children, among whom there are a huge number of disabled individuals (whose fate elsewhere would be very unfortunate), is, without exaggeration, the pride of the country.

And everything would be fine, but he has one "problem" – he is a hierarch of the "wrong" Church, against which an organized campaign of black PR is currently being conducted.

The campaign is so vile that it surprises even in these current dark times.

One little-known blogger was "ordered" to create "material" against Metropolitan Longin. Since there was nothing to base it on, the author found actors, called them the wards of the orphanage of Bishop Longin, and instructed them to voice the necessary text on camera. About how the children there are beaten, have their bones broken, that children sell drugs, engage in prostitution, drink alcohol with nuns, and other foolish filth. Apparently, the author was guided by Goebbels' principle: "The more monstrous the lie, the more readily it is believed."

This lie was eagerly spread by almost all central media, not to mention the propagandists of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, like the Bukovynian raider Hryshchuk. And now the police have started an investigation under Article 150, stating that "during the monitoring of social networks, Bukovynian police discovered a video recording with information about the commission of offenses."

And for some reason, no one pays attention to the text overlay before the "video investigation". In it, the "investigator" openly states that "all mentions of individuals, events, or organizations are fictional or interpreted from open sources in the form of satire, hypothesis, or artistic license".

The author emphasizes that "the video is not a journalistic investigation", and that "all events described in the material should be regarded as manifestations of artistic fiction".

This information does not interest anyone. The black PR campaign against the metropolitan has been launched, and it is already bearing fruit. On May 23, one of the outbuildings at the Bancheny Monastery was set on fire. And one can expect something even worse. On the same day, a cleric of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, V. Kosiatchenko, stated that the UOC is allegedly provoking Ukrainians to slaughter their clergy: "You are driving Ukrainians to bloody deeds. They will have to slaughter the priests of the UOC of Onuphry."

One of the writers said: "The conscience is so pure and transparent that today it is practically invisible to many."

Just like about us.

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