Power, Church, and mobilization: Smite the shepherd, and the sheep will scatter
UOC priests are sent to the front not as chaplains, but as soldiers. Photo: UOJ
The UOJ has learned that the government has set up a centralized system to send draft notices specifically to UOC clergy. An entire department in the Ministry of Defense, headed by Colonel Larisa Polyanska, has been tasked with this. They are compiling a database of all UOC clergy – and now these priests are receiving personal draft orders sent directly from Kyiv, bypassing local enlistment offices. Any local agreements clergy might have made with recruitment officers are now worthless.
And all this despite the fact that the authorities know perfectly well that priests are forbidden to take up arms – and will not do so. They are of no military use on the front. They will simply become targets. They can only be killed. Perhaps that is exactly the plan.
After all, can a parish survive without its priest? No, it cannot.
It seems the state’s war on the Church has entered an entirely new and darker phase. Few in power may know the Gospel – but there is one line they clearly remembered: “I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered” (Matthew 26:31).
Read also
Why has the Culture Ministry not been banned yet?
There are numerous traitors and collaborators within the Ministry of Culture, the Verkhovna Rada, and the SBU. Yet for some reason, only the UOC is labeled “pro-Moscow.”
On the struggle of Filaret's disciples after his death
After Filaret's death, the OCU intensifies its work to destroy his Kyiv Patriarchate.
Will Zelensky agree that his grandfather was “scum”?
Natalia Pipa is one of the authors of a bill seeking to ban the UOC.
116 agreements with the aggressor in year five of war: Who must “sever ties”?
In the fifth year of war with Russia, Ukraine’s authorities have suddenly announced the termination of a number of legal agreements with Russia and the CIS.
Filaret is dead – Zoria is going after Kyiv Patriarchate
After Filaret’s death, OCU spokesman Yevstratiy Zoria has resumed his media assault on his rivals from the Kyiv Patriarchate. Let’s look at his main claims.