“Researchers” of сanonical еies: A сonfession

State Service for Ethnopolitics official Horshkov. Photo: Horshkov’s Facebook

“This is not a religious expert examination. It’s called a study. The research group consists of employees of our service,” Horshkov said.

And who exactly are these “service employees”? They’re not theologians. Not experts in church history or canon law. They’re ordinary bureaucrats. What is the value of their “research”? About the same as the private opinion of any layperson: a driver, a dairymaid, an accountant, or a sales manager.

Nevertheless, we already see this so-called “study” being paraded as an unassailable expert conclusion – a final, “ironclad” proof of the UOC’s subordination to Moscow.

Meanwhile, the quality of this “study” is laughable, especially during wartime with Russia: these officials completely ignore the UOC’s own official documents and base everything solely on documents from the aggressor state. And they themselves admit their work is not a “religious expert examination.”

Yet on the basis of this “non-expertise,” the state – which, according to the Constitution, is supposed to be separate from the Church – intends to crush thousands of parishes.

Just one more example of the country’s fundamental law being “on pause.”

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