Mukachevo Eparchy: Ban on the UOC revives the Carpatho-Rusyn Church

Uzhhorod UOC Cathedral. Photo: open sources

The legal department of the Uzhhorod Exaltation of the Cross Cathedral of the UOC has reported a paradoxical situation: the attempts of the Ukrainian authorities to liquidate the UOC are, in effect, reinstating the de jure status of the Carpatho-Rusyn Church of Subcarpathian Rus, which was abolished by Stalin’s regime after 1946.

“The liquidation of the UOC by Ukrainian courts cancels the Stalinist liquidation of the Carpatho-Rusyn Orthodox Church of the Rusyns in Subcarpathian Rus (1921–1946), restoring it de jure,” the legal department stated.

As noted in the Uzhhorod Cathedral, the Carpatho-Rusyn Church functioned on the territory of present-day Zakarpattia from 1921 to 1946, during the period of the Czechoslovak Republic, when Subcarpathian Rus held constitutional status as an autonomy. Lawyers emphasize that the Church was officially recognized by both the Serbian and the Ecumenical Patriarchates.

After 1946, according to jurists, Stalin’s regime forcibly liquidated the autonomous Church of the Rusyns and compelled its annexation to the Ukrainian Exarchate of the ROC. In the view of the legal department, this decision was part of Soviet policy aimed at unifying religious life across the republics of the USSR.

The Uzhhorod Cathedral insists that the authorities and their loyal judges failed to foresee the legal consequences of liquidating the Kyiv Metropolia of the UOC. Lawyers argue that since Orthodox believers of Zakarpattia are being deprived of the possibility of legally belonging to the UOC, the status of the historical Carpatho-Rusyn Church is automatically restored.

They add that, under Ukraine’s law “On Decommunization,” decisions of the communist regime – including Stalin’s liquidation of the Carpatho-Rusyn Church – are annulled. The legal department further notes that there are currently seven Orthodox bishops active in Zakarpattia, which creates the organizational basis for an ecclesiastical structure.

The cathedral pointed out that recently adopted legislation “On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations,” passed under European pressure, allows the functioning of religious communities even without state registration. Lawyers emphasize that the law provides for situations in which “a community may exist and operate without notifying the authorities.”

Jurists argue that even the complete liquidation of the UOC’s legal registration cannot destroy the Church itself, since millions of believers and functioning bishops remain. Clergy and people continue to hold loyalty to their hierarchs regardless of administrative decrees by the authorities.

“Zakarpattia remains at peace with Christ the Lord within the Cyrillo-Methodian Carpatho-Rusyn Church, which is now being actively restored de jure by the decisions of Ukrainian courts,” the representatives of the legal department declared.

Thus, according to the Uzhhorod Cathedral, the attempts of the Ukrainian authorities to liquidate the UOC may lead to an unforeseen result – the restoration of the historical Church that existed before Stalinist repressions.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that, according to the cathedral’s rector, Archpriest Dmytriy Sidor, “If the UOC is banned, we will become the Carpatho-Rusyn Church.”

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