Novynskyi: Monk’s murder stems from hatred fueled against UOC

UOC Protodeacon and former Verkhovna Rada MP Vadym Novynskyi. Photo: news.church.ua

UOC Protodeacon and former MP Vadym Novynskyi said that the murder of Monk Varsonofiy (Turyinsky) at the Sviatohirsk Lavra was one manifestation of the atmosphere of hatred, lawlessness and persecution surrounding the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. He wrote this on Facebook on the 35th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence.

The fact that the monk was killed with particular brutality and that two other monastery residents were seriously wounded “gives reason to think that the murder was ritual in nature,” Fr. Vadym believes.

He described what happened as part of the reality in which Ukraine lives today: “lawlessness, death, the trampling of basic freedoms, lies and hatred.” The protodeacon linked the monk’s murder to the atmosphere of persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. “There is too much that is satanic in our present-day reality,” he said, adding that the authorities had “given the green light to the persecution of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church.”

Speaking about the 35th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence, Vadym Novynskyi said the country’s current condition is very different from the future that, in his words, those who proclaimed independence in 1991 had envisioned. Among today’s problems, he listed the war, loss of territory, economic hardship, corruption, political persecution and persecution of the UOC. “We gained formal independence without real sovereignty – a shell, external trappings, empty slogans. And – as a result – war,” the protodeacon wrote.

In closing, the UOC cleric called for the anniversary of independence to be viewed as an occasion to rethink what has happened to Ukraine. He said the country needs peace, a reassessment of its political and ideological approaches, and a return to an understanding of sovereignty. “The blood of the new martyr Varsonofiy is the answer to all these questions. As is the blood of Ukrainians shed in a senseless and deceitful war,” he stressed.

As the UOJ reported, in his message marking the 35th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence, Zelensky said that God is taking Ukraine’s side.

Read also