Arestovych: Persecution of the Church ends badly for persecutors
Former adviser to the Office of the President Oleksiy Arestovych stressed that many of the UOC believers are fighting at the front and give their lives for Ukraine.
The persecution of the Church is akin to Satanism, and it ends badly for the persecutors themselves, said Oleksiy Arestovych, former adviser to the Office of the President. The Myriany movement published a video with his statement on its Telegram channel.
“There are 6 million adult believers in the UOC, many of them are fighting at the front, dying for Ukraine,” the politician said. “When their mothers try to bury their sons, to arrange a funeral service in churches, sometimes they are hindered. This is done by people who are engaged in something similar to pure Satanism. Because you can't beat the Church. Hear me: it is impossible to persecute the Church.”
Arestovych noted that it is necessary to distinguish between cases of legal persecution of "functionaries" or parishioners of the Church, if one of them is guilty of any crime, and persecution of the Church.
“It is often difficult to distinguish in a particular case where, for example, the SBU deals with treason, and where it is pure persecution. And you need to have an understanding in each case. But I am against persecution of any church. I am for the prosecution of people within the law, especially in a military situation, as long as they are engaged in crime, or, even more so, treason. However, all these things, even if they are real, need to be proven, there must be evidence,” the ex-adviser of the OPU is convinced.
“It is impossible to persecute the Church as such. This is a bad deed that ends badly for those who do it and who encourage it,” Arestovych emphasized.
As the UOJ reported, Oleksiy Arestovych said earlier that initiatives to ban the UOC could only be beneficial to Russian intelligence.
