As Part of a Broader Assault on the Orthodox Church, Religious Persecution in the Ukraine Continues Unabated
Stephen Karganovic
Strategic Culture Foundation
The persecutors have made the mistake of prematurely revealing their brutish faces, Stephen Karganovic writes.
It is now confirmed that the illegal seizure of the ancient Kiev-Pechersk Monastery has been completed. It was forcibly emptied of its monastics and turned over to the bogus, regime-sponsored organisation claiming to be the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. There is presently no reliable information on the disposition of the Orthodox holy relics that used to be located within the monastery complex. Some time ago however it was announced that they would be moved out of the Ukraine to foreign museums, for “safekeeping.” That appalling act of sacrilege and religious pillage may already have taken place.
Meanwhile, clerics of the legitimate Ukrainian Orthodox Church are being arrested or kept under house detention. With the connivance of the authorities, and often at their instigation, temples are seized from believers belonging to the legitimate Church to be handed over to the bogus entity. This is done without any legal justification or opportunity to challenge the procedure. The Kiev Nazi regime’s secret police is currently intimidating priests and bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to call a church council that under their watchful eye would formally break canonical ties with the Moscow Patriarchy and “vote” to join the phony “church” that was set up to replace and absorb it. They apparently believe that such consent given under duress would legitimate the infamy.