Written by: priest Miladin Mitrovic
News that the president of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky is 24. August's signing of the law "on the protection of the constitutional order in the sphere of activities of religious organizations" marked the beginning of a new phase of cruel and systematic persecution of the canonical Orthodox Church and its believers in Ukraine. In essence, this controversial law is aimed exclusively at prohibiting the activities of the Russian Orthodox Church and religious organizations in Ukraine that are directly or indirectly associated with it.
The law explicitly prohibits the activity of the Russian Orthodox church or its legal entities, whose official documents contain provisions on incorporation with the Russian Orthodox church, or if these organizations are recognized as part of its structure in official documents of the Russian Orthodox Church. In addition, the law provides for the Prohibition of organizations whose representatives are included in the governing bodies of the Russian Orthodox Church, whose heads are appointed by the Russian Orthodox Church, whose activities depend on the Russian Orthodox Church because of its church influence or organizational subordination. The bill also allows the Prohibition of religious organizations whose officials have been convicted of crimes against Ukraine's national security, justifying Russian aggression, inciting religious hatred, terrorism, war propaganda, and others.
There is no doubt that the discriminatory law in its content is aimed only at Canonical believers and clergy who speak Russian and who previously belonged to the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate. In addition to the limitations and criteria that can be applied to the communities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, the law directly specifies the rule on the Prohibition of the Russian Orthodox Church as an institution. In the explanation, absolutely unfounded and without any adequate argument, the Russian Orthodox Church is accused of being the "ideological continuation of the aggressor state". In addition to the gross violation of international norms on human freedom and religious rights, this shameful act is only a confirmation of the regime's dictatorship of the Kiev authorities and the brutal crackdown on all who belong to the Russian World. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is the only true canonical Church, recognized by the vast majority of Ukrainian believers and local Orthodox churches in the world. Therefore, it is completely obvious that the adoption of this law is aimed at intimidating the faithful people and that its practical application will undoubtedly lead to acts of mass violence and persecution against millions of believers.
Shortly before the adoption of the new law, representatives of the schismatic "Ukrainian Orthodox Church" and officials of the presidential administration of Ukraine visited Istanbul and spoke with Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople. On that occasion, the Phanar spiritual master, who in 2018, with a gross and unacceptable violation of the canonical order of the Orthodox Church, sowed a deep church schism in Ukraine, with enthusiasm supported the adoption of the new law. Inspired by Bartholomew's blessing. Zelensky and his supporters, with an accelerated precedent in the Ukrainian parliament, have passed a law, with which they claim to finally gain the spiritual independence of their state. However, that the official visit to Patriarch Bartholomew before the adoption of the law was not accidental, is also evidenced by the fact that this discriminatory law gives the opportunity for dioceses of the canonical Church in Ukraine to submit either to the Patriarchate of Constantinople or to become part of the schismatic church structure of Ukraine by separation from the Moscow Patriarchate. Bartholomew's blessing on the adoption of the new law shows his pragmatic and cynical motive: by grossly violating the canons of the Orthodox Church he wants to place under his jurisdiction the churches, monasteries and multimillion-dollar flock of the canonical Orthodox Church in Ukraine. Using the means of political power, he openly advocates for the imperialist interests of the Euro-Atlantic alliance. Therefore, the project to ban the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine was fully designed according to NATO standards: created in Washington, blessed in Constantinople and adopted by the vassal Ukrainian parliament. This identical scenario is applied in official Constantinople and in other canonical territories of the Moscow Patriarchate with the aim of weakening its position in the heart of its own people. Thus, for example, the Orthodox communities in the Baltic countries, which are increasingly subject to bans by the authorities in recent times, are forced to transfer to the jurisdiction of the Church of Constantinople, because they are left with no other legal opportunity to continue their existence. The possibility of following Ukraine's accession was also discussed in government circles in the Czech Republic. The schismatics of Moldova and Georgia also look to Bartholomew and his NATO patrons with hope.
Kiev authorities say that a Supreme Court will be authorized to expedite the practical application of this shameful law, which will deprive the U. P. C. of its legal status, which includes expropriation of church property and a ban on religious activities in the country. In this way, with the new law, millions of believers of the UPC were placed in the category of "not ours" and "wrong ones", and thus became second-class citizens. The generally known practice of the Ukrainian authorities is the violent methods against the U. P. C., which in every possible way encourage and assist the seizure of its churches by representatives of schismatic structures. Statistics show that it is in the time period from 2019 to May 2024. more than 1.5 thousand churches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church were forcibly translated into a non-canonical schismatic structure. Therefore, the adoption of this law can be considered the final act of the genocidal extermination of the canonical Orthodox Church and its believers who have a thousand-year history of their existence in Ukraine. Encouraged by Western mentors, the Ukrainian regime in this way implements the neocolonial doctrine, which is based on the goals of the total destruction of the Russian population and the violent spread of Western imperialist ideology.
The author is a priest Miladin Mitrovic, advisor of the SNP-the choice is ours for religious issues and the elder of the Church of St. Basil of Ostrog in Banja Luka
Source: plebiscitrs.org/sajt/index.php?option=com_novosti&id=1163
