A theological consultation takes place in Rome regarding the UOC situation

Hotel Casa Tra Noi Rome. Photo: baznica.infо

On April 27, 2024, in the capital of Italy, the "Roman Consultation" took place, where theologians, historians, sociologists, legal experts, and specialists in ecumenical relations analyzed the observance of norms in Ukraine ensuring freedom of religion, using the pressure on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church by local and national authorities as an example, as reported by baznica.info.

At the very beginning, the participants formulated the purpose of the meeting as follows: "We support Ukraine in its just defensive war against Russia and believe that the legitimate and justified actions of special services and state authorities to protect the constitutional order and prevent collaborationism and espionage against specific individuals who have committed crimes are within the framework of the legal field."

At the same time, the meeting participants noted that they cannot "endorse rhetoric that exploits the thesis of collective responsibility of the entire religious community for the actions of individual members or even clergy."

"We advocate for Ukraine to maintain its commitment to democratic values, including freedom of religion, as one of the basic values, even in the conditions of war with the totalitarian Russian regime," the meeting participants stated.

The consultation was attended by priests of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, Andrey Kordochkin (Netherlands) and Georgy Ashkov (France), historian and sociologist Nikolay Mitrokhin, theologians Dmitry Krikhan and Justina Panina, lawyer and priest Nikita Chekman, journalist and human rights activist Denis Lapin, and others.

Journalist Denis Lapin noted that the accusations against the Metropolitan of Sviatohirsk are based on a video of 2023, where the hierarch "mentioned the location of Ukrainian army checkpoints".

"With modern surveillance systems and given that we are talking about small settlements where everyone knows each other, this is an open secret," the journalist noted.

He also touched upon the repression against the Union of Orthodox Journalists. "You can have different attitudes towards their activities, but several representatives of the union have been arrested, and they are currently in pretrial detention. And we do not see the Ukrainian journalistic community concerned about this. Everyone just republished the press release of the Security Service and said, 'Well, everything is clear, they have found enemies, and they punish enemies.' In other words, the situation is far from normal," Lapin emphasised.

He also spoke about recent cases of seizure of temples and expulsion of UOC communities, particularly in the city of Irpin and the village of Lesniki.

Nikolay Mitrokhin presented data from monitoring the pressure on clergy and parishes of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, conducted from February to April, between the Berlin and Rome consultations.

"First of all, we need to talk about the change in the position of the Russian Orthodox Church, which, through the meeting of the World Russian People's Council on March 27, 2024, much more clearly declared its support for the war. The Russian Orthodox Church, in principle, has grown a political structure for making sharp statements in support, thus, of the Putin regime and the war, and the WRPC serves the same function as the 'German Christians' during the Second World War," said Mitrokhin.

According to him, "this is a certain political structure near the body of the Church, which de facto is responsible for political statements. Based on the fact that the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church supports the decisions adopted by the World Russian People's Council in its statements and approves the activities of the Patriarch in this Council, it can be said that through this instrument, the ROC actually subscribes to all the harsher terminology in support of the war."

Mitrokhin also believes that "the designation of the war as a 'holy war', the presentation of territorial claims to Ukraine in the same WRPC's 'Decree', and other statements made on March 27, shift the Russian Orthodox Church to a new level, which was noted in the PACE resolution that now the Russian Orthodox Church is considered by international organizations as one of the Russian structures supporting the war."

"This is a new quality of the Russian Orthodox Church, which immediately led to serious problems with foreign, primarily European dioceses, starting from the Baltic countries, where talks have already begun among government officials about the possibility of banning the Russian Orthodox Church as a structure ideologically supporting and justifying the war," Mitrokhin said.

The second trend described by the sociologist is the ongoing seizure of UOC dioceses in the occupied territories of Ukraine by the Russian Orthodox Church. Despite the majority of bishops from the occupied territories relocating to the territory of Ukraine controlled by the government in Kyiv and not supporting the occupation, some seizures occur with temporary formulations "until the situation is regulated". In other cases, dioceses transition completely, with an unclear degree of reliability of the clergy's voting.

"In this context, the UOC takes a completely unambiguous position. It promptly condemned the 'Decree' of the World Russian People's Council. And even stated that this is not Christianity. Therefore, politically, the UOC unequivocally distances itself from the statements of the Russian Orthodox Church," emphasized Mitrokhin.

He also noted that the number of actual criminal cases with proven facts of collaboration by priests amounts to dozens, which is a negligible percentage of the clergy.

At the same time, Mitrokhin mentioned that "there is another completely different stratum – church leaders against whom the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) is systematically fighting."

"And here the most important innovation is a series of criminal cases against prominent figures in the church who are obviously being punished for activities of organized resistance to the repressions carried out by the SBU, DESS, and others. At the moment, we are dealing with the case against Metropolitan Theodosiy of Cherkasy, who protested against the seizure of a monastery on the territory of the Cherkasy Eparchy by proponents of the OCU. A case has been initiated against him," the German sociologist explained.

Examples were also provided, such as the attack on Metropolitan Longin (Zhar), the arrest on fabricated grounds of Metropolitan Arseny of Sviatohirsk, criminal proceedings against the Deputy Head of the External Church Relations Department of the UOC, Archpriest Mykolay Danylevych, and other cases.

Mitrokhin noted that the legal re-registration of communities from the UOC to the OCU does not signify a real transition of believers. OCU temples stand semi-empty while UOC believers pray in church houses and rented premises.

Another important issue raised by the German researcher was the split in Ukrainian society, which may have a negative impact in the conditions of the ongoing war.

Lawyer and priest Nikita Chekman from Kyiv shared his experience in providing legal assistance to the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra and individual parishes.

He particularly highlighted the absurd formulations in some cases, directly contradicting the Ukrainian Constitution.

For example, in the materials of the criminal case against Archpriest Sergiy Chertylin, the latter is accused of denying the attributes of independent Ukraine, including the newly created Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

"According to their logic, in the secular state of Ukraine, the attribute of statehood is the OCU, which contradicts Article 35 of the Constitution, according to which the church is separated from the state," said Chekman.

According to the lawyer, the mere fact of inter-church discussion about the presence of apostolic succession or the validity of (OCU clergy's – Ed.) sacraments is interpreted by secular law enforcement as incitement of interreligious hatred.

There is also a problem of legal illiteracy among priests and parish leaders. Despite the vagueness of formulations regarding membership in the parish when making decisions about transition, there are norms that prevent the holding of illegal meetings of "territorial communities" instead of religious ones.

"The Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court has clearly established criteria for proving whether a person is a member of a community or not. Community statutes do not provide for fixed membership. Therefore, the Chamber indicated two criteria. The first criterion is the person's age of 18. The second criterion is the regularity of attending services and participation in the Church sacraments," Chekman explained.

According to him, "if the work in the parishes is conducted correctly, if everything is properly documented to prove that a person regularly attends services, then in disputes, this will be evidence."

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that human rights activists had submitted materials on the persecution of UOC believers to the Bundestag.

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