ROCOR hierarch: The ban on the UOC is comparable to persecution of early Christians

Metropolitan Mark of Berlin and Germany said that the policy of the Ukrainian authorities to outlaw the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) is reminiscent of the persecution of early Christians. He spoke about it in a commentary to RIA Novosti.

“From my point of view, this situation ... echoes the persecution of Christians in the first century. Only it is worse, because they are carried out by people who were parishioners of our Church, and now they are acting against it,” the ROCOR hierarch stressed.

According to the hierarch, the Ukrainian authorities are seeking to declare the canonical UOC a non-existent church, as well as to completely outlaw it throughout the country. “While the UOC is currently banned only in some regions, the authorities want to ban it everywhere,” he said.

As the UOJ reported, this is not the first speech of Metropolitan Mark with the words of support for the UOC.

According to him, the intensified searches in the apartments of bishops, priests, believers, in monasteries and churches, which have been carried out by the Ukrainian authorities over the past weeks and months, "are a method of intimidation."

“All this shows that Ukraine is very far from being a democratic state, and that we are on the eve of a new persecution of Christians in this country,” said the Metropolitan of Berlin and Germany.