ROC spokesperson urges UN to defend UOC believers from persecution

Today the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church is being subjected to systematic and targeted persecutions, reported Mitropolitan Hilarion¸of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, at an international conference on Mutual Respect and Peaceful Coexistence as a Condition of Interreligious Peace and Stability: Supporting Christians and Other Communities took place in Geneva on the sidelines of the 34th session of the UN Human Rights Council held on 7 March 2017, writes the site of the Moscow Patriarchate.

Metropolitan Hilarion spoke on a wide range of issues pertaining to the persecution of Christians in today’s world, as well as on the possible ways to overcome crises in the Middle East. The DECR chairman also spoke on the situation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, reminding the participants in the conference that there are several groups in Ukraine calling themselves ‘orthodox churches,’ but there is only one Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate that is canonical and recognized by all the other Local Orthodox Churches and the Roman Catholic Church.

As the DECR chairman noted, “today the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church is being subjected to systematic and targeted persecutions, with churches being taken away from it. To do that, the following mechanism of so-called ‘referendum,’ in reality fictitious, is used: representatives of a schismatic community appear in a village, claiming the ownership of a church and resorting to violence to drive away its parishioners who might have owned this church for decades.”

Such raider methods were used to seize several dozens of churches in Ukraine. In order to legalize this practice, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine tried to introduce different legislative initiatives, the head of the Department for External Church Relations pointed out. “We resolutely oppose such gross violation of the rights of believers and call upon the United Nations to devote particular attention to this problem,” he added.

The archpastor also mentioned the cases of violation of the rights of Christians and representatives of other religious communities in today’s Europe. “It is very important for Europe to set an example of interreligious tolerance and cooperation,” he emphasized.

To conclude his address, Metropolitan Hilarion expressed his hope that the world community and religious leaders would show their will to defend the persecuted Christians in the Middle East and in Africa and to prevent the violation of the rights of believers in other parts of the world.