Lavra abbot: Current persecutors will pass just as the Bolsheviks
Metropolitan Pavel urged the brethren and believers not to fear, to defend the monastery and their rights.
Metropolitan Pavel, abbot of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, called on the believers of the UOC to intensify their prayers for the monastery and defend their rights. He told the UOJ about this.
Commenting on the forcible seizure of the Lavra buildings, the bishop said, “We do not need to fear. We must defend our constitutional right, we must know the basic law after the Gospel that people holding any positions in the state do not have the right to do so.”
According to the hierarch, by restricting entry to the temples of the Lower Lavra, the Ukrainian authorities "humiliated the human dignity of believers, our faith, you and me."
“Today they beat us one by one, threaten us, take us to dungeons. But nothing better awaits them. Be strong, hold on to unity, because we have one faith, one Church, one God, one people in Ukraine. We shouldn't be afraid of anything, we shouldn't be ashamed of anything. My dear brethren in Christ, stand even unto death, as the Apostle Paul says,” said Metropolitan Pavel.
The abbot of the Lavra also noted that today's persecutors of the Church do not spare themselves or their loved ones, and they will "pass" just like those who fought against religion in the USSR.
“All Ecumenical Local Councils met at a time when people ignored the law of God, when they laughed at Christ. Today we see what is happening in the Refectory Church and the Assumption Cathedral. We see what is happening on the territory of the Lavra. <...> The SBU and the police do not pay attention to this; they only treat our parishioners and our brethren shamefully. The fact that today they cut the locks, threatened the nuns, the brethren, put their seals only confirmed once again that they have sealed themselves and incurred misfortune and grief to themsleves and their families. I ask God and pray to God that the Lord will strengthen us. It won’t be that way forever, as the wise Solomon said,” he added.
As reported by the UOJ, the police used force against the defenders of the Lavra.
