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The Essential Role of Patriarch Bartholomew in Worsening Ukrainian Persecution
Just a few short years ago, 70% of Ukrainians belonged to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The UOC is the descendant of the Metropolis of Kiev and all Rus’ that was established in the 10th century. Its pedigree is ancient and impeccable. The UOC, following the collapse of communism, took possession of priceless monasteries and Churches. At the largest monastery, the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, there were over a hundred monks and a renowned Theological seminary. While being officially linked to Moscow, the UOC was self-governing. The head of the UOC, Metropolitan Onuphry, was popular both at home and abroad. His writings were read around the world, with many marveling at his personal holiness, his pastoral insights, and the love he had for his Ukrainian people.
Because Patriarch Bartholomew is Greek, criticism of his actions in Ukraine has been credited by some to “anti-Greek” bias. Multiple Greek hierarchs around the world love and support Metropolitan Onuphry and the UOC, including Metropolitan Neophytos and His Holiness Theophilos the Patriarch of Jerusalem.
A few short years later, even though she is still the largest religious body in Ukraine, the UOC is fighting for her very life. The UOC went from being essentially the “national Church of Ukraine”, to being in danger of a complete ban on her activities. Her clergy and faithful are abused and arrested. Her parishes are seized violently. All the while, Western governments, without whose funding Ukraine would collapse, excuse, downplay, and hide the persecution.
How bad are things? His Eminence Metropolitan Luke of Zaporozhye recently appealed to the U.S. Secretary of State concerning the state-sponsored persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church:
we recently received а letter demanding to vacate two rented premises where Orthodox churches have been located for many years.
But this is not only a problem of the Zaporizhzhia region. Currently our entire Ukrainian Orthodox Church is standing upon the threshold of terrible trials. We talk now about an attempt of its liquidation and forced merger into the organization called “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” (established in 2019).
For that purpose, the Church now is under unprecedented pressure at all levels. 250 churches of the UOC were seized with the direct support of the local authorities in 2022 alone. This year the raiding activity continued. Churches are being seized daily in Khmelnitsky, Chernivtsi, Kyiv and other regions of Ukraine. Our believers are maimed, beaten, poisoned by tear gas, subjected to all sorts of bullying and attacks. Supporters of the “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” began using physical violence against our bishops. In fact, entire Dioceses of our Church are being destroyed.
Moreover, several bills have already been registered in the Parliament, which involve a ban or significant restriction of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church rights. At the same time, throughout the country, regional and city councils make decisions to proscribe the functioning of the UOC in the regions. The initiators of these unconstitutional decisions are the deputies from the European Solidarity Party (headed by Petro Poroshenko).
The situation is aggravated by the wrongful verdict of the Constitutional Court, which recognized the legitimacy of the anti-church law developed during the presidency of Petro Poroshenko. The goal was to deprive the UOC of its official name and transfer its property to the newly created “Orthodox Church of Ukraine”.
Officials are going to take away from our Church the main Orthodox shrines of Ukraine – the Pochaev and Kiev-Pechersk Lavras (in the last one some churches have already been illegally transferred to the “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” in use).
The managerial link of the UOC has also been struck. In particular, some of our bishops were placed under house arrest, some of them subjected to sanctions, and the others were deprived of citizenship. This is the rationale for their deportation from Ukraine.
In light of these events, we are frankly discouraged by the silence of the American authorities. After all, the Democratic Party’s platform, as well as the current U.S. Government position is the protection of the rights and freedoms in all manifestations. Especially when it comes to a fundamental right – the right to freedom of conscience.
Tetyana, a Ukrainian Orthodox Christian, describes the current persecution in personal terms:
I don’t know how to describe what is currently happening in Ukraine in relation to the UOC. I have a feeling that the times of the Persecution of the first Christians during the reign of the Roman Emperor Nero… or, as it were, the times of the godless Bolsheviks have returned. Priests of the UOC are impiously beaten, mocked…activists of the OCU schisms enter their churches with a knife to cut their throats or to pour red liquid on them, shouting that the blood of Ukrainians is on them. Icons and crosses are torn down….. and thrown away. The churches that the UOC believers are trying to rebuild are destroyed… Activists of the OCU schisms set fire to the Bible (because it is not in the Ukrainian language). Zelenskyi and his entourage, the SBU, the police – contribute to these religious crimes. It seems that the time of the Apocalypse is coming in Ukraine…. This is complete terrible lawlessness…. And in Ukraine recently a monument to…….. TOMOS(!!!!!!!) was erected – as a “symbol of spiritual independence”….. TOMOS, which destroyed the lives of Orthodox parishioners and clergymen of the UOC… .. I have no words…. People in Ukraine have become demons in relation to the Orthodox Christians of the UOC….
If it was possible to describe all the anti-Christian horrors that are happening now in relation to the UOC in Ukraine, it would probably be a big book – a book about lawlessness, a book about the persecution and abuse of Orthodox Christians of the UOC .
A monument erected to the “Tomos” granted by Patriarch Bartholomew, without whom this persecution would not be happening.
We highly recommend that you read this comment from Tetyana which explains a video showing just how awful the situation is with anti-Christian protestors, supported by police, harassing and disrupting Christian worship at Orthodox holy sites.
How could the situation in Ukraine have gotten so bad, that radicals openly accuse other Ukrainians of being “Russians”, simply because they continue to belong to the canonical Church?
Patriarch Bartholomew enabled this Christian persecution. His recognition of OCU created the basis for a torrent of relentless propaganda that has applied a veneer of legitimacy to the violence directed at the canonical Church. Without him, the supposed “spiritual leader” of the Orthodox world, the Western nations and the Ukrainian government could never get away with this. He provides the “ecclesiastical curtain” behind which they hide their demonic actions.
Tetyana explained the totalitarian level of propaganda inside Ukraine:
A powerful “Goebbels-propaganda” structure operates in Ukraine, which pours dirt and slander on the UOC through well-paid journalists of Ukrainian pro-government TV channels (such as TSN (1+1), Channel 24, Fakti ICTV, Radio Svoboda , Groshi as well as Petro Poroshenko’s 5th and 1st channels (who, together with Patriarch Bartholomew, Filaret (M. Denisenko), Sergiy Dumenko (Epiphanii), created the schismatic organization of the OCU in December 2018 for political pre-election purposes)
Ukrainian President Zelensky has banned opposition media and political parties. His government has complete control of the “narrative” inside Ukraine. That “narrative” continuously portrays the UOC, comprised of Ukrainian citizens, as Russian traitors. This is despite the fact that the UOC has backed the war effort, condemned Russia, cut all ties with Moscow, and is led by a native-born Ukrainian primate. The Western media, controlled by a few holding companies who themselves are owned by a few massive investment firms, echo these same charges of treason, while also completely denying the identity of the UOC as anything but a “Russian Church”.
While practically all media outlets in the West disseminate US government propaganda, NPR is a direct conduit used by the US National Security State to “shape the narrative” on Ukraine. When consuming NPR content, you are getting the unvarnished view of the US government. At the end of September, NPR ran a piece called Anger grows over Ukraine’s largest Orthodox church, aligned with Moscow despite war. In the article, we can see how NPR presents the UOC as a foreign entity within Ukraine, a dangerous, subversive “Moscow-aligned Church”, while simultaneously creating sympathy for the Zelensky regime dealing with such a “threat”:
“We are at war with Russia,” said Alex Melnick, who carried Ukraine’s blue and yellow national flag. “We are protesting against the Moscow church, against the Moscow priests.”
There’s a growing debate in Ukraine over just how much their society should tolerate Orthodox believers loyal to the Moscow church in a time of bitter war.
“Our armed forces are repelling the Russian aggressor, but war will return as long as this collaborating Moscow church is here,” said Mykhailo Omelian, a priest and spokesman for a separate branch of the Orthodox church governed entirely within Ukraine.
Though the article is clearly slanted towards the narrative of the UOC as a foreign Church, some truth got mixed in anyway. The NPR piece decisively refutes a talking point recently popular among those who are anti-UOC. Namely, that OCU has surpassed the UOC in terms of size and the loyalty of the Ukrainian people. In the title and in several paragraphs within the article, NPR admitted that the UOC is still the largest and most popular religious organization in Ukraine:
“Our monks lived here from ancient times,” said Metropolitan Clement, bristling with anger. “Access is closed now to clergymen and to many believers who could come to to pray here even in Soviet times.”
Clement is spokesman for the largest Orthodox community in Ukraine, which has been governed by the Moscow patriarch since the 1600s.
Researchers say before the war began there were roughly 12,000 Orthodox parishes in Ukraine linked to Russia. Over the last 19 months, only about 1,500 of those congregations have voted to join a break-away Ukrainian-led church.
“They are really believers, very strong in their faith,” said Karen Nikiforov, a Ukrainian who studies religion in Kyiv, explaining why more churches don’t leave the Moscow patriarchate.
The Patriarchate of Constantinople and its associated entities (Patriarchate of Alexandria, the various Greek Archdioceses around the world) all endlessly repeat the same lies as the US National Security State – the uncanonical, radical “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” is the real Orthodox Church. Meanwhile, the UOC is not really a Ukrainian Church, but rather a Russian subversive, pseudo Church that has no right to be in the country. Why? Because Patriarch Bartholomew said so with his “Tomos”, and he has the power to do so because he is “first without equals”. These are all damnable lies that allow Western politicians to pose as defenders of religious liberty, even as they trample it. Mike Pompeo, as Secretary of State under Trump, was intimately involved in creating the OCU, and bears massive responsibility for the persecution of the canonical Church. However, thanks to Patriarch Bartholomew, Pompeo can fly around the US posing as the leader of a movement to revive Christian morals in America. He is a total fraud, whose polices have trampled the Body of Christ, but no one is calling him out about that. Former US Vice President Mike Pence also falsely poses as a Christian moral leader, with only Tucker Carlson having had the guts to challenge him on Ukrainian Christian persecution. Of course, what was Pence’s defense against his complicity in Ukrainian Orthodox persecution? It was that he had called Kiev and spoken to the OCU, who told him everything is great! After all, OCU is the “official” Church in Pence’s estimation. Patriarch Bartholomew said so.
Evidently, American values include supporting the persecution of Orthodox Christians
The persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church begins and ends with Patriarch Bartholomew. He provides the “cover” under which it is happening. He provides the “flack” that allows the West to downplay it, ignore it, and cover it up. His exalted “office” gives Global officialdom permission to ignore the many Orthodox hierarchs of “lesser” rank, such as the Patriarchs of Jerusalem and Antioch, who openly support the UOC. He provides the press interviews that calmly reassure the world that there is no persecution of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine, only restrictions on an illegitimate, subversive Russian organization with no business even being in the country.
