Pochaev, December 3, 2018
Photo: news.church.ua Once the so-called “United Local Church” in Ukraine is created by Constantinople, the Ukrainian government could completely take the Holy Dormition-Pochaev Lavra away from the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church and give it to the new structure at its request, according to Igor Derevinsky, a lawyer for the Kremenets-Pochaev State Historical-Architectural Reserve said on Friday.
According to him, if the “United Local Church” is finally created by Constantinople and declares its right to use the Pochaev Lavra, “the state will probably not refuse it,” reports the Ukrainian site tsn.ua.
As the schismatics who will make up the new church have declared many times, the Kiev Caves and Pochaev Lavras are Ukrainian treasures belonging to the state, and therefore must belong to an autocephalous Ukrainian church. With such statements, the schismatics lie to the public, hiding the truth that the canonical Ukrainian Church, an autonomous body within the Russian Orthodox Church, is made up of and spiritually guided by Ukrainians.
The schismatic “Kiev Patriarchate” earlier declared its head Philaret Denisenko to be the bishop over both the Lavras.
As Derevinsky alleges, the authorities do not intend to turn the Lavra into a museum, as they have attempted many times in the past, but the Reserve will maintain legal control. The Lavra, could, in fact, be split up between several confessions, he explained.
However, the abbot of the Lavra, His Eminence Metropolitan Vladimir of Pochaev, recently declared in an interview that the monks of the canonical Church will not leave their sacred home, reports the Union of Orthodox Journalists.
In a recent statement, the brotherhood acknowledged the state’s intentions: “There is every reason to believe that the government intends to take the Pochaev Lavra from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in order to pass it on to the schismatics.”
On November 23, the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine canceled the registration of several monastery buildings, including churches, to the monastery, and on November 28, the 2003 decision transferring those buildings from the Reserve to the use of the monastic brotherhood was canceled by the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers.
The situation is quite complicated. Despite these governmental actions, Derevinsky said the brotherhood still has the right to use the buildings for now, and the canonical Ukrainian Church has said it will legally challenge the state’s decisions.
In particular, lawyers from the “Opposition Platform-For Life” are helping representatives of the Lavra to protect their right to the property, Verkhovna Rada Yuri Boiko said today, reports RIA-Novosti.
According to Boiko, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is causing a Church conflict in a bid to be re-elected as president, but the platform’s lawyers are working hard to protect the rights of the faithful to the Lavra facilities.
In an earlier statement, the Lavra brotherhood noted that the current Ukrainian government behaves like the soviet government of the past century and is attempting to destroy monasticism in western Ukraine.
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