Pochaev, Ukraine, April 27, 2020
pravlife.org
Speaking with the Ukrainian outlet Beautiful City recently, Mayor Vasily Boyko spoke about the real situation with the coronavirus in the region, noting that media reports about the pandemic tearing through the monastery are false, and calling on people to stop politicizing religion.
Many Ukrainian media outlets are using the ongoing coronavirus pandemic as an opportunity to attack the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine, publishing false reports about the number of infections among clergy of the Church, and especially at its most famous monasteries.
According to the Mayor, there are priests in Pochaev who have tested positive for the virus, but they live in the city and are not residents of the monastery.
“These priests are not people who are deliberately spreading the virus,” Boyko emphasized. “On the contrary, they got infected from parishioners, from people who were abroad for work and came here and did not adhere to the conditions of the quarantine, not self-isolating. Accordingly, this is how the infection came to us in Pochaev.”
Ukrainian and foreign media earlier tried to identify the Holy Dormition-Pochaev Lavra as a flashpoint for the virus, claiming that several Moldovan pilgrims got infected while visiting the monastery. However, a police investigation concluded that such a pilgrimage did not even take place.
The Mayor also stated that while there is no official data on the virus among residents of the Lavra, there have also been no medical requests coming from the monastics.
“As far as I know, the abbot is in the Lavra. The monastery is closed to visitors and residents of Pochaev, and for everyone in general, except its inhabitants. The services are celebrated behind closed doors,” Mayor Boyko commented.
“The coronavirus outbreak did not start in the Lavra; the outbreak started among Pochaev residents. There was no outbreak in the Lavra,” the Mayor emphasized.
He called on people “not to make politics out of religion,” adding that there is no reason to suspect that the monks are trying to hide their condition.
It was announced on April 20 that the city of Pochaev was closed for entry and exit due to the spread of the coronavirus. And while the office of the National Police in the Ternopil Province declared that such a move was actually illegal, the Holy Dormition-Pochaev Lavra decided to go into quarantine, not accepting any more pilgrims, in large part due to the media hysteria surrounding the monastery.
“We have already been credited with various instances that turned out to be complete frauds,” commented Hieromonk Nikodim (Shamailo), the assistant dean of the monastery. “And most likely, they will also try to link the situation in Pochaev with us. Although it should be emphasized that among the brethren and novices of the Lavra there is not a single case of coronavirus infection.”
At the same time, His Eminence Metropolitan Clement of Nizhyn, the head of the Synodal Information-Education Department, had to deny false reports coming from the Russian publication RBC that hundreds were infected at the Kiev Caves Lavra and the Kiev Theological Seminary and Academy.
While the monastery has more than 100 clergymen in all, about 15-20 suffered severe complications from the virus, while others did not have significant issues and required no medical care, Met. Clement told the Ukrainian outlet Strana.
