Belgrade, July 25, 2023
Photo: spc.rs
His Holiness Patriarch Porfirije of Serbia addressed a number of religious and world leaders last week, calling on them to do everything in their power to work for the release of the abbot of the Kiev Caves Lavra, who is currently being held in a pre-trial detention center in Kiev.
The Serbian Patriarch appealed to the primates of the Orthodox Churches, Pope Francis, Archbishop Justin of Canterbury (Anglican), the Secretary-General António Guterres of the United Nations, Amnesty International, and several others, “with a request to utilize the great esteem they enjoy throughout the world and take action to secure the release of Metropolitan Pavel of Vyshgorod and Chernobyl—the abbot of the Kiev Caves Lavra, so that he may continue his evangelical mission, which can only bring good to the parties in the conflict, and especially to the people of Ukraine,” reports the Serbian Orthodox Church.
As head of the famous monastery, Met. Pavel is a target for state authorities, who are accusing him of inciting religious enmity and supporting the war—the same charges used for any cleric they want to detain. After months of house arrest, a judge ordered to move the hierarch to a pre-trial detention center earlier this month.
He also set bail at nearly $900,000—which, as many outlets have pointed out, is much higher than the bail set for murderers and human traffickers in Ukraine (and now the prosecutor is asking to raise the bail to $1.625 million). The state has blocked most attempts to raise funds towards his bail, whether online or in person at church.
“In times of great, difficult, and perilous historical changes, such as the times we are living in today, it is the duty of every man who seeks justice—regardless of his religious affiliation, nationality, ideological, or political orientation—to point out injustices committed against individuals and their fundamental human rights,” the Patriarch told the world leaders.
And the case of Met. Pavel is an obvious one of such injustice, the Patriarch writes. The decision to detain the bishop-abbot “is, on one hand, a product of the tense atmosphere in Ukraine, which is engulfed in the flames of war, and on the other hand, a result of the current authorities’ intention to seize the Kiev Caves Lavra, one of the most significant holy sites of the entire Orthodox world.”
Met. Pavel has always called for peace and a cessation of conflicts through dialogue, Pat. Porfirije states. Nevertheless, he is clearly being incarcerated for “his personal and religious identity.”
“He is imprisoned because he is an Orthodox hierarch, faithful to his Ukrainian Orthodox Church and universal Orthodoxy. As such, he is an unwavering guardian of the monastery where he is abbot, and consequently, he represents an insurmountable obstacle preventing the seizure of the Kiev Caves Lavra by any other structure, even if, in order to gain the semblance of legality and legitimacy, it claims to be ecclesiastical.”
Therefore, Pat. Porfirije again calls upon the religious and societal leaders of Europe and the world to advocate for the release of Met. Pavel.
The hierarchs of the recent Bishops’ Conference of the Russian Orthodox Church briefly spoke about Met. Pavel in their resolution, calling the Ukrainian government the direct heir of the God-fighting Bolshevisk and wishing many years to Met. Pavel in the midst of his struggles.
Follow OrthoChristian on Twitter, Vkontakte, Telegram, WhatsApp, MeWe, and Gab!
