Pochaev, Ternopil Province, Ukraine, November 30, 2023
SBU officers at the Pochaev Lavra. Photo: pravda.com
The Holy Dormition-Pochaev Lavra and Seminary in Western Ukraine again find themselves the targets of the Ukrainian Security Services (SBU) and police.
Schismatics and nationalists have wanted to drive the Orthodox Church out of the Lavra for years, and efforts have only stepped up since the war began in February 2022. Like the Lavra in Kiev, the Lavra in Pochaev has also been state-owned since Soviet times, and is administered by the Pochaev-Kremenets Reserve.
In April, the Ternopil Provincial Council claimed to have found “violations” at the Lavra. Local and state representatives have also hindered pilgrims from making their way to the monastery.
And this morning, SBU officers arrived to “search” the Lavra, due to “the spread of Russian ideology by representatives of the Lavra,” reports Ukrainskaya Pravda, with reference to a source in the SBU.
SBU officers have searched monasteries, churches, diocesan administrations, and private residences belonging to hierarchs and clergy throughout Ukraine over the past year. It is well known that in several cases they have planted fake evidence or construed Orthodox books printed in Russia as “proof” that the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church is an enemy of the state.
Photo: news.church.ua
The Kremenets branch of the Pochaev Theological Seminary, where girls study to become choir directors, was also targeted this morning when the St. Nicholas Cathedral in Kremenets, where the school is located, was surrounded by police, reports the Information-Education Department of the UOC, with reference to the press service of the local Ternopil Diocese.
The police broke into the rooms where the girls were sleeping and forced them to gather their belongings and load onto buses to be taken to a nearby college. Everyone on the premises was ordered to leave. “The security forces didn’t even care that the temperature in the yard was below zero at that time.”
The police representative said he had received an order to clear the premises, and he intended to carry it out.
Some of the girls were afraid and locked themselves in their rooms, but the security forces threatened to break down the doors and physically remove the girls from the premises.
The video below shows that the Orthodox faithful chanted Church hymns throughout the ordeal:
Today’s incident comes just days after a court rejected the appeal to cancel the order for the Church to vacate the cathedral, despite the fact that the parish community has preserved and beautified the cathedral for the past 30 years.
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