Cherkasy, Ukraine, July 10, 2024
Photo: ria.ru
The Ukrainian Metropolitan who has been under house arrest for over a year has now suffered a heart attack.
The legal counsel for Metropolitan Theodosy of the Cherkasy Diocese of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church has said that His Eminence is getting ready to be hospitalized, RIA News reports, citing Ukrainian Obshchestvennoe TV channel.
“The hearing at the Sosnovsky District Court in Cherkasy on July 9 concerning Metropolitan Theodosy of the Cherkasy Diocese of the UOC did not take place as scheduled. The Metropolitan been on trial for over a year. The defendant’s attorney presented a medical certificate to the court as proof that Denis Snigirev (Metropolitan Theodosy’s legal name) is to be hospitalized. The attorney said that His Eminence is currently undergoing treatment after a heart attack that occurred on July 8, and the doctor has prescribed bed rest, with preparations being made for his hospitalization,” the Ukrainian TV channel reported.
In the spring of 2023, a court in Cherkasy placed Metropolitan Theodosy under house arrest and compelled him to wear an electronic bracelet. In December the court changed his 24-hour house arrest to nighttime house arrest. The Metropolitan is accused of inciting religious hatred—the only evidence against being that in 2020 he ordered the creation of a new diocesan website which used a template from the Russian Orthodox Church and had links to Orthodox resources in Russia such as patriarchia.ru (the official ROC site), pravmir.ru, and pravoslavie.ru. His lectures as a professor have incited the authorities’ ire, due to his explanations of the differences between the canonical UOC, and the non-canonical OCU.
Ukrainian authorities have organized the largest wave of persecution against the UOC (Ukrainian Orthodox Church) in the country’s modern history. Citing its connection with Russia, local authorities in various regions of Ukraine have decided to ban the activities of the UOC, and a bill has been introduced in the country's parliament to effectively ban it across the entire territory of Ukraine. Sanctions have been imposed by the authorities against some representatives of the UOC clergy. The Security Service of Ukraine has initiated criminal cases against UOC clergy, conducting “counterintelligence activities”. This includes searches at the residences of bishops and priests and in churches and monasteries for evidence of so-called “anti-Ukrainian activities.” In the current situation in Ukraine, any normal human expression of Christian brotherhood with co-religionists in Russia is now being used to indict the country’s citizens.
