UOC bishop: Ministry of Culture fears that monks will really leave the Lavra

Metropolitan Clement (Vecheria). Photo: church.ua

Metropolitan Clement, Chairman of the Information Department of the UOC, believes that there is a certain confusion and fear in the Ministry of Culture regarding the eviction of the UOC monks from the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. The hierarch of the UOC stated this in an interview with Telegraf.

According to him, the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra will cease to be the spiritual center of Ukraine once the monks of the UOC are evicted from the monastery.

“If there are no relics in the caves in the Lavra, if they, as Minister of Culture Tkachenko said, are just museum exhibits, rather than religious shrines, then there will be no pilgrimage to them, and the Lavra will lose its significance,” he said.

The bishop is also confident that today the Ukrainian authorities will not attempt to forcibly evict the monks from the Lavra monastery, which some politicians recently threatened.

“At first it could be the case, which was openly stated by certain politicians who clearly threatened the monks and believers that they would be approached with force. Not necessarily on the part of the police, but also on the part of various radical elements, one way or another affiliated with the law enforcement agencies,” Vladyka added.

As the UOJ reported, Metropolitan Clement said that talk about the transfer of the Lavra to the Ministry of Culture is fiction and speculation.

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