The Primate of the Greek Catholic Church’s reservations about the banning of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church

“If they are banned, then we will give this Church the palm of martyrdom. We will give them the opportunity to really enter the silent opposition and become the ones who will then claim authenticity. In an interview, Thursday, January 19, given to Ukrainska Pravda, the primate of the Greek-Catholic Church of Ukraine, Mgr. Orthodox Church dependent on the Moscow Patriarchate (EOU-MP).

Adverse effects

“I recently said to a legislator: ‘If you want to perpetuate the Patriarchate of Moscow in Ukraine, ban it'”, he also asserts, warning against the undesirable effects of such a decision. The primate, who himself admits to questioning the merits of a banishment, refers to the past of his own Church banned by the Soviet power.

“It is important to understand that the banning of a Church does not mean the end of its existence, he underlines. As long as there are people who move towards Moscow Orthodoxy in Ukraine, this Church will exist, even if according to state law it is illegal,” he adds.

Religious freedom

These prejudices expressed, however, he recognizes that the Ukrainian State has “the right to watch over its national security” and to protect itself against “traitors”, whether they are “among Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Muslims or the Orthodox”. But, Msgr. Sviatoslav Chevtchouk, primate of the Greek-Catholic Church of Ukraine – whose faithful represented 7% of the country’s population before the war – insists: “You should not be persecuted for your membership in a structure of Church. Moreover, in its communication, Russia does not fail to insist on the situation of the EOU-MP to denounce attacks on religious freedom.

In Ukraine, Orthodox Christianity, by far the majority, is organized mainly around two Churches. On the one hand, the Church of Ukraine, led by Metropolitan Epiphanius, was recognized as autocephalous (i.e. governed by itself) by the Patriarchate of Constantinople in early 2019. On the other, the Ukrainian Church (EOU-MP), led by Metropolitan Onufrij, was under the Moscow Patriarchate until its declaration of independence on May 27, 2022, in reaction to Patriarch Kirill of Moscow’s support for the invasion.

But this distancing does not prevent the marginalization of the EOU-MP, suspected of pro-Russian sympathies. It has been the subject of increasing pressure since the fall, culminating in early December with the announcement by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of his desire to limit the activities of religious organizations “affiliated” with Russia.

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