A “The End of History”. On Tuesday, August 20, Ukraine’s parliament voted on the final reading of a bill to ban religious organizations affiliated with a country waging war against Ukraine. After two and a half years of war, the text unnamedly targets the Orthodox Church affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate (EOU-MP), which is often seen as a relay of the Kremlin’s influence. The church has long been very popular in the country, as it was in the former Soviet Union, but today faces significant competition from the Church of Ukraine (EOU).
From the beginning of the Russian invasion, representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate distanced themselves from the Russian church authorities, especially from their spiritual leader, Patriarch Kirill, a staunch supporter of Vladimir Putin and author of sermons justifying Russian aggression against Ukraine. .
But these talks were not enough to convince the Ukrainian authorities. “This church is inextricably separated from Moscow. Underlines the author of columnist Jean-Francois Colosimo The Crucifixion of Ukraine: A Thousand Years of Religious Wars in Europe (Albin Michael, 2022). As some of the EOU-MP hierarchy attended the same schools as FSB diplomats, the situation became unbearable for the Ukrainian government. (Russian secret services, editor’s note), Moscow must win and thus be an enemy from within. »
Russian propaganda is targeted
“Act of Our Spiritual Freedom Adopted”, He welcomed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after the adoption of the law. With this text coming into effect in September, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate, is forced to leave the gray zone in which it has found itself since the beginning of the war, while its members already number twenty. Condemned for receiving funds or arms from an occupying country or spreading its propaganda.
“Religious organizations suspected of being associated with Russia have nine months to prove that they have no political, administrative, ordination, financial or ideological connection with this country, under penalty of being sent to administrative courts, or banned”, Underlines Antoine Arjakovski, research director and teacher at the Collège des Bernardins. Get out of the war (Desclée de Brouwer, 2023), which specifies that the bishops of the EOU-MP should withdraw from the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The text, adopted by the Ukrainian parliament, aims to stop Russian propaganda in the country. “So far, more than 3,000 buildings have been rented out by the government free of charge to religious communities affiliated to the EOU-MP. Henceforth, if the Potshav Lavra proves to be (The second largest monastery in Ukraine, editor’s note) The propaganda of the Russian world can restore the state building and evict the community that lives there”. Antoine Arjakovsky explains.
There was no reaction from Metropolitan Onufrij
The text targets only the executives of the EOU-MP, but may have an impact on its loyalists, depending on the status of their superior, Metropolitan Onufrij of Kyiv. “The ball is in his court, Antoine Niviere, a professor at the University of Lorraine and an expert in the cultural and religious history of Russia, assesses. Either he reasserts his independence from Moscow and provides concrete evidence, or he declares persecution, appeals to international authorities and goes into hiding. »
More than 24 hours after the law was passed, Metropolitan Onufrig’s reaction is still awaited. The Moscow patriarch did not wait to comment. “This is an illegal act which is a very flagrant violation of the basic principles of freedom of conscience and human rights.” Vladimir Legoida, a spokesman for the Russian Orthodox Church, made the accusation in a telegram. But for Antoine Arjakovsky, religious freedom in Ukraine would not have been threatened. “The new law is democratic. The researcher insists. It prohibits religious organizations as a fifth paragraph against an aggressor state. »
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Traditional, endless divorce in Ukraine
Orthodox Christianity is the majority In Ukraine, almost 80% of the 43 million people are believers. It is organized around two churches.
The Ukrainian Church (EOU-MP), headed by Metropolitan Onufryj, Affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate, though abdicated in May 2022. Kiev officials accuse him of harboring pro-Russian sympathies. Only 4% of Ukrainians identified in 2023, compared to 18% the previous year, according to an opinion poll conducted by the International Institute of Sociology in Kyiv.
The Church of Ukraine (EOU), headed by Metropolitan Ibpany, Recognized as an autosomal recessive disorder by the Patriarch of Constantinople at the beginning of 2019 – 54% of Ukrainians were identified in 2022, up from 42% in 2022.
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