The authorities of Ukraine allegedly will not speed up the process of transition of temples from the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church to the newly-formed PCU. This statement was made by Petro Poroshenko on the air of the program “Christmas meetings” on the TV channel “Ukraine”.

“And when someone expected that right there the first actions would be the storming of the laurel, the transfer of everything, no. Everything has its time, and it is not necessary to accelerate it, we gave everyone the opportunity to make their choice, ”said the Ukrainian leader.

According to him, the current authorities in Kiev "have done everything possible" so that believers could choose which church to pray to. At the same time, the President of Ukraine stressed that he could not call himself "a very religious person."

“Everyone has his own path to God, and certainly it’s impossible to boast about it, because the church is something very personal,” he explained.

Poroshenko also noted that the creation of a new religious structure in Ukraine had become a unifying factor for the state, while supposedly more important than the 1991 independence referendum.

"The door to God opened ... Spiritual independence is more important," he pointed out.

  • Head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine Metropolitan Epiphanius
  • Reuters
  • © Valentyn Ogirenko

According to the deputy director of the National Institute for the Development of Modern Ideology, Igor Shatrov, in the words of Petro Poroshenko there is a direct threat to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.

“Here, in fact, the whole order of actions of the Ukrainian authorities, which intends to“ convert ”by faith, is painted. They are given time for them to think and all the parishes come to the bosom of a new church, otherwise seizures will begin, violent transfers of parishes if the parishioners do not do it voluntarily, they will do it by force, ”the expert emphasized.

“This is just blackmail, and the most alarming thing in this statement is that it was done on behalf of the secular authorities, which shows a direct interest in eliminating the parishioners of the canonical UOC,” said Shatrov.

According to him, there is "a very sad and alarming signal."

“It seems to me that all those who in Europe are fighting for human rights, for freedom of conscience and for separation of church and state, which is a civilized form of relations between religious organizations and secular authorities in all European countries, should pay attention to this,” Tents in a conversation with RT.

"Alienation after the election"

Earlier, Poroshenko said that allegedly already “over 100 communities” expressed a desire to join the new church of Ukraine. At the same time, the “honorary patriarch” of the NPC Filaret hopes that soon control will be established over the Pochaev and Kiev-Pechersk laurels belonging to the UOC-MP. In his opinion, this will be done by “legal means”.

Probably, this is a legislative initiative on the jurisdiction of religious communities, which was previously adopted by the Verkhovna Rada. According to the document, parishioners can make changes to the charter of these organizations and change their jurisdiction if at least two thirds of the members of the parish vote for it.

Also, at the end of last year, the rules on renaming religious organizations with a “structural center in the territory of the aggressor country that occupied the territory of Ukraine or committed a military attack against it” came into force.

In this regard, on January 26, it became known that the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine obliged five religious organizations, including the canonical UOC, to change their names.

  • President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko
  • © MYKOLA LAZARENKO / UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE / AFP

Recall that in December 2018, the so-called unifying council was held, at which as a result of the merger of two non-canonical church structures, one new one was formed - the so-called local Orthodox Church of Ukraine. At the beginning of 2019, the Sacred Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople signed a tomos for the granting of autocephaly to a new religious structure.

At the same time, Poroshenko, despite constant statements that the church question was in no way connected with the government, attended both events, and later went to a kind of “Tomos-tour”, promoting the “new church” among the population and attracting the electorate to the run-up to the presidential election.

Political analyst Ivan Mezyuho believes that Poroshenko is really not interested in “speeding up” the transition process, since this could adversely affect his rating on the eve of presidential elections. However, the expert believes that if he wins the election, the attack on the UOC will continue.

“Certainly, Poroshenko is not interested in the fact that the alienation of the property of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church took place on a massive scale before the presidential election, since this could adversely affect its rating. He really partially focuses on the right-wing Ukrainian minority, which is always active in elections. Nevertheless, he hopes that residents of Central Ukraine will also cast their vote for him, ”Mezyuho believes.

The expert added that now the seizure of property of the canonical church occurs mainly in rural areas of the country.

“Poroshenko probably has some kind of agreement with the Ukrainian schismatics and expects that after his potential victory, the process of alienation of property will be completed. Of course, Poroshenko cheats. But by his statement he gives an unambiguous hint that the attack on the UOC will be continued, ”the political scientist concluded.