The Church became the object of searches
Continue searches of Ministers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC). If the law enforcement officers visited the home of the rector (Governor) of Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, now investigative actions are held in Zhytomyr and Ovruch dioceses.
Upstairs
In the Zhytomyr and Ovruch dioceses of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate are searched. The security Service of Ukraine (SBU) reported that it has already spent “eight raids on religious institutions, the places of residence of the individual representatives of the dioceses and in the Kiev publishing house that printed products are made by order of the UOC-MP”.
These investigations, at the request of the special services connected with the criminal proceedings under article 161 of the Ukrainian criminal code (violation of equality of citizens depending on their race, national origin, religious belief, disability and other grounds). The penalty includes up to five years in prison.
“In this case the investigators are trying to find and confiscate the literature that explains the priests, as they relate to the ATO (anti-terrorist operations.— “B”) and the events in the Donbass”, — said “Kommersant” a source close to the Kyiv metropolis of the UOC-MP. According to him, in the house of vicar of Lavra Archbishop Pavel in Kiev-Pechersk Lavra trying to find this “subversive literature”.
At the same time, Metropolitan Paul in an interview with “Kommersant” declared that these searches is pressure on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. According to him, in the twenty-first century, the same happens in the XX — the persecution of the Church.