O.S.C.E.
CONCERNED
BY UNPUNISHED ACTIONS OF RADICALS AGAINST CHURCHES IN ODESSA
Representatives
of
the Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) of the Organization for
Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Ukraine are alarmed by the
actions of radicals
against clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow
patriarchate
(UPTsMP) in Odessa oblast, while not one of the 19 incidents of
robbery and
desecration of church buildings in 2017 has been resolved, the
website of the
Moscow patriarchate reported on Monday.
The
SMM of the
OSCE has been active in Ukraine since March 2014 and it
comprises more than 500
observers who study the situation in all oblasts of Ukraine. In
Odessa there
are ten members of the mission.
According
to
information of the Odessa diocese of the UPTsMP, during the last
meeting of the
leadership of the diocese with a SMM delegation, a
representative of the OSCE,
Aram Arutiunian, noted that "in early January in Odessa there
occurred
several high-profile incidents connected with provocations
directed against the
Odessa diocese, which cannot but evoke alarm." These were,
specifically,
actions by radicals at the cathedral church of the Holy
Transfiguration and the
appearance of provocative leaflets in churches and monasteries
in the center of
Odessa.
In
his turn, the
secretary of the Odessa diocese, Archpriest Evgeny Gutiar,
informed in detail
the observers of the OSCE regarding these and other incidents
that violate
inter-confessional peace and sow religious strife in the region.
"Father
Evgeny
called special attention of the international observers to the
increase
in provocations against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Odessa
oblast in the
spring of 2017, when threats on the social network Facebook
against canonical
Orthodoxy in the Odessa land were translated into action: acts
of vandalism and
desecration of churches were committed, believers were
threatened, and
provocative leaflets were pasted up. The Pokrov church of the
city of
Chernomorsk was desecrated with special cynicism and blasphemy,"
the press
release says.
Gutiar
concluded
with regret that in 2017 not one of the 19 robberies and
desecrations of
churches in Odessa oblast was resolved and the guilty have not
suffered
punishment, although in each case police were summoned to the
site of the
crime. The priest also expressed hope that "the attention to the
problems
touched upon in a meeting of such an authoritative international
organization
as the OSCE, and also the conclusions of its observers, will
facilitate the
relaxation of tension around the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in
the region."
A representative of the observation mission, Eva Gmelin, in her turn stressed that "the OSCE will be objectively informed about the religious situation in Odessa province," the press release noted. (tr. by PDS, posted 30 January 2018)
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