ORTHODOX CHRISTIANS OF THE WORLD: "THE TIME HAS COME TO ADMIT THE AWFUL TRUTH ABOUT THE LVOV FALSE COUNCIL OF 1946
A group of famous Orthodox Christians of the world released on 7 March a statement about the awful truth of the false council of Lvov in 1946, which gave a start to the Stalinist regime to liquidate the UGKTs.
The document notes that Orthodox Christians "feel themselves responsible for criminal silence surrounding the destruction of this church by the soviet regime with the participation of the Moscow patriarchate."
"We know that millions of Orthodox Christians of the whole world sincerely condemn the antireligious persecution conducted by the soviet government and Josef Dzugashvili in particular. . . . We humbly ask for forgiveness for all the injustice of which they became victims under the cover of the authority of the Orthodox Church and we bow our heads before the martyrs of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church," the statement says.
On the memorial day of 10 March, Orthodox Christians in the world will pray for all the innocent victims in the UGKTs "who were imprisoned, and tortured, exiled, and killed by the soviet regime with the complicity of the Moscow patriarchate."
Text of the document:
The time has come for Orthodox Christians to admit the awful truth about 10 March 1946
On 10 March 1946, in Lvov, the Russian Orthodox Church took by force the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church into its bosom, under pressure by the soviet regime. At that time when participants in the council voted on 8 and 9 March for "reunification" of their church with the Moscow patriarchate, all Ukrainian Greek Catholic bishops were in custody in prison. 216 priest and 19 laymen, assembled in the St. George's cathedral church by the forces of the NKVD (the predecessor of the KGB), surrendered to the mercy of the "Initiative Group," led by Father Gavriil Kostelnik and two newly consecrated Orthodox bishops, Antony Pelvetsky and Mikhail Melnik. Archives give evidence that Stalin himself personally made the decision about the liquidation of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in February 1945, twelve days after the Yalta conference, in which Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt participated.
Serious historians and theologians do not doubt in any way that the Lvov council of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church on 8-10 March 1946 was only an imitation of a council. Bohdan Bociurkiw, former professor of history at Carlton University in Ottawa, wrote a book about this, which has never been refuted. Pope Benedict XVI in 2006 spoke about the "pseudo-council," that "seriously undermined the unity of the church." Nikolai Lossky, a French Orthodox theologian of the Moscow patriarchate, also admitted that here one is speaking about an imitation council. From the prohibition in 1946 until 1989, the Greek Catholic Church, numbering more than five million believers in Ukraine, de facto became the chief victim and chief oppositional force with respect to the soviet regime within the USSR. We call the current church hierarchy in Russia, Ukraine, and elsewhere to acknowledge the invalidity of the tragic decisions of the Lvov council.
The Russian Orthodox Church as a whole cannot be considered to be responsible for the decisions made by the church hierarchy, which was under pressure from the terror and manipulation on the part of the NKVD-KGB. However, we, Orthodox Christians, feel ourselves responsible for criminal silence surrounding the destruction of this church by the soviet regime with the participation of the Moscow patriarchate. We know that millions of Orthodox Christians of the whole world sincerely condemn the antireligious persecutions conducted by the soviet government and Josef Dzugashvili in particular. Also on that memorial day of 10 March, on the eve of Sunday, 13 March 2016, Forgiveness Sunday in the Orthodox liturgical calendar, we assure the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church of our solidarity and our prayer for all the innocent victims of that church, who were imprisoned and who were tortured, exiled, and killed by the soviet regime with the complicity of the Moscow patriarchate.
We humbly ask for forgiveness for all the injustice of which they became victims under the cover of the authority of the Orthodox Church and we bow our heads before the martyrs of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
Antuan Arzhakovsky, Orthodox Christian, Paris
Bertrand Verzheli, Orthodox Christian, Paris
Andrei Cherniak, Orthodox Christian, Moscow
Taras Dmitrik, Orthodox Christian, Lvov
Jim Forest, Orthodox Christian, Amsterdam
Fr Georgy Kovalenko, Orthodox Christian, Kiev
Inga Leonova,
Orthodox Christian, New York
Fr Krzysztof
Levalua, Orthodox Christian, Paris
Fr Michael Plekon, Orthodox Christian, New York
Olga Sedakov, Orthodox Christian, Moscow
Kostiantin Sigov, Orthodox Christian, Kiev
Kirill Sologub, Orthodox Christian, Paris
Daniel Struve, Orthodox Christian, Paris
Yury Vestel, Orthodox Christian, Kiev
Andrew Yurash, Orthodox Christian, Kiev
Fr Andrei Dudchenko, Orthodox Christian, Kiev
Vischeslav Gorshkov, Orthodox Christian, Kiev
Irina Pastenak, Orthodox Christian, Kiev
(tr. by PDS, posted 8 March 2016)
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