The Lviv pseudo-sobor, in my opinion, was a great humiliation of the Russian Orthodox Church. This is a humiliation that may still upset the memory and irritate the wounds. This position was expressed by Father and Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church His Beatitude Sviatoslav during the program "Open Church" on the topic of Lviv pseudo-sobor of 1946. A special guest of the program was Dr. Oleh Turiy, Director of the UCU Institute of Church History.
"I don't think the Russian Orthodox Church needed such a 'gift' from Stalin," the Primate added.
The Head of the Church noted that the Lviv pseudo-sobor of 1946 became an act of forcible liquidation of the UGCC. "Anyone who did not approve this "sobor " was subjected to very severe persecution. As a result, there was martyrdom, the testimony of our Church. The result was also the dispersion of the Church in all areas of the Soviet Union," said the Primate.
He recalled the words of His Beatitude Lubomyr, who used to say that the greatest spreader of our Church to the East was Stalin. And the Lviv pseudo-sobor was the beginning of this.
The Head of the UGCC stressed the importance of preserving the memory of these events in order to better understand the truth. "We must know our truth, no matter how difficult it may be, and we must come to terms with it."
From a historical point of view, Dr. Oleh Turiy confirmed that the initiative to liquidate the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church came from the Soviet secret services: specifically the KGB Lieutenant Colonel Karpov, who headed the Committee in the affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church. "He submitted the draft of this plan to the top, and it was signed by Stalin himself… The first point of this plan was the liquidation of the UGCC by reunification with the Russian Orthodox Church," explained the director of the Institute of Church History.
In addition, His Beatitude Sviatoslav noted that we must also remember that not all the clergy of our Church behaved heroically. "There were martyrs, but there were also apostates who could not oppose this Soviet machine and became its victims. We know how deeply the participants of this pseudo-sobor repented before Bishop Mykola Charnetsky and withdrew their signatures in the Sacrament of Repentance. After his exile, he was accepting Orthodox priests back to the underground UGCC,” the Head of the Church said.
"If we do not remember and talk about it today," the spiritual leader of Ukrainians stressed, "such an event is in danger of happening again.”
"We want to do this in the name of reconciliation with our Orthodox brothers, in the name of healing the wounds, in the name of preventing such shameful acts against the Church from ever happening again," said the Head of the UGCC.
We remind you that in 2021 the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church commemorates the 75th anniversary of the dramatic events of the Lviv pseudo-sobor, which took place on March 8-10, 1946 in Lviv. On this occasion, a number of events are planned in Kyiv.