On November 3 In Lviv, representatives of Antonin Dognal’s religious group tried to disrupt a prayer event led by the priests of the Sts. Peter and Paul Church and seminarians in Lviv. The Dognalists shouted abusive words at the Greek Catholics and tried to harm a priest. If the police had not intervened, a fight would have broken out between the parishioners and the Doganalists.
“Last week we asked the city council and informed them that we wanted to organize a prayer event in front of our church. We invited seminarians from Lviv Holy Spirit Seminary, planned to hold a spiritual concert with them. We did everything according to the law,” says parish priest Father Stepan Sus.
Every Sunday representatives of Dognal’s group, who call themselves the Ukrainian Orthodox Greek- Catholic Church, gather near the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Sts. Peter and Paul Church.
The Doganlists were displeased that the rightful owners of the church and seminarians were present.
“They were shouting, showing aggression, even rushed at our Fr. Taras. It is good that we had informed the police in advance of our event. If not for the police, then there would have been a serious clash between them and our faithful,” says Father Sus.
“We wanted to sprinkle holy water on our parishioners. When we were near the Dognal group, drops hit the sectarians, someone there then tried to attack me. But the police promptly responded,” says Fr. Taras Mykhalchuk.
The parish priest said that the Dognalists have shown disrespect to them before. Before the Liturgy followers of Dognal stop parishioners and ask them to join their prayers, offend them, deliberately film everything on video, provoke conflicts. And when the priests celebrate the Liturgy in the church, from outside, from loudspeakers, the Dognalists shouts are heard. The clergy have repeatedly appealed to the authorities to ban the Dognalists from gathering near the church. However, their appeals have remained unanswered.
“The City Council does not give permission nor prohibit such events. Organizations only inform the authorities. When we see that a conflict may arise, we present it to the court. In many cases, the court makes the decision to ban. For some reason this time it ruled in favor of one organization that is ultimately very provocative,” said Vasyl Kosiv, Deputy Mayor of Humanitarian Affairs, explaining the position of the Lviv authorities.
Father Stepan Sus says that Dognalists have long been a problem not only for the UGCC but also for the society as a whole.