Lviv youth NGOs are not cooperating with Dognal Group
An activist of the Vidsich movement, Olha Salo, stressed that the organizers of the mentioned event, who called themselves the Movement of Pure Hearts, approached Vidsich with a request to support them but were refused as Vidsich does not deal with such questions. “After some time, they involved us in these events by force, without our consent. It began with the event on March 31, when we helped entrepreneurs to organize a protest against the rise in rent. At that time, another action was registered to be held in front of the City Council, namely, an action against juvenile justice and homosexuality. Then, it seemed to us that we handled the situation well as we somehow shared the stage and time, but at some point I could see that at that joint event, where we stated our demands in turn, there were calls, which I, as a citizen, consider threatening – that is, calls discrediting the Greek Catholic Church,” said Olha Salo. According to her, after that, a conflict broke out between Vidsich and the organizers of the other event because of the “schismatic calls.” The conflict was later settled. However, she said that after the completion of the action, Vidsich was mentioned in the press release as a co-organizer of the action and the media later spread that information even after Olha Salo explicitly said that Vidsich was not a co-organizer of the event against juvenile justice and propaganda of homosexuality. “Vidsich is not the only organization discredited by, let us say frankly, the Dognal Group, or as they are popularly called the “Pihoretski fathers.” They also used the very name Movement of Pure Hearts as it turned out. In Lviv, these people who so introduced themselves, have nothing to do with the movement itself; they simply use a good name, good brand in order to conduct their subversive activities,” reported the active member of Vidsich. She added that the materials used by the so-called Movement of Pure Hearts are similar to those posted on the Dognal Group's website. The head of the information project “Catholic Reviewer,” Orest Vilchynskyi, who was present at the press conference, stressed that the use of the name of the Catholic movement Movement of Pure Hearts is against the law, including the international law. Olha Salo called organizations sincerely dealing with the question of juvenile justice and homosexuality not to allow anyone to use them.
At a press conference on April 14 , in the conference hall of ZAXID.NET, the public movement Vidsich (Counteraction) stated that it was not a co-organizer of the action of protest against juvenile justice and propaganda of homosexuality in Ukraine, which was held on March 31 in front of the Lviv City Council and organized by an organization that calls itself the Movement of Pure Hearts and that is connected with the Dognal Group”(a.k.a. “Pidhoretski fathers”). The action ended with calls discrediting the Greek Catholic Church which provoked the indignation of Vidsich. Representatives of Vidsich called organizations dealing with the question of juvenile justice and homosexuality not to allow anyone to use them.
