According to a deputy of the Ternopil City Council, head of the Our Ukraine faction, Petro Mandzii, priests of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate gather signatures in support of the privatization of the Pochayiv Monastery by deceiving the believers.
"The priests of the Moscow Patriarchate tell believers during the sermons that nationalists allegedly want to close down the Pochayiv Monastery and make it an architectural monument and that services will not be celebrated after that. Then, they offer people to put their signatures to protest against a ban against services in the monastery. At the same time, the caption on the document signed by the people reads 'Gathering of signatures to support privatization of the Pochayiv Monastery of the Holy Assumption,'" said Mandzii.
According to him, these facts are established to have taken place in the Kremenets District, in particular, in Kryzhi, Ledykhiv, Berezhtsi.
Mandzii called a representative of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, who was present at the meeting, to conduct an inspection with regard to the mentioned facts. He also called representatives of mass media to explain to the population the situation in order to prevent deception of the residents of the region.
Let us remind the readers that on January 18, the deputies of the pro-regime factions registered a draft Law on Restitution of Objects of Cultural Heritage of Religious Organizations. The bill, in particular, envisages the return to the church of the Kyiv Cave Monastery, Pochayiv Monastery and Kremenets Monastery.
The politicians stated that they intend to transfer the object to the UOC-MP. Patriarch Filaret of the UOC-Kyivan Patriarchate, on the other hand, is of the opinion that the transfer of the monasteries into the ownership of the UOC-MP may result in the transfer thereof to the Russian Orthodox Church in future.