Religious Expert: Dognal Group Lost Its Information War
The Dognal Group's activities, or the so-called Ukrainian Orthodox Greek-Catholic Church poses no threat, because thanks to its propaganda campaign, the group has discredited itself, turning into a marginal formation, religious studies expert Andriy Yurash told Pohliad.
“We can conclude that the Dognal Group lost its information war. Its golden age is long over. I refer to its golden age as the time when they were just forming and were not in open opposition to the UGCC. Now it has became clear that this is a completely different religious organization, which has nothing to do with the UGCC, which is fighting for its life space and tries in this regard to outplay the UGCC, as it acts in its field. Therefore, it is not necessary to talk about its achievements, because it is a religious organization that by the nature of its teachings and type of its worship is an original phenomenon that proves its separation from the UGCC.
“Therefore, it does not show any signs of massive active expansion and consolidation. Of course, it tries to receive registration, of course, this quest puts it in conflict with the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, of course, that Dognalists have a very strong ideological propaganda machine that has practically discredited them and wiped out active participants. And this religious structure has become a marginalized group. It will fight, but absolutely nothing suggests that it may become an important and influential factor or component in religious life,” said the expert.
According to him, the Dognal Group is doomed to a minor existence in the sectarian area: “With its small number of followers in very local groups, without any real influence. I believe its fate has been determined by the group, for the Dognal team was unable to obtain any real influence. It has failed to tear away part of the believers and somehow reformat and influence the course of religious processes not only on the Ukrainian-wide scale, but even on the scale of the niche occupied by the UGCC.”
Recently the Dognal Group has been trying to intensify its activities in Ukraine. In Lviv they have held various processions and supporters of the sect are distributing propaganda leaflets, in particular against the Association Agreement with the EU and juvenile justice. In addition, the Pidhoretsk fathers are sending open letters to Presidents Putin and Lukashenko asking them to send in their troops to Ukraine to prevent the signing of the agreement with the EU, Novyj Pohliad reports.
