Ternopil Regional Council Found Misuse of Pochayiv Monastery

TERNOPIL – A temporary controlling committee of the Ternopil Regional Council, which is checking the legitimacy of the transfer of the church complex in Pochayiv to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), has discovered a number of misuses of the monastery. The head of the Ternopil Regional Council, Oleksii Kaida, reported this to zik.com.ua on February 17, 2010.

According to him, on the territory of the monastery various activities are being carried out contrary to the current law. In particular, water is bottled and wine is sold without excise tax. Only 15-20 UAH have been taxed for the year whereas the turnover only for the first quarter of 2009 exceeded one million UAH. Tourist services are not taxed under the pretext of being part of the pilgrimage process.

The committee also noted that there are questions to be answered by the Kremenets District, which granted permission to the monastery to excavate the sand near a forest tract, which is against the law. Therefore, the regional council refused to grant permission to the monastery for the use of the deposits.

Kaida made a following comment on the expected reaction of the Russian Church: “The reaction will be immediate and tough. But I am not afraid of anathemas.”

On February 11, 2010, the deputies of the Ternopil Rehional Council addressed the prime minister with a request to cancel the resolution according to which the monastery buildings were excluded from the reserve and transferred in 2003 to the Ukraianian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate to use free of ren for 50 years.