The Romanian Orthodox Church has expressed dissatisfaction with the transfer of the chapel-tomb of the Bukovyna Metropolitans in Chernivtsi to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Previously, the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate had been performing services in Romanian in the church.
According to Hromadske, this was reported by the Romanian Orthodox Church Basilica news agency.
The Romanian Patriarchate reacted with “regret and sadness” to the fact that the chapel can no longer hold services in Romanian. They add that they will not remain indifferent “to the confiscation of the Romanian identity symbol” and “violation of the religious freedom of Romanian Orthodox Christians.”
Therefore, the Romanian Orthodox Church called on the Romanian authorities to intervene so that “Romanians can freely pray in their own language and come to the Romanian Orthodox Church if they wish.”
As reported previously, the Romanian Orthodox Church announced its intention to create its own structure in Ukraine. In response, the OCU sent letters to the Romanian and Ecumenical Patriarchs, justifying its position. At the same time, the UOC-MP stated that it received the decision with “surprise and concern.”
Back in 2019, the OCU established the Orthodox Romanian Vicariate for Romanian-speaking parishes. The UOC-MP previously had about a hundred Romanian-speaking Orthodox parishes.
At the end of August 2024, the Chernivtsi City Council reported that after almost a year of litigation, the chapel-tomb of the Bukovyna Metropolitans was taken away from the UOC-MP. Now the OCU will hold services there.
This is about the Chapel of the Three Holy Saints in Chernivtsi, located in the city cemetery.
The Romanian hierarchs of Bukovyna are buried in the crypt under the chapel. In 1990, it was transferred to the parish of St. Nicholas of the UOC-MP.
On August 24, the Chernivtsi-Bukovyna Diocese of the UOC stated that the cemetery management had sealed the chapel, depriving the Romanian-speaking community of the opportunity to worship in the church they had restored and maintained.