UGCC seeks the release of the priests being tortured in Russian prisons, - His Beatitude Sviatoslav
This was announced by the head of the UGCC in Ivano-Frankivsk during an open meeting with successful people at King Danylo University, Ukrinform reports.
"We can't help but think about our faithful in occupied Zaporizhia, Luhansk region, Donetsk region, Crimea, occupied Kherson region, because there are our people there who are waiting. Our priests are punished there in Russian prisons. You may have heard about the story of our courageous Redemptorists in Berdyansk, who are tortured, knocking out confessions to those crimes of the military that they did not commit and had no involvement in... We once again appeal to various international institutions, diplomats from different countries, and Pope Francis personally to save those of our fathers. This is continuing almost for the fifth month, and so far, we can't do anything," the head of the UGCC said.
He added that there is a "brutal law of the strong", not the rule of law of a civilized society, and stressed that "those people are waiting for freedom and liberation."
"Purely Stalinist methods-to plant weapons to someone, and then beat out confessions, and you are almost the organizer of the partisan movement," said His Beatitude Sviatoslav.
According to him, the UGCC regards such actions as another attempt to try her.
On November 25, Donetsk Exarchate of the UGCC issued an official statement regarding the illegal arrest of priests in Berdyansk: hieromonk Ivan Levytsky, rector of the Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos and Fr. Bogdan Geleta, a servant of the same church. The UGCC assures that at the time of the search in the church, the priests had already been arrested, and, therefore, cannot bear any responsibility for the weapons and ammunition allegedly found in them.
