"Beware!" Kyiv monastery's abbot threatens Zelenskyy with "divine punishment"
Metropolitan Pavlo, the abbot of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra (Monastery of the Caves), has declared that "God will not forgive" Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for evicting the clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) from the Lavra.
Source: an address by Metropolitan Pavlo, posted on the Lavra's official YouTube channel on 29 March
Quote: "I tell you, Mr. President, and all your flock, that our tears will not fall on the ground. They will fall on your head.
Today you think that, having come to power on our backs and by our desire, you can do this to us. God will not forgive you or your family for this action. Because at this moment 220 people, brothers, have been thrown out into the street by you."
Watch from 03:10
Details: The abbot called Oleksandr Tkachenko, Ukraine’s Minister of Culture and Information Policy, a man possessed by "diabolical madness". Tkachenko had previously stated that UOC-MP monks and priests must vacate all premises of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra by the end of March.
"You couldn't stop the Minister of Culture, who is possessed by rage, malice, hatred and diabolical madness, and that means that he is doing everything with your permission. Woe to you, beware!" Metropolitan Pavlo addressed Zelenskyy.
Background:
- On 29 March, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) held its last service in the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on the lower grounds of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.
- On 29 March, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine had taken another step to strengthen its spiritual independence and that the Ukrainian state grants religious freedom.
- UOC-MP clergy must leave the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra on 30 March, although they are reluctant to do so and have therefore filed a lawsuit against the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra National Reserve.
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