OCU lobbyist: UOC bishops should be deported or imprisoned for 10 years

Notorious religious scholar, DESS expert and OCU lobbyist Yuriy Chornomorets proposed to deport or imprison the bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. According to Chornomorets, it is the hierarchs of the UOC who are delaying the implementation of anti-church law No. 3894, while allegedly deceiving others by claiming that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is not part of the Moscow Patriarchate. He said this on the air of the YouTube channel Viche.

«In general, I believe that all bishops should be imprisoned for ten years for collaboration, and then exchanged for our Azov soldiers or deported. I do not see any other, more lenient punishment for all this treason against Ukraine,» said Chornomorets.

The religious scholar added that the bishops of the UOC, using the decisions of the Council in Feofaniya, came up with an excuse that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is allegedly not part of the Moscow Patriarchate. However, in his opinion, since the Church has not proclaimed autocephaly, it remains part of the Russian Orthodox Church, and therefore, anti-church law No. 3894 is applied to the UOC quite fairly.

«They themselves admit, to one degree or another, like Bishop Sylvester or Bishop Onufriy, that ‘we are still on the way to independence, but you should recognize us as an autocephalous, Ukrainian church. However, canonically, they are still part of the Russian Orthodox Church. This is absurd. Today you are part of the ROC, and at the same time you demand from the state: «Treat us as the UOC.» No, you are the ROC. Then please leave the churches that belong to the state or municipalities. This cannot be,» the OCU lobbyist added.

As reported earlier, Ukrainian religious scholar and expert of the State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) Andriy Smirnov believes that the state will not deport the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church because he lost Ukrainian citizenship. According to Smirnov, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy is likely to be subjected to personal sanctions, which, however, will not affect his position.