Discrimination and deportation (letter № 2)

Lvov, 14 December 2011

President of Ukraine

Viktor Yanukovych

Dear Mr President,

we, Secretaries of the Byzantine Catholic Patriarchate, hereby appeal to You to stop religious discrimination which is aimed at elimination of the Ukrainian orthodox Greek-Catholic Church (UOGCC). There is a plot devised by the UGCC leadership to deport our Patriarch Elijah from Ukraine.

Previous cases of religious discrimination at the request of the UGCC:

– In 2009, on the orders of Mr Derzhko, an employee of Lvov Regional State Administration, the police were exploited for forcible abduction of a member of a women’s religious order in Bryukhovychi.

– In 2010, a church in Chortkiv, which had been built by members of the orthodox Catholic Church, was seized illegally. Moreover, the community of orthodox Catholic believers in Chortkiv was dissolved by psychological terror. Some were even threatened with death. Religious sisters who gathered quietly before the seized church were physically attacked and injured. Discrimination coupled with violence lasted a whole week in Chortkiv as well as in front of the sisters’ monastery in Probizhna.

– In Lvov, aggressive supporters of the UGCC threw down the cross from the roof of the chapel, which is the property of the orthodox Catholic sisters. Patriarch Elijah came to the scene of events. On the orders of the UGCC leadership the police forcibly detained him without any reason, which was followed by a frame-up trial.

– The leadership of the UGCC appealed to the Mayor of Lvov to bring a lawsuit against the religious sisters – owners of the chapel. The Mayor approached the court and demands that the walls of the chapel should be lowered by one meter, which is senseless and is used as a pretext for putting an end to celebration of Divine Liturgies.

– UGCC approached the Regional State Administration in Lvov under the pretext that our church in Pidhirtsi, rented for 6 years, should be closed, because allegedly it is a threat to safety.

– Incitement of religious hatred by means of the so-called pastoral letters:

1) March 2010 – twice read out throughout the eparchy of Ivano-Frankivsk,

2) December 2010 – a letter by Husar read out in all churches of the UGCC,

3) March 2011 – a letter by Voznyak read out throughout the Archdiocese of Lvov,

4) October 2011 – a public declaration issued by the Synod of the UGCC and RCC, wherein we were falsely labelled as a sect similar to the White Brotherhood.

From the perspective of international and Ukrainian laws, the leadership of the UGCC commits serious criminal offences. From the perspective of the Holy Scripture, these are the gravest sins – sins against the Holy Spirit.

Mass media hypocritically use mendacious information received from the UGCC leadership and by this time have not published a single truthful article or carried a broadcast in our defence.

– Discrimination takes place primarily through the Ministry of Culture (Mr Bohutskyi) which, for artificially fabricated reasons, has refused to grant lawful registration to our Church for more than two years. The same is done on the part of the Regional State Administration in Lvov.

– On orders from the UGCC, the relevant authorities in Lvov (Mr Salo) refused to grant visa extension to Patriarch Elijah in Ukraine. It is part of planned discrimination and elimination of the orthodox Catholics. The Patriarch decided to remain with his flock even at the cost of deportation and international scandal.

Mr President, hereby we ask You again to address the main cause of discrimination, that is, an unlawful denial of registration of the UOGCC at the Ministry of Culture (Mr Bohutskyi).

+ Timothy OSBMr                   + Methodius OSBMr

Secretary Bishops of the Byzantine Catholic Patriarchate

Copies:

– Minister of Interior of Ukraine

– Members of the Ukrainian Parliament

– Head of the State Security Service

– President of the Czech Republic

– Presidents of Russia and Belarus

– Mr Thomas Hammarberg, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights

– Mr Stefan F?le, Commissioner of the EU for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy

– Participants in the EU-Ukraine summit in Kiev 19 December 2011

– Mass media of Ukraine and abroad