Ukrainian government gives ultimatum to Orthodox monks to vacate Cave Monasteries and accuses them of collaborating with Russia. Religious resist, and have the support of numerous faithful.
(DW) Following an ultimatum from the government of Ukraine, some 200 monks and 400 seminarians of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (IOU) refused on Thursday (30/03) to leave the Cave Monastery in Kiev, and were further supported by numerous faithful. The government order to vacate the site came after accusations that local clergy collaborated with Russia.
Founded in the 11th century, the monastery is the scene of a wider religious conflict that is going on in parallel with the war.
The monks who use the property are from the IOU, which is canonically part of the Russian Orthodox Church, accused of links to the Moscow government and of supporting the invasion of Ukraine. The monastery, however, belongs to the Ukrainian government, which notified the IOU earlier this month about terminating the contract for the use of the site.
However, Metropolitan Pavlo and other Orthodox monks and priests living at the monastery have said they will not leave the site, pending the outcome of a new lawsuit aimed at preventing eviction.
Kiev crackdown on IOU
The Ukrainian government has cracked down on the IOU because of its historical ties to the Russian Orthodox Church, whose leader, Patriarch Cyril, is a staunch supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Ukrainian intelligence services claim that in raids on the monastery late last year, they found Russian propaganda materials.
Putin often appears in public accompanied by Russian Orthodox priests, including when visiting Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine. Since the beginning of the invasion, Ukrainian authorities have detained several IOU prelates on charges of blessing the invading Russian army and passing information to the enemy military to help them in their operations.
Breaking with the Russian Patriarchate
In May 2022, the IOU broke with Russian Patriarch Cyril and the Russian Orthodox Church in protest against the religious leader’s fervent support for the war.
The IOU reaffirmed its independence from Moscow by removing the addition “Moscow Patriarchate” from its name – until then, it was referred to as the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (IOU-PM). In May last year, in a new statute, the IOU described itself as independent, but not autocephalous.
More recently, seminarians from the Cave Monastery released a video reaffirming their loyalty to the Ukrainian state and citing their brothers and other family members fighting on the front against the Russian occupiers, risking their lives. The head of the IOU, Primate Onúfrio, has tried several times to clarify the matter with Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski – so far to no avail.
However, some experts warn that this unilateral break by the IOU with the Russian Orthodox Church has no canonical effect, and many observers in Ukraine doubt the authenticity of the step taken by a hierarchy that has consistently shown in public its sympathies for Russia until very recently.
The Ukrainian government has insisted on the presence of Russian secret service agents among the ecclesiastical elite affiliated until recently with Moscow.
A new Orthodox Church
Fulfilling a long-standing wish of Ukraine’s independence movement, Kiev in 2018 created its own autocephalous Orthodox church independent of Moscow, called the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (IOdaU), which was then recognized in Istanbul by Bartholomew the 1st, a kind of “honorary pontiff” of the 260 million Orthodox Christians worldwide.
The IOdaU has increased its following since Russia launched its war of aggression in February last year, but many Ukrainians remain faithful to their tradition and aspire to remain part of the IOU, which has not yet canonically separated from Russia.
Breach of contract or espionage
The Cave Monastery is actually a kind of monastery complex with about 140 buildings. As in Soviet times, it is state-owned – and the Ukrainian government determines who can use it. Ukraine’s Culture Minister, Olexander Tkachenko, terminated the lease agreement with the IOU on the grounds that the clergy had erected new buildings on the site and renovated existing ones in violation of established rules.
However, the real reason would be suspicions that members of the IOU were secretly working for Russia. Many experts believe that nothing damages the reputation of the IOU as much as the strident support of Patriarch Cyril or Russian officials.
Meanwhile, the head of the Georgian Orthodox Church, Elias the 2nd, and the Serbian Orthodox patriarch, Porphyry, have criticized the Kiev government’s threats to expel the monks.
The Ukrainian government said that after the departure of the IOU clergy, the monastery would be run by IOdaU religious. Kiev representatives assured that there should be no forced eviction of the site. This is not the first time IOdaU representatives would take over an IOU church or building in Ukraine. There are several other similar cases, which have often been supported by state authorities.
Support of the Faithful
The IOU monks have the support of faithful numbers to remain in place. “We have come here every Sunday since we were born; it is very important for us and our families,” Anastasia Batenko told Efe news agency. She and her siblings went to the Cave Monastery to show solidarity with the religious.
The Batenkos are asking the government to correct the situation so that they can continue to practice their religion as they have always done and continue to pray “in our church.”
“Of course there are collaborators [with Russia], but that doesn’t mean that the whole church is; look at us, who are ordinary Ukrainians,” Anastacia argued.
Former military officer, former Ukrainian intelligence officer, and former presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych is one of Ukraine’s most popular Orthodox voices.
In one of his last public addresses, Arestovych recalled that collaboration with Russia is a proven reality among part of the IOU elite, while the families of many Ukrainians who die fighting the Russians in the war want to bury their sons and husbands in their churches.
“I don’t think everyone is KGB, but there are certainly many who sympathize with the Kremlin,” Arestovych said of the congregation’s hierarchy. “It is a difficult task for our state and our society,” the former presidential adviser added.