Expert: “Transfer” of UOC communities to OCU failed

Director of the Ukrainian Institute for Policy Analysis and Management Ruslan Bortnik

The process of the “transition” of UOC communities to the OCU failed, said the director of the Ukrainian Institute for Policy Analysis and Management Ruslan Bortnik.

“The UOC has 12,000 communities. Even if 20 or 50 "transfers" took place, it is less than 1%. It doesn’t affect anything today,” GolosUA cites the expert. “Moreover, most of those "transfers" that have occurred should be regarded as a division of communities. ‘Clean transfers’ of communities with a priest can be counted on fingers. The campaign failed.”

According to the political analyst, after the presidential election, the process of "transfers" may stop altogether. Bortnik does not exclude that reverse processes can begin.

“In legal terms, the campaign of “transfers” runs with violations of the adopted law, with administrative pressure from the authorities,” said the expert. “As practice has shown, the pressure by the authorities does not work but causes only rejection. It did not lead to a wave of "transfers" to the OCU. After the presidential elections, depending on their results, this process will either slow down or stop altogether. I do not rule out that reverse processes may begin.”

On January 28, President Petro Poroshenko signed the scandalous law No. 4128-d, which, according to experts, legalized church raiding. In the meantime, a wave of seizures of churches and attempts to forcefully transfer the parishes of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to a schismatic OCU has intensified throughout Ukraine. At the same time, communities of the canonical Church widely declare their support for the UOC and its Primate, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry.

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