Monument to offended believers

The Russian Orthodox Church is fanning the scandal from the plot about the “capture” by Kyiv of the Pochaev Lavra, known for pro -Russian views. Who benefits?

Pochaevskaya Lavra in the north of the Ternopil region - one of the most “nationalist” in Ukraine - becomes the main “hot point” on the country's religious map. In any case, according to Russian television. At the final stage of obtaining canonical autocephaly, the Church of Ukraine from the Patriarchate of the Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church extremely needs such a symbolically significant “hot point”

If Ukraine has already been lost for the Russian Orthodox Church, then the possibility of at least the most complicated the process of building a new autocephalous church and squeeze the maximum political and propaganda effect from the confrontation around this process is preserved.

At first, the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, the main candidate for the beautiful picture of the “rebirth of the Civil War into Religious” was. Her “assault on Ukrainian nationalists” was allegedly appointed on October 14 - the holiday of the Virgin of the Virgin and the Day of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. However, in Kyiv, such excesses are unlikely - there are not many radicals in the capital, and law enforcement agencies control the city well.

A completely different matter is the deaf provincial Pochaev, where the “stronghold of Russian Orthodoxy” from all sides is surrounded by the Greco-Catholic “national Svidomo” Ukrainian world.

The deputy of the Pochaevsky City Council from the All -Ukrainian Association "Freedom" (its activities is prohibited in the Russian Federation) Taras Palyanitsa discovered documents of the state registrar, which were not planned to be publicized. Back in September, this registrar decided to execute the order of the Prime Minister of Ukraine Yanukovych, published in 2003, on the transfer of the religious organization of the Pochaev Lavra (UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate) of a number of buildings on its territory.

We are talking about the Assumption and Trinity Cathedrals, the bell tower, the cell corps and bishop chambers with a total area of ​​7,000 square meters. At the same time, the monastery is already owned by the most active participation of the same Yanukovych (but already as president) a giant Preobrazhensky Cathedral, no less giant hotel corps and all kinds of stores, refectory and official buildings. It turned out that

15 years ago, Yanukovych ordered to remove the Kremenets-Pochaev architectural reserve from the balance sheet and transfer several of the most valuable architectural monuments to the laurel.

Close to the leadership of the UOC MP, the state registrar and issued them to Lavra until 2052. However, after the noise rose, and on the fact of suspicious registration, a criminal case was opened, the special commission of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine canceled the registration and, in theory, should now return the monuments to the State Reserve.

The two cathedrals, the bell tower and the historical corps of the laurels had such a status even under the Soviet regime, which in a certain way limited the fraternity in the rights to use them, but still did not interfere with the services there and resettle the monks. The current united Kremenets-Pochaev reserve was created in 2001 and became a successor to a similar Soviet structure.

The incident this fall left a lot of questions.

• Firstly, the authenticity of the order of Yanukovych 2003 is in doubt. If such an order really existed, why did it not be fulfilled for 15 years, including during the presidency of the same Yanukovych, who was a frequent guest of Pochaev and even invested his own money in the monastery?

• Secondly, if the order is genuine, does it have a legal statute of limitations? After all, Yanukovych has not been the prime minister for a long time, his powers to achieve his own orders ceased. Moreover, Yanukovych is suspected by the Ukrainian femid in the most severe state crimes that entailed the deaths of people and the loss of part of the territories.

According to the laws of Ukraine, writ of execution related to a change in the status of property are valid for three years. In addition, the orders of the Prime Minister cannot be executed directly by ordinary provincial registrars, they are executed by the central authorities-such a procedure is also spelled out in Ukrainian laws. It is not surprising in the context of the foregoing that on November 23 the Ministry of Justice Commission canceled the "illegal re -registration of the complex of structures of the Pochaev Lavra."

This decision was reduced by the Spiritual Cathedral of Lavra with its statement of November 20, which, by the way, is withstanding in a very calm manner. Lavra fathers admit that the state has owned historical monuments of the monuments of at least 1962. In addition, the cathedral emphasizes "that the buildings in question are state property and no one but the state can dispose of them."

Unlike the Russian Federation, in Ukraine there is no law on transferring religious buildings to religious organizations.

As it was in Soviet times, religious organizations only use temple buildings for free, but the state remains their owner. It is important to keep in mind when statements are heard that "the Ukrainian state is selected from believers."

The head of the legal department of the UOC MP Archpriest Alexander Bakhov assured on November 24 that "the Pochaev Lavra will be in the future in the legitimate and legitimate use of the brethren of the male monastery of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church [Moscow Patriarchate]." “The decision of the Ministry of Justice to cancel state registration (exclusion from the recording register) on the right to use the Holy Assumption Pochaev Lavra does not cancel the use agreement from 2003,” emphasizes the chief lawyer of the UOC MP.

However, the church leadership in Moscow does not want to share the "complacency" of its co -religionists from Kyiv. The deputy chairman of the department of external church relations of the Moscow Patriarchate of the Moscow Fr. Nikolai Balashov, who has not visited Ukraine since 2013, hastened to qualify the restoration of the status of the monuments of the Pochaev Lavra as

"Preparation of large -scale pressure for the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church."

In general, the history of the Pochaev Lavra is not very simple, given the specifics of the region (and this is the very border of conditionally Orthodox Volyn and conditionally Catholic Galicia) in which it is located. It is almost impossible to reliably establish a “successor” here. More than a hundred years-from 1713 to 1831-the Monastery was owned by Greek Catholics, the Monastic Order of Vasilian. It was they who built the magnificent Assumption Cathedral and monastic corps, which are now the subject of the dispute. In the period between the two world wars, when part of Volyn and Galichin entered the Polish state, Pochaev was the spiritual center of the Polish Autocephalous Church, whose successors consider himself the current Ukrainian autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAPC). The title of Holy Archimandrite of the Pochaev Lavra is included in the full title of the Primate of the UOC of the Kyiv Patriarchate of the Patriarch Patriarch Filaret (Denisenko). In 1992, when he was separated from the Moscow Patriarchate, the only governor of the Pochaev Lavra Jacob (Panchuk) supported him was the only bishop. That is, at least four jurisdictions have varying degrees of persuasiveness of the grounds to declare their claims to Lavra.

The tension around Pochaev largely provokes specific political positioning, which was chosen by the Lavra brethren.

Lavra became the center of the “Russian world” in the “hostile environment” - the mass of actuuroral literature is clearly and underground here, the idea of ​​Novorossia is supported, kings Nicholas II and even Ivan the Terrible are revered (albeit unofficially). A colorful poster is met by all included in the laurel, on which ecumenism is designated as a dangerous heresy, although the priesthood of the Moscow Patriarchate continues to participate in the ecumenical movement. The brethren of the laurel with a special statement officially condemned in 2016 the meeting of Patriarch Kirill (Gundyaev) with Pope Francis.

Cultural and psychological reasons for the transformation of Pochaev into a “besieged fortress” are understandable, but it cannot be ignored that such a choice is associated with certain risks. However, whatever they may be, in the conditions of modern Ukraine it is impossible to imagine the situation of “expulsion of the monks” from Pochaev.