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Topic:

Human Rights

Country:

Russia

Issue:

Freedom of Conscience

Article ID:

28

Title:

Ukraine's Top Catholic Piles Pressure on GOP Over Russia's Church Attacks

Author:

Brendan Cole

Date:

March 9, 2024

Source:

Newsweek

Reference:

Summary:

Quotes:

"Today, in the occupied territory, there is not one Catholic priest. All my priests, even the Roman Catholic priests, were all expelled or imprisoned," Shevchuk told Newsweek in an interview. The church he heads has full communion with the Vatican and is the second largest particular church in the Catholic faith after the Latin Church. "Around 50 religious ministers, Protestant pastors, Orthodox priests, Catholic priests have been imprisoned or killed," Shevchuk said. He added that Russia is returning "to the time of the Soviet Union where all of those religion were prohibited or overcontrolled, or simply destroyed. "In the Soviet Union, [dictator Joseph] Stalin completely destroyed our church, imprisoned all our bishops and all our priests who would not sign an agreement to become Orthodox," added Shevchuk, who started his priestly formation at an underground seminary in the USSR. "Even in those territories where Russia were not able to come and occupy, almost 600 churches, places of worship, synagogues were destroyed." The Kyiv-based Institute for Religious Freedom (IRF) said in February 2023 that, in the first 12 months of the war, the Russian military had destroyed, damaged, or looted at least 494 religious buildings, theological institutions, and sacred sites, with the figure estimated to be higher today. "For Catholics, Orthodox Protestants, Muslim Jews, Ukraine means freedom, freedom of religion," Shevchuk said, "where Russia has arrived, they exterminate all other religions besides the well-controlled and weaponized Russian Orthodox Church." Its head, Patriarch Kirill, has been condemned internationally, including by figures within his church abroad, for his support of Putin's war.

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