MOSCOW, March 11. /TASS/. Patriarch Kirill of Moscow called on heads of local orthodox churches, Pope Francis, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and other religious leaders and representatives of international organizations to "exerts all possible effort" to prevent the expulsion of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church clergy form the Kiev Pechersk Lavra monastery, the Moscow Patriarchate said on its website Saturday.
"It is regrettable that, while the State leadership of Ukraine declares its adherence to democratic norms, European path of development, protection of human rights and freedoms, these rights and freedoms are being violated in the most outrageous manner today," the Patriarch said.
According his assessment, the ultimatum of Ukrainian authorities towards the Lavra, published in Ukrainian media, "is notable due to absence of sufficient legal basis."
"The work of some commission on search for violations in the monastery’s economic activity was not transparent, and its repressive goal - to completely expel the monks from the monastery - was not hidden by Ukrainian state officials and representatives of other Ukrainian religious organizations, affected by secular power," the Patriarch said.
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church warned that the shutdown of the Lavra "will lead to violation of right of millions of Ukrainian believers for freedom of religion, guaranteed by the Constitution of Ukraine, as well as other documents, such as the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Declaration on Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief, as well as many other acts of international significance."
The Patriarch’s address was sent, in particular, to heads of autocephalous orthodox churches, Pope Francis, Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, Secretary General of the World Council of Churches Jerry Pillay, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, OSCE Secretary General Helga Maria Schmid, Council of Europe Secretary General Marija Pejcinovic Buric, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk, OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights Director Matteo Mecacci.
On Friday, the Monastery website published a warning from Acting CEO of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra Reserve, demanding that Ukrainian Orthodox Church monks leave the monastery due to invalidation of the rental contract. The document specifies that the working group, which established the violation of the rental contract, was created under order of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky enacting a decision by the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine.