Patriarch Filaret attacked by faithful of rival Church during visit to Mariupol (05/09/99)

Patriarch Filaret attacked by faithful of rival Church during visit to Mariupol

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Patriarch Filaret, leader of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate, barely escaped serious injury on April 30 when dozens of supporters of the rival Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate physically attacked him and his faithful in the eastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol.

The Ukrainian religious leader said at a press conference after his return from the Donetsk region that the violent incident and other organized protests during his visit only exacerbated the religious divisions in Ukraine, which are being directed by an Orthodox confession whose leadership receives its orders from Russia.

Patriarch Filaret was on a three-day tour of UOC-KP parishes of the Donetsk Oblast, from which he hails, and was about to bless the construction site of a new church when some 80 attackers, who had arrived by bus, fell upon him, several bishops and clergy, and a dozen or so of the faithful gathered to take part in the ceremony.

Patriarch Filaret received blows on the back of his head, was doused with water and hit with a bucket before he managed to escape to the safety of the vehicle in which he was traveling.

Four other hierarchs and clergy, as well as an older woman who had attempted to protect a large cross that had been erected on the site, which the attackers tore down, were injured. No one was hospitalized.

The UOC-KP leader claimed at a press conference on May 5 in Kyiv that the attack was organized by an archbishop of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate, which is controlled by the Russian Orthodox Church. Patriarch Filaret alleged that the attack was a concerted effort by both the UOC-MP and the Donetsk Oblast Administration to stifle UOC-KP activity in the region.

Sviatoslav Rechynsky, press secretary of the UOC-MP, while admitting that UOC-MP faithful had taken part in the attack said that it is not accurate to suggest that it was an incident organized by the UOC-MP. "The picketing was organized by Orthodox brotherhoods, who are part of our Church but are not controlled by us. Archbishop Ilarion [of the UOC-MP, who was at the scene] was merely trying to convince the demonstrators to move back and remain calm," said Mr. Rechynsky.

He called the incident unfortunate, but a result of the very politicized nature of the religious situation in Donetsk and expressed his regret that "an older person," such as Patriarch Filaret had been attacked.

Although the Kyiv Patriarchate has only 50 parishes in Donetsk compared to the 200 or so parishes held by the Moscow Patriarchate, the Filaret church lately has been making inroads into the region.

Patriarch Filaret accused the Slavic Party of Russia, the Russian Community Party and the Moscow Patriarchate of working in tandem to stifle the growth of Ukrainian self-identity in the region.

"A nest of anti-state, anti-Ukrainian forces has formed on the Donetsk lands," said Patriarch Filaret. "It is not a large group, but its actions are very dangerous to Ukraine," he added.

Patriarch Filaret blamed Donetsk Oblast Administration leaders for giving tacit approval for harassment of the UOC-KP entourage during the duration of the visit and for the cover-up of the Mariupol incident.

Patriarch Filaret explained that in the aftermath of the violence local officials were doing all they could to erase evidence of a direct attack on the religious leader.

"They do not want documentary evidence that the patriarch of Ukraine was beaten," said Patriarch Filaret.

Video footage taken by a clergyman from the patriarch's entourage was confiscated by local security service officials in Mariupol after the incident and an edited copy was returned from which footage of the beating of the patriarch had been cut out.

According to the UNIAN press agency a Security Service official in Mariupol contradicted the allegation on May 4 and said that his organization had not asked for nor handled any video cassettes related to the Mariupol incident.

Patriarch Filaret also alleged that Mariupol city administrators had banned any reporting of the incident on local television and that the medical report filed by a doctor with the local division of the internal affairs ministry had disappeared.

The UOC-KP delegation, which toured Donetsk from April 29 to May 3, allegedly was harassed at several points during the trip. As the group entered the Donetsk region from Dnipropetrovsk Oblast it was met by laypersons and clergy of the Moscow Patriarchate who blocked the road and demanded to inspect the vehicles and the passengers. No more than several hundred meters behind them, militia stood passively looking on, according to Patriarch Filaret.

"Since when do priests have the right to search cars?" queried the leader of the Kyiv Patriarchate.

In the oblast capital, where Patriarch Filaret visited the Preobrazhenska Church, he waited in his car for nearly five hours as some 200 demonstrators picketed and harassed his delegation while regional leaders milled about outside. He left his vehicle only after he decided that sufficient militia had finally arrived to offer proper protection.

During Patriarch Filaret's press conference, also attended by representatives of the Christian Republican Party and the Rukh Party (led by Yurii Kostenko), video clips were shown of the Mariupol and the Donetsk-Dnipropetrovsk border incidents. At the site of the blessing, the footage shows that an altercation did indeed take place between rival religious groups, one of which arrived by bus. But there is no documentation of the UOC-KP patriarch being beaten. However the video cuts obruptly as the violence increases and resumes after order seemingly is restored.

The political leaders present at the press conference, National Deputies Ivan Drach, Pavlo Movchan and Vasyl Chervonii of the Rukh Party (Kostenko) and Mykola Porovski of the Christian Republican Party, announced that they had put together a statement condemning the violence and were calling on President Leonid Kuchma and the Cabinet of Ministers to bring the culprits to justice and remove the head of the Donetsk Oblast Administration and the local security service chief.

They also called for a ban on the tour of Ukraine that Russian Orthodox Patriarch Aleksei II is planning in the summer.

Patriarch Filaret called the UOC-MP a "fifth column" in Ukraine that continues to successfully divide the nation. He also said that it is absurd that two of Ukraine's greatest national and religious monuments, the Pecherska Lavra and the Pochaiv Monastery, are still held by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate and demanded they be turned over to the UOC-KP.

He also attacked the UOC-MP for continuing to fool Ukrainians with its misleading name. "It should be called the Russian Orthodox Church. Then people would better realize what it stands for," asserted the Ukrainian religious leader.

The Donetsk Oblast, which borders Russia, continues to be heavily influenced by Russia. There are few Ukrainian schools and the Communist Party is still very popular. Most Orthodox believers in the region have remained in the Moscow Church, although whole parishes are increasingly moving to join the Kyiv Patriarchate.

As Patriarch Filaret explained, the problem of Ukrainianization in Donetsk is not so much an issue among the citizens, who outside the major cities of Donetsk and Mariupol speak Ukrainian openly and freely. It lies with government officials and politicians, who still maintain strong ties to Moscow. They are sensitive to any Ukrainianization effort and are scared of the Kyiv Patriarchate.

"People are drawn to the Kyiv Patriarchate because it is a Ukrainian Church. In the Donetsk Oblast you hear Ukrainian in all the villages and towns. But in my home village [Blahodatne, Ambrosiivskyi raion] the Ukrainian school was recently closed in favor of a Russian one," said Patriarch Filaret.

He added that he believes the demonstrations and the violence that occurred during his visit to Donetsk were the physical manifestation of the insecurity and the fear of a Ukrainian Church that grows stronger daily.

"What was done shows the weakness of the Moscow Patriarchate," explained Patriarch Filaret. "[the UOC-MP] It should not have been threatened by a visit to Donetsk by the patriarch of Kyiv. He would have visited his parishes and left. It shows their insecurity."

Patriarch Filaret, who has filed complaints with the Ministry of Internal Affairs regarding the Mariupol incident, also called the attack an act of God.

"It was God's will. Now people more clearly understand the difference between the Moscow Patriarchate and the Kyiv Patriarchate," said Patriarch Filaret.

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