Ukrainian Facebook Group Collects Data to 'Get Moscow Priests Out'

Last month, a Facebook group appeared called “Get Moscow Priests Out of Galicia.”

The group collects information about the whereabouts and activities of priests in the Kiev region of Ukraine. The primary suspects are priests that belong to the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church(UOC), which remains loyal to the Russian Church.

The goal: to convince Ukrainians that “it is time to say ‘no’ to 'Moscow' Orthodoxy, and to send their priests "historical homeland.”

Nevermind the fact that many of the priests who serve in the 'Moscow' Church are ethnically Ukrainian. 

You see, either way, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is an ‘anti-Ukrainian organization’ which infects the country with “the tumor of the Moscow Orthodox Church.”

According to the group, the primary function of all Ukrainian Orthodox parishes is to manipulate people into supporting the Russian government.

The same opinion seems to be held by major Western media, which consistently portray the Russian Orthodox Church and the churches affiliated with it, as necessarily political organizations with evil plans.

Yet somehow, the majority of Ukrainians seem to trust the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, affiliated with Russia, much more than they do the pro-Ukrainian church led by Filaret Denisenko. 

Meanwhile, this group, though its hatred is supposedly directed only at Russia, is actually disrespecting Orthodox Christianity at large. According to Orthodox Christian:

The banner for the page features a cartoon of a supposedly Russian priest, with crazed eyes, and the Soviet hammer and sickle on his kamilavka. The word for “priests” in the title, “попів,” is considered disrespectful. There are a number of other derogatory and blasphemous images posted throughout the group, including fake icons, and a cartoon of a man in Ukrainian folk clothing violently driving out a priest, who looks more like a rabbi or imam, and who seems to have chicken feet.

 For now, they ask people to submit information about the clergy of UOC, so that they can develop a plan of cleansing.

“Our group asks all who are not indifferent to send information here about all activities of the Moscow Patriarchate in the Lviv Province known to you, in particular about individual parishes and their location”