Metropolitan Theodosiy (Snigiryov) of Cherkasy and Kanevskyi, who is under house arrest, told about the details of the latest search by special services at his place of residence. This he reported in an interview with “UOJ”. The bishop pointed out that the main purpose of the search was to seize equipment for recording video messages.

“According to the investigating judge, they were looking for everything that gave me the opportunity to make video messages to the faithful. But, apparently, their unspoken task included an attempt to block my ability to promptly solve the affairs of the Cherkassy diocese, which I manage. They seized everything that allowed me to work remotely with diocesan documents: a diocesan computer, hard disks with diocesan documents, even a primitive button phone. All of this had nothing to do with the “offense” they were investigating, but nevertheless, they seized it all”, – said metropolitan Theodosius.

In addition, the hierarch reported mishaps during the search.

“The human factor has never been canceled, a lot depends on the cultural level of each person, regardless of profession, be it an enforcer, a letter carrier or a priest. And so it is here. Some of them calmly performed the assigned procedural task, while others told me that “there is no God, but there is something there…”, that “the Church Slavonic language is a dead language”, tried to reproach that my textbook on Pastoral Theology was published in Russian, that there was “not enough patriotic symbols” in the house, but there was a portrait-icon of the Holy Emperor Nicholas II. So I had to give the staff a lecture on the Constitution of Ukraine and human rights, on the history of European monarchies and on the basics of Orthodoxy”, – the Metropolitan said.

We shall remind you that earlier we reported that Metropolitan Theodosius spoke at the UN Human Rights Council, where he reported on the ongoing persecution of the Ukrainian authorities against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.