Avrahamiy Lotysh, an employee of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra National Reserve and acting vicar of the Kiev-Pechersk monastery of the OCU, urged priests and believers of the UOC “not to shout to the whole world” about the government’s persecution of the UOC. Lotysh said that the persecution of the first Christians does not stand in comparison with the pressure on the UOC, so it is incorrect to call it “persecution”. About this he told in an interview with the publication Telegraf.

“Let’s remember the first Christians and what were the persecutions. They were really thrown into prisons, they were really persecuted, deprived of absolutely all rights. And moreover, when there were those persecutions, the first Christians did not weep, did not cry out to the whole world that they were persecuted and persecuted. They took it quietly, humbly, realizing that they were really suffering for Christ. And what do we see here? People under house arrest in comfortable conditions, not in prisons”, – Lotysh said.

It is worth noting that a number of clergy and believers of the UOC are now imprisoned on far-fetched and unproven charges. In its turn, the adoption of a law banning the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is announced in the near future, while churches and other property are being forcibly taken away from religious communities of the UOC, as we have repeatedly reported.