Chernivtsi authorities plan to forcibly evict UOC community from cathedral

UOC's Holy Spirit Cathedral in Chernivtsi. Photo: rbc.ua

Representatives of the state enforcement service in Chernivtsi announced plans to forcibly evict believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from Holy Spirit Cathedral in comments to the Molodyi Bukovynets media outlet. Earlier, the Commercial Court ruled that obstacles to the use of the cathedral buildings must be removed in favor of an OCU structure.

Volodymyr Dvorskyi, deputy head of the department responsible for enforcing court decisions, said preparations are underway for a forcible operation involving law enforcement.

“The state enforcement officer will enforce the ruling by force. Law enforcement officers will again be involved for this purpose. If the ruling is not complied with, a fine may be imposed.”

In the near future, the enforcement service intends to coordinate with law enforcement agencies on the terms for removing the church from the UOC community.

“We must ensure that court rulings are enforced, regardless of whether the parishioners want that or not. At this point, it also depends on the law enforcement agencies,” Dvorskyi concluded.

On September 10, state enforcement officers, accompanied by police and witnesses, inspected the premises of the cathedral in Chernivtsi. The commission drew up a report stating that no property or official employees of the eparchial administration were present inside the cathedral, after which its members left the premises.

As previously reported by the UOJ, a cleric of the Chernivtsi cathedral commented on the commission’s visit to seize the church.

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