Ternopil’ city council acknowledges the repression of the UGCC

On June 4, the Ternopil’ city council ratified an appeal to the President of Ukraine and Supreme Council of Ukraine to initiate the process for a historically just acknowledgement, on a national level, of the UGCC’s repression. Ternopil’ is the third city, after Lviv and Ivano-Frankivs’k, to come forward on this issue. The deputies of Ternopil’ declared that during Joseph Stalin’s reign, the UGCC was heavily repressed and sustained considerable moral and financial losses.  Prior to their decision, the eparch of Ternopil' and Zboriv Vasiliy (Semenyuk) petitioned the Ternopil’ city council: “In 1946, Stalin’s regime organized a ‘unifying’ pseudo-council, in order to merge the UGCC to the Orthodox Church of Moscow patriarchy through violent means. This lead to the arrest of 10 bishops, over 1400 priests, over 800 monks and nuns as well as hundreds of thousands of faithful to the UGCC. Many of them experienced a martyr's death in the soviet prisons and concentration camps. The property of the Church was confiscated by the state. This year we are celebrating the 20th anniversary of the UGCC’s emergence from the underground. We consider it an appropriate time to acknowledge the repression of the UGCC, particularly because of its contribution to the safeguarding of spirituality and patriotism in Ukraine.” A similar appeal by the bishop will be heard by the deputies of the Ternopil’ regional council on June 16.

Oleh Kharyshyn,
Press Secretary