Autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church to claim all Moscow Patriarchate property

All of the property of the Ukrainian Orthodox
Church-Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine will become the property of a canonical autocephalous
Ukrainian Orthodox Church once it’s approved by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of
the Orthodox Christian Church, Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyiv Patriarch Filaret
said in an Aug. 1 television interview, as reported by his church press
service. “The Moscow Patriarchate doesn’t own any property in Ukraine,” he
said. “The church’s property in Ukraine is the property of the Ukrainian
church.” The church will claim the Moscow Patriarchate two most holiest sites,
which are the Caves Monastery in Kyiv and the Pochayiv Monastery in western
Ukraine.

Zenon Zawada: So far,
Filaret hasn’t discussed how a peaceful merger would occur between the Moscow
Patriarchate, which has an estimated 12,000 church buildings in Ukraine, and
the Kyiv Patriarchate, which has an estimated 4,800 churches, according to the
risu.org.ua news site. In our view, a merger is not likely to go smoothly
considering Moscow Patriarchate clergy are likely to lose influence and
positions of authority to the Kyiv Patriarchate clergy, who are fewer in
number.

We view Filaret’s plans to claim Moscow
Patriarchate church properties as having high potential for destabilizing the
political situation in Ukraine and potentially being exploited by Russian
President Putin as a pretext for expanded military aggression in Ukraine. This
is a political wild card that is worth closely observing.