New provocation in Rovno region: KP followers block the cemetery road

Activists-schismatics did not allow the priest of the UOC to perform a funeral service at the cemetery

On April 11, in the village of Kamenitsa of the Dubno district, Rovno region, followers of Filaret repeated their action of two years ago, and again they did not let the priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to the cemetery to serve on the graves of the deceased parishioners, reports a UOJ correspondent.

In the morning, a handful of local supporters of the Kiev Patriarchate blocked the way for believers of the UOC together with the priest. Protopriest John Savchuk had learned of the plans for this "blockade" the day before, so he informed the village head Yaroslav Vozniuk by phone. However, as the priest says, this did not bring any results.

"When I called and asked to resolve the matter, Yaroslav Leontievich made it clear to me that he had no influence on the situation," Protopriest John Savchuk comments. "He said that only the priest of the Kiev Patriarchate, who heads the parish in Kamenitsa, could solve the problem. But I told him that it was meaningless since the Kiev Patriarchate appeared in the village, the believers of the UOC have always held all the funeral services and prayers only in our church."

The events that unfolded in the morning on the road leading to the cemetery made the local residents call the village head and the head of the Dubno district council Yury Parfeniuk several times. However, the district head after a series of talks turned out unavailable.

Closer to 11:00, when up to thirty "activists-blockers" gathered on the road, the situation suddenly changed, Filaret’s followers dispersed and gave access to the cemetery. Believers of the UOC assume that such an order, apparently, came from the region authorities.

We recall that two years ago in the village of Kamenitsa, there was a similar situation, when KP representatives, supported by radicals who arrived from the district centre, blocked the passage to the cemetery. On April 2, the schismatics seized a church in the village of Ptichya of the Dubno district after a court had ordered to lift the arrest and return it to the owner – the community of the UOC.

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