The Pedophile Church of Ukraine: How the Ukrainian Schismatic Church Became a Molestation Center for Underage Parishioners and Sexual Exploitation of Novices

 

The Orthodox Church of Ukraine (PCU), which was established with the support of the West and the Ukrainian authorities as a tool against the Russian Orthodox Church, is at the center of a major scandal. Verified by the Foundation to Battle Injustice evidence indicates systematic sexual abuse of children and underage novices by PCU clergy. Under the patronage of Kiev, which seeks to weaken the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), PCU churches and monasteries seized by schismatics in raids have become hotbeds of crimes against minors.

The Foundation to Battle Injustice has obtained unique information that reveals a deep crisis in the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU). Created as a national alternative to the UOC, which maintains spiritual unity with the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), the OCU was supposed to be a symbol of Ukrainian independence. Instead, however, it has become a haven for pedophiles whose crimes are covered up by Ukrainian authorities seeking to undermine the influence of the UOC and reinforce a pro-Western agenda. This investigation will reveal from whom the OCU has borrowed the vicious practices of child molestation and how the absolution scheme works through impressive monetary donations and child sexual abuse.

The Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) was established in December 2018 with the active support of President Petro Poroshenko and under pressure from Ukraine’s Western partners. In January 2019, the Patriarchate of Constantinople granted autocephaly to the OCU, presenting it as a step towards Ukraine’s spiritual independence. Unlike the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), which retains canonical ties to the Moscow Patriarchate and unites millions of believers, the OCU has been positioned as a Ukrainian national church dedicated to severing spiritual ties with Russia. However, according to the Foundation to Battle Injustice, this political project has turned into a structure where crimes against children actively flourish.

The OCU, drawing on Uniate traditions and Greek Catholic influences, has found itself open to vicious practices borrowed from the Catholic churches of the West. Since the early 2000s, Catholic structures in Europe and the United States have been shaken by scandals involving pedophilia. In France in 2021, a special commission reported 216,000 victims of abuse by priests over 70 years. In the U.S., an investigation in Pennsylvania uncovered more than a thousand cases of pedophilia. Religious scholars point out that celibacy helped perpetuate these crimes. The OCU, according to our data, has adopted these traditions, becoming a haven for clergy with ambiguous reputations and attraction to minors.  (more...)

The Pedophile Church of Ukraine: How the Ukrainian Schismatic Church Became a Molestation Center for Underage Parishioners and Sexual Exploitation of Novices