Mukachevo Diocese: Ban on the UOC Restores the Carpatho-Rusyn Church

Uzhhorod Cathedral of the UOC. Photo: Open source

UZHHOROD — The legal department of the UOC’s Holy Cross Cathedral in Uzhhorod reports a paradoxical situation: attempts by the Ukrainian authorities to liquidate the UOC are effectively reinstating, de jure, the status of the Carpatho-Rusyn Church in Subcarpathian Rus, which was abolished by the Stalinist regime after 1946.

“The liquidation of the UOC by Ukrainian courts cancels out Stalin’s liquidation of the Carpatho-Rusyn Orthodox Church of Subcarpathian Rus (1921–1946), thereby restoring it de jure,” the Legal Department stated.

As noted at the Uzhhorod Cathedral, the Carpatho-Rusyn Church functioned in the territory of present-day Zakarpattia from 1921 to 1946, during the period of the Czechoslovak Republic, when Subcarpathian Rus had constitutional status as an autonomous region. Lawyers emphasize that the Church was officially recognized by the Serbian and Ecumenical Patriarchates.

After 1946, legal experts report, the Stalinist regime forcibly abolished the autonomous Rusyn Church and compelled its merger with the Ukrainian Exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church. According to the Legal Department, this decision was part of the Soviet policy of unifying religious life across the republics of the USSR.

The Uzhhorod Cathedral maintains that the authorities and the judges under their control did not anticipate the legal consequences of liquidating the Kyiv Metropolis of the UOC. Lawyers argue that since Orthodox believers in Zakarpattia are being deprived of the possibility of legally belonging to the UOC, the status of the historic Rusyn Church is automatically revived.

As legal experts point out, under Ukraine’s “Decommunization Law,” decisions of the communist regime—including Stalin’s abolition of the Carpatho-Rusyn Church—are nullified. The Legal Department notes that there are currently seven Orthodox bishops active in Zakarpattia, providing an organizational foundation for church structure.

The Cathedral also reported that recently adopted legislation “On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations,” passed under European pressure, permits religious communities to operate even without state registration. Lawyers stress that the law allows for situations in which “a community functions without informing the authorities.”

Legal experts insist that even the complete liquidation of the UOC’s legal registration cannot destroy the Church itself, since millions of faithful and active hierarchs remain. Clergy and laity continue their loyalty to their bishops regardless of government administrative decisions.

“Zakarpattia remains at peace with Christ the Lord within the Cyril and Methodius Carpatho-Rusyn Church, which is now being actively restored de jure through the decisions of Ukrainian courts,” the Legal Department declared.

Thus, according to the Uzhhorod Cathedral, attempts by the Ukrainian authorities to abolish the UOC may lead to an unpredictable outcome—the restoration of the historic Church that existed prior to Stalinist repression.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that Abp. Theodosius (Hanna) of Sebastia, a hierarch of the Jerusalem Orthodox Church, has issued a strong defense of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), condemning the escalating persecution it faces in Ukraine.

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