In Czech Hodonin, pro-Phanar bishop tries to seize a chapel by force

On the morning of May 15, 2022, pro-Phanar Bishop Isaiah (Slaninka), who had previously concelebrated with Dumenko, led the seizure of the chapel-temple of St. Cyril Equal-to-the-Apostles at the city cemetery of Hodonin. He was assisted by Aleksey Kukhta and Rafail Moravsky.

“They took the key and the antimension from Father Matthew Vavro, who since 2018 has adjusted and ennobled everything here on his own and often for his own money. There was stability and confidence, many of our fellow countrymen arrived, a wonderful male choir ... Those came like thieves and broke everything,” our source said.

According to the believers of the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia, having brutally driven the parishioners out of the chapel, Slaninka and his henchmen snatched personal liturgical things from the rector's bag along with the antimension. After Father Matthew refused to hand over the keys to the church, Bishop Isaiah tried to take them by force. The rector of the Hodonin parish called the police. The parishioners themselves asked the authorities to close the church, which the community rents from the city, to leave them the keys and sort out what happened.

As a source told the UOJ, the reason why Slaninka is trying to close the chapel is that Father Matthew does not want to obey the bishop, who concelebrated with the head of the OCU. In addition, Bishop Isaiah needs the seizure of the temple according to his own church-political plans. After the 96-year-old Archbishop Simeon leaves the post of ruling bishop, new elections will be held in the Brno-Olomouc diocese. Having ambitions to become a new bishop, Slaninka is trying to replace the priests in the parishes with those loyal to him.

“In addition, Bishop Isaiah needs to seize this church so that the rector who did not obey simply had nowhere else to serve,” our source in the Brno-Olomouc diocese of the OCCLS emphasized.

As the UOJ wrote, according to the same scheme, Bishop Isaiah, who concelebrated with Dumenko, seized the parish in Czech Brno.

Read also