TASS reported today Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia has sent an appeal to Pope Francis, Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria, leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury, leader of the Anglican Communion, to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and other representatives of international organizations, and asking them for help to end the persecution of Metropolitan Pavel of Vyshgorod and Chernobyl, the Abbot of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra in Ukraine.
He reported that on July 14, Ukraine’s Solomensky district court ruled that the abbot of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra be taken into custody and sent to jail even though he had been under house arrest. Patriarch Kirill also expressed his concern that sending the elderly religious leader to jail could cause serious deterioration of his health, and possibly lead to his death.
