The full-scale war in Ukraine has been going on for almost 3 years. How did it affect the religion and religiousness of the Ukrainians? This question was answered by the renowned Razumkow Statistical Centre in Kiev, which conducted extended investigation on this subject covering all parts of the country not bought by Russian troops. respective conclusions can be drawn from reading the final report.
More Catholics
Firstly, the number of Greek Catholics has increased by 50% over the last 2 years. In 2022 they accounted for 8 percent of the population, now there are 12 percent of them. Researchers point to respective reasons for this. First of all, many "internal refugees fled" from the east of Ukraine to the west of the country, which is more spiritual than their native parts (in the full country agnostics and atheists make up 18.4 percent of the population, but in the east there are 29.4% of them, and in the west only 8.6 percent). There they first encountered the Greek Catholic Church, and this gathering resulted in their transition to Catholicism.
In addition, many people who, in the face of war, began to ask themselves about the meaning, meaning and intent of their lives (including soldiers on the front line), found the answer in the Catholic Church of the Greek rite. It turns out that Catholicism was more credible and convincing to a large group of people than Orthodoxy. Why? About that in a minute.
More atheists
Secondly, more than twice the number of atheists and people who do not identify with any religion has increased. Before the full-scale invasion of Russia into Ukraine, there were 8 percent of them, and now they are 18.4%. This phenomenon can be attributed to the horrors of war: suffering, failure of the closest, mass deaths of innocent people, including women and children. specified events rise questions about where God was then and how he could let specified crimes.
The clergy superior of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Archbishop Swiatosław Szewczuk says that war has destroyed in the minds of many people the image of God as a large protector and protector who will always come to aid whenever we ask for it. It turned out, however, that prayers are incapable to prevent bombs, suffering and death. This forces many Ukrainians to abandon the present image of the Creator, who always remains on our services and fulfills all wishes. For some, this has become an chance to have a new, deeper relation with God, but for many it has caused uncertainty and abandonment of religion.
Less Orthodox
Thirdly, the number of those who declare to be Orthodox decreased to 55.4% (72 percent before Russia's full-scale aggression on Ukraine). This decline is mostly due to the fact that Patriarch Cyril and the Russian hierarchy supported Putin's genocide policy, which undermined many people's assurance in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. The dilemma of the faithful of this Church can be described as follows:
My patriarch, the superior of my Church, calls for bombing our cities, murdering our children, torturing prisoners of war. He considers me a servant of Satan only due to the fact that I don't want to subjugate my homeland to Putin. That's why I deserve to die in his eyes.
Such thoughts tormented many Ukrainians who decided to leave the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate for this reason. any of them went to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, the another to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which recognizes the sovereignty of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, and others left the religion in general. any inactive declare themselves Orthodox, but without belonging to any part of this religion (14%), and any as “just Christians” without recognition with any Church (9.8%).
According to the Kiev global Institute of Sociology, present only 6 percent of the inhabitants of this country belong to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. In addition, the vast majority of citizens support its delegation as an organization hostile to Ukrainian statehood.
And to think that erstwhile Ukraine proclaimed independency in 1991, it was the only Orthodox Church in the full country. It took over 3 decades, and his influence was marginalized. The top credit in this was the patriarch Cyril, who did everything to disgust the Ukrainians with “Russian mir”. Thus Moscow lost the conflict for the government of souls over Dnieprem.
