Priest Pivovarov faces lack of medical care after injury

Priest Viktor Pivovarov stopped serving in a church in Slavyansk-on-Kuban because he could not get out of bed after an injury. His assistant said that doctors refused to hospitalize the elderly Viktor Pivovarov.

In May, it became known that the authorities of Slavyansk-on-Kuban went to court with a request to oblige Viktor Pivovarov, Archbishop of the Russia’s Orthodox Church to demolish the Holy Protection and Tikhon Church where he served. According to the authorities’ claim, the church was built on a plot of land allocated for individual housing construction.

The church where Viktor Pivovarov serves is not working, because the priest got an injury and the only one who cares for the sick man is Hieromonk Jonah (Ilya Sigida), the Viktor Pivovarov’s assistant since 2009, said Sergey, one of the parishioners. “The church is not working. People have nowhere to pray,” the parishioner noted.

Olga, another parishioner, says that people can no longer get married, baptize their children, or hold funeral services for their relatives in the church, which the authorities tried to demolish.

“The priest fell and broke his femur, but doctors from the emergency room said that they would not make surgery on him, because he is old (Viktor Pivovarov was born in 1937, – note of the ‘Caucasian Knot’),” said Hieromonk Jonah.