Kyiv Post: Common Sense and the Kyiv Cave Monastery Clinic

KYIV - According to a report published on July 19 by the Kyiv Post Kyivpost.com, the war of words between the civil society organization and Russian Orthodox Church [Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate] leaders continued on July 17 when supporters of the monastery rebutted criticism that church leaders are being unsympathetic to HIV/AIDS patients being treated in a clinic on monastery grounds.

Government officials announced last week that the clinic and its patients would be relocated.

The Russian-language letter by the monastery comes in response of pleas by HIV/AIDS activists to leave the clinic alone.

The Kyiv Post reported on July 7 with reference to Associated Press that about 200 HIV-positive people and AIDS activists were holding a protest outside Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers building against a recent decision to close a clinic that treats the country's most seriously ill AIDS patients.

Ukraine's growing HIV/AIDS epidemic is considered Europe's most serious.

The clinic is on the grounds of the renowned Kyiv Cave Monastery. The cabinet’s resolution calls for removing all facilities from monastery grounds whose activity is not related to the monastery's religious activities or museums, says the report.

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