War in Ukraine: Presence of the Orthodox Church of the Russian Patriarchate of Moscow is prohibited

Ukraine’s parliament passed a law banning the presence in the country of any religious organization linked to Russia, specifically the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP).

Law 8371 – approved on August 20 in Parliament by 265 votes in favor, 29 against and 4 abstentions – is titled “On the protection of the constitutional order in the context of the activities of religious organizations.”

This Saturday, August 24, Ukraine’s independence day, President Volodymr Zelensky signed the law, according to what was indicated by CNN in Spanish.

According to the Vatican agency Fidesthe law prohibits foreign religious organizations from being in Ukraine if they meet two criteria.

The first is to have its headquarters in a state “recognized as one that has carried out or is carrying out armed aggression against Ukraine and/or temporarily occupying part of Ukrainian territory.”

And the second is “directly or indirectly supporting armed aggression against Ukraine.”

Article 3 of the law defines the UOC-MP as an “ideological extension of the regime of the aggressor State, complicit in war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated in the name of the Russian Federation and the ideology of the ‘Russian world’, prohibiting explicitly its existence on Ukrainian territory.”

The law also establishes that the real estate and capital of the banned religious organization will be confiscated by the Ukrainian state, except for property for use in liturgy.

The new rule will come into effect 30 days after its publication. Among its main promoters is Petro Porošenko, former president of Ukraine between 2014 and 2019 and current secretary of the European Solidarity party (Jevropejska Solidarnist).

Support of religions in Ukraine

The pontifical foundation Help the Church in Need (ACN, for its acronym in English), reported that the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and members of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations, which represents Christians, Jews and Muslims in the country, had already expressed themselves in favor of the norm in a statement.

“The Moscow Patriarchate justifies pogroms (ed. massacres) and restrictions on religious freedom, torture and murders of priests and pastors, and cynically tramples on God’s commands and the basic norms of universal morality,” the statement said. .

The major archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Bishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, also spoke out in favor of the law: “Since the religious environment in Ukraine has become a target of Russian attacks, the state is obliged to react.” before the bearers of the ideology of the ‘Russian world’.”

This, he adds, in the same way that “all European countries do against the spread of the ideology of the Islamic State and its religious extremists.”

In his opinion, this law is not unfair because “religious freedom and peace are fundamental conditions for the future of Ukraine” and he warns that in the territories occupied by Russia “there is no religious freedom and there is no presence of any Catholic priest.”

The majority religion in Ukraine is Eastern Orthodox Christianity, which is divided into the Orthodox Church of Ukraine or the kyiv Patriarchate, where 42.1% of the population is located; and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, which split from the former in 2018 and comprises 29% of the population.

The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church is part of the Byzantine rite Catholic Churches and 14.1% of Ukrainians belong to it.

Its liturgy and traditions are similar to the Orthodox, but they are in communion with the Holy See. It is directed by Bishop Sviatoslav Shevchuck.