Lawyers for the Lithuanian Seimas have declared initiatives to seize churches from the Orthodox Church unconstitutional

The Legal Department of the Chancellery of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania issued an official opinion stating that the initiatives of members of the “Union of the Fatherland — Lithuanian Christian Democrats” to seize religious buildings from the Lithuanian Orthodox Church have been found to contradict the country’s constitution. Legal experts confirmed the validity of the church hierarchy’s objections on this matter.

In the course of their legal analysis, the experts determined that the bills violate a number of fundamental articles of the Lithuanian Constitution, including the principle of the inviolability of private property (Article 23), guarantees of autonomy for religious organizations (Article 43), and the principle of separation of powers. In particular, the experts emphasized that property rights to churches belong to legal entities registered in Lithuania, not to foreign centers, and that the proposed measures do not provide justification based on public need nor do they provide for compensation mechanisms.

In addition to property issues, the Department of Law criticized attempts to exclude the Lithuanian Orthodox Church from the list of traditional religious communities. Citing a 2007 Constitutional Court ruling, the lawyers noted that a denomination’s status as a traditional religion is based on historical context and cannot be revoked by a discretionary decision of parliamentarians.

It should be recalled that the contested initiatives called for the seizure of a number of significant properties from the Church, including the Holy Spirit Monastery and the Cathedral of the Purification in Vilnius, with the aim of subsequently transferring them to the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.