“It is impossible to liquidate the Church because of its nature” - Metropolitan Kliment of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church

The head of the Synodal Information and Education Department of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Klyment (Vecheria), commented on the ban on the UOC that is being prepared in the Verkhovna Rada. The bishop explained that it is impossible to ban the Church like any other legal organization, and such a decision of the parliament will create more problems for the government than for the UOC itself. The Metropolitan’s commentary was published by Strana.ua.

“Persistent attempts to pass the law, which is being actively pushed by the opposition, look not just like another political conjuncture, but an obvious threat to state stability and security. And such anti-state activities of the political authors of the draft law already have their own consistent logical series, which for some reason still does not have an adequate response from law enforcement agencies. After all, we should not forget that the main “pusher” of the law against the UOC, Poroshenko, has several suspicions, including treason for open cooperation with the head of the aggressor country. No one has yet heard that these suspicions have been canceled,” – said the head of the Synodal Information and Education Department of the UOC.

The bishop added that the history of banning the Church has always resulted in a fiasco for the state. Moreover, Metropolitan Klyment considers it unacceptable to adopt such laws during martial law, splitting Ukrainian society.

“The church cannot be liquidated because of its nature. There are many examples of this. Khrushchev once did this and promised to show the last priest soon. Everyone knows the result. Greek Catholics were once banned, and Protestants were banned. Now practice shows that banning the Church is a wrong way for the country. And even more so, in times of war, to adopt repressive laws aimed at the Ukrainian population, which has its own traditional religious beliefs. I am not a politician, but such steps seem to many, to put it mildly, not very progressive,” – Metropolitan Klyment added.

Earlier, we reported that the state is preparing a “special status” for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which will be applied after the adoption of Bill No. 8371, aimed at banning the UOC. This status will affect the part of the Church that is ready to break with the ROC but does not agree to unite with the OCU.