The authors of Law No. 8371 are counting on a split in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - mass media

The authors of Law No. 8371, aimed at banning the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, expect that the UOC will split into several parts as a result of its adoption. This opinion was expressed by the People’s Deputy of Ukraine and Chairman of the Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy Nikita Poturaev. The words of the MP are reported by Glavkom.

“After a legal entity is liquidated, only re-registration is required. And if you re-register, you need to submit a new charter to the same State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience. No one will become a civic organization, because only religious organizations enjoy all possible benefits. In addition, an “NGO” (status of a public organization, ed.) cannot perform sacraments, baptize, marry, or conduct the last rites… The same UOC-KP, although not recognized, was still registered as a religious organization,” – Poturaev argues.

The deputy is convinced that this state of affairs will force the UOC to split into several parts, and as a result, it will cease to exist. To this end, Poturaev proposes to increase the staff of the State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience.

“One part will go to unite with the OCU, one will be in a situation similar to the UOC-KP in its time, and another will pretend to have gone into the catacombs. And this situation will be quite acceptable. It will be necessary to strengthen the capacity of the SSERF for the next year. Now there are about 35 people working there, and they, in addition to religion, also deal with national minorities. But a lot will depend on how professionally the expertise will be prepared and how professionally lawyers will represent the state’s position in courts. Therefore, this area should be strengthened by lawyers of the Ministry of Justice or in some other way,” – the MP added.

As reported, Oleksandr Sagan, a lobbyist for the OCU, head of the Department of Religious Studies at the Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences, believes that the UOC should not be expected to make any moves towards merging with other structures. The religious scholar is convinced that such a course was announced by the Primate of the Church, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy of Kyiv and All Ukraine.