Earlier, Mykola Kniazhytskyi, a member of the Ukrainian parliament from the European Solidarity party, confirmed that the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted the scandalous anti-church law No. 3894, aimed at banning the activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which was adopted, among other things, in order to take away churches from the UOC. Knyazhytsky believes that since not all settlements in Ukraine have churches of the OCU, people may not realize that their “priests have ties to Moscow.” Thus, the law banning the UOC is aimed at correcting this.
“They will take everything they can get their hands on”: DESS announces next steps toward banning the UOC
Vyacheslav Gorshkov, head of the Department for Religious Affairs of the State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience (DESS), spoke about the further steps that the State Service will take regarding the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in connection with its refusal to comply with the state’s demands to sever its affiliation with the Moscow Patriarchate. According to the official, in the near future, the DESS will begin the procedure of deregistering all religious communities associated with the UOC and expropriating real estate that the Church uses on a leasehold and free-of-charge basis. He announced this in an interview with RISU.
According to the official, if the Kyiv Metropolis of the UOC does not comply with the order, it will first be officially recognized as affiliated with a foreign religious organization whose activities are prohibited in Ukraine. Therefore, the DESS will follow this procedure:
1) send relevant orders to religious organizations that are part of or affiliated with the structure of the UOC;
2) send a notification about the recognition of the UOC as affiliated with a foreign religious organization whose activities are prohibited in Ukraine to the State Property Fund of Ukraine, local self-government bodies, other legal entities and individuals who are known to have provided property for use to the relevant religious organization, for the early termination of property use rights, including the early termination of lease agreements for the relevant property concluded with the religious organization, and the cancellation (early termination) of decisions on the provision of the relevant property for use;
3) file a lawsuit with the court to terminate the religious organization of the UOC.
“As you can see, these are serious steps, and they are not optional. The procedure is very clear, and I don’t think there will be any symbolic decisions or ‘check marks’ in the reports,” – said the head of the DESS’s Department for Religious Affairs.
He added that the UOC faces criminal liability for delaying compliance with the state’s requirements.
“However, the delay in court cases is not endless, as there is liability for abuse of procedural rights in Ukraine,” – emphasized Vyacheslav Gorshkov.
Read also
