The Moscow Patriarchate compared the persecution of the Church in Ukraine to Nazi Germany
The Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' published an appeal to the leaders of the “Normandy Four” - the presidents of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany in connection with the consideration of a draft law scheduled for today in the Verkhovna Rada, which, if adopted, will intensify the persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.
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As noted in the Patriarch’s address, the bill will allow the seizure of churches of the Moscow Patriarchate. “In fact, the bill proposes to legalize the practice of fictitious “referendums” with the participation of all residents of a locality (and possibly visitors) who claim to belong to a given religious community... During 2014-2016, more than 40 Ukrainian Orthodox churches were forcibly seized by right-wing radical elements on the territory of Ukraine Churches... The formal basis for such seizures is the so-called “referendum” of village residents who decide to “transition” the community. The opinion of the actual founders and members of the community as a legal entity is not taken into account in such cases,” the appeal explains.
The draft law also obliges the UOC-MP, as a denomination with a religious center in the “aggressor country,” to undergo forced re-registration.
“In addition to the forced re-registration of all communities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which will inevitably provoke new seizures of churches and clashes between believers of different faiths, the bill will give government bodies of a secular state the broadest powers to control the internal life of religious communities: to approve the appointment of leadership of communities, to allow or not to allow visits foreign religious figures, as well as forcibly liquidate religious communities on a wide range of grounds,” the Patriarch continues.
“The bills conflict with the Constitution of Ukraine and current legislative norms,” he emphasizes.
“The messages note that if these projects are adopted, discriminatory legal practice, unheard of in modern Europe, against the majority of the Orthodox population of Ukraine will be legalized. Such restrictive religious legislation was not in effect in Ukraine even during the period of the communist regime, and in the rest of Europe something similar existed only during the time of Nazi rule in Germany,” the Moscow Patriarchate states.
The Moscow Patriarchate compared the persecution of the Church in Ukraine to Nazi Germany.