The Verkhovna Rada has opened the way for the seizure of churches of the Moscow Patriarchate
The Verkhovna Rada has adopted a law that will facilitate raider seizures of churches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Our proposed bill proposes that decisions on changing religious subordination be made at a general meeting of the religious community, and not at local referendums, as we are prescribed from Moscow. A decision is considered competent when, in accordance with the charter of the religious community, the meeting itself is competent and, if this meeting is competent, two-thirds voted in favor of changing the religious subordination.
After a religious community has decided to change its subordination, a moratorium is imposed on the possibility of alienation of its property until this procedure is legally completed.
Changes are also proposed in the registration process in order to avoid so-called double registration,” said Popular Front deputy Viktor Yelensky, presenting the bill.
Deputy Vadim Novinsky from the Opposition Bloc tried to object to him.
“There were no legal grounds and conclusions of the Scientific Expert Directorate for bringing the bill to the floor. The Council of Churches of Ukraine did not meet on this issue either. At the same time, the proposed changes create contradictions with the current charters of religious communities; some provisions of the bill will be impossible to implement, while others simply create obstacles to religious activities, and may also become a breeding ground for corruption.
It seems that there was a need to help President Poroshenko with his Tomos tour. Unfortunately, political expediency has once again triumphed over legality. The essence of the bill is to legalize the raiding of churches and property of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and, under pressure from law enforcement and local authorities, to ensure a massive transfer of parishes to the newly created “Orthodox Church in Ukraine,” said deputy Vadim Novinsky.
At the same time, the deputy appealed to Speaker Andriy Parubiy that the bill cannot be adopted as a whole while parliamentarians have comments on its essence, but the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada ignored the appeal and shouted to Novinsky: “Get away from me!”
As a result of voting on the second attempt, the law was adopted by a majority - 229 out of 306 parliamentarians voted “For”, another 35 were “Against” and two abstained.
As a reminder, PolitNavigator previously reported that the process of retrieving the Pochayiv Lavra from the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) had begun in Ukraine . The Ternopil Oblast Prosecutor's Office has initiated an investigation and will seek to reverse the transfer of the Lavra to the UOC.
English version :: Read in English The Verkhovna Rada has opened the way for the seizure of Moscow Patriarchate churches.