Bill on banning Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine registered in Verkhovna Rada
MOSCOW. Nov 23 (Interfax) - A bill banning the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine has been registered in the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada.
The bill outlaws the activity of any religious organizations or institutions, which are part or in any way accountable to the Russian Orthodox Church "in canonical, organizational and other issues," the European Solidarity Party said on Telegram.
The party said that the bill aimed at preventing threats to the national security of Ukraine and providing order, and described "the liberation of Ukraine from the Russian Orthodox Church as yet another step towards independent Ukraine."
The Council of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church declared its independence on May 27, 2022, over disagreement with Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and all Russia on the special military operation in Ukraine. It was decided to stop commemoration of Patriarch Kirill.
The Moscow Patriarchate explained the council's decision with external pressure and said that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church had simply reaffirmed its independent status acquired in the early 1990s, while preserving spiritual unity with Moscow. It was noted that only the Local Council could change the status of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
Some bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church disagreed with the decision of the Council in Kiev to declare independence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, so certain dioceses, including those in Donbas and Crimea, continued to commemorate Patriarch Kirill.
Russian Orthodox Church's reaction
Archpriest Nikolai Balashov, an advisor to Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and all Russia, criticized the authors of the bill banning the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine.
"Unfortunately, these poor people don't understand at all that the nature of the church considerably differs from the nature of a political party. To ban a church is not the same thing as to disperse political opponents - it has recently been done in Ukraine. People join a party for quite earthly things. Therefore, it is not so difficult to put up with its loss. And church is about eternal life and salvation of the soul," Balashov told Interfax on Wednesday.
Ukrainian media earlier reported that the Verkhovnaya Rada registered a bill banning the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine. The bill is sponsored by member of the Ukrainian parliament from the European Solidarity party Nikolai Knyazhitsky.
"No person who truly believes will listen to parliamentary member Knyazhitsky in this matter, even despite the fact that he once led the Rada's committee on spirituality," Balashov said.
The European Solidarity party said in a statement after the bill's registration that "the activity of Orthodox religious organizations in Ukraine should take into account the patriarch's and Synod's tomos given to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian state," he said. Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople gave the autocephaly tomos to Ukraine's non-canonical religious organizations in late 2018.
The church that got the tomos does not exist in reality and its "hierarchs are really laymen dressed as clerics," and therefore "it should not be hidden that the document was really given to the customer, Pyotr Poroshenko, then Ukrainian president and Knyazhitsky's fellow party member," Balashov said.