R.P.Ts. WARNS RADA OF LIKELIHOOD OF WIDESPREAD RESISTANCE IN EVENT OF BAN OF RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS WITH CENTER IN R.F.
Interfax-Religiia, 29 March 2022
The Moscow patriarchate warned deputies of the Ukrainian parliament about the possibility of widespread resistance, with unpredictable consequences, if a law is adopted that prohibits the activity of religious organizations with their center in Russia.
"Draft law No. 7213, which was registered in the Ukrainian parliament on 26 March, proposes to insert into the law 'On freedom of conscience and religious organizations' changes which will effectively prohibit the activity of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Ukraine," the vice-chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow patriarchate, Archpriest Nikolai Balashov, explained to Interfax.
He mentioned that this draft law provides for the actual seizure of moveable and immoveable property of parishes of the UPTs. "If such a law were adopted, it would permit exerting extreme pressure on thousands of parishes of the UPTs, forcing them to go into schism, and 'legalizing' the seizures of churches of the canonical church in Ukraine that have occurred recently, as well as violence against its clergy and believers," the representative of the Moscow patriarchate thinks.
"Taking into consideration the general tenseness of the political and social situation in Ukraine, the adoption of such an extremely radical law could result in widespread inter-confessional confrontation with unpredictable consequences," he concluded. (tr. by PDS, posted 29 March 2022)
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