On Tuesday, December 27, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Ukraine recognized as constitutional the law obliging the UOC-MP to change the name so that it indicates its belonging to Russia. However, the organization said that this decision does not concern them.
This was announced by the lawyer of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate Alexander Bakhov. He assures that the decision of the Constitutional Court does not oblige the UOC-MP to change its name.
“There are no legal grounds for changing the name”
It should be noted that the decision of the Constitutional Court does not oblige the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to change its name, it only concerns the compliance of the law on renaming the Constitution of Ukraine,” Bakhov said.
He drew attention to the fact that the law itself does not contain any mention of about the UOC-MP.
According to him, “the UOC is registered in accordance with Ukrainian legislation, its founder is the UOC Cathedral, its religious center, like all governing bodies, is located in the city of Kyiv.”
So, the lawyer says, all attempts to forcefully apply this law to the UOC “will increase cases of violation of the right to freedom of conscience and religion in Ukraine.”
The representative of the UOC-MP added that despite the decision of the Constitutional Court, today there are no legal grounds for changing the name of religious organizations belonging to the UOC-MP.
Pay attention!Law No. 5309, adopted in 2018, provides that a religious organization whose headquarters is located in a country recognized as the aggressor must indicate this in its name.
The organization's charter should be amended accordingly. At the same time, it is allowed to add “in Ukraine” after the full name of the church indicating the control center.
What preceded this
- The Constitutional Court of Ukraine recognized as constitutional a law that obliges the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate to change its name so that it indicates its belonging to Russia.
- Recently, the abbot of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra Pasha (Swan) “Mercedes” during an address to the faithful said that from January 1, the clergy of the UOC-MP can deprive access to the main temples of the Lavra.
- He addressed them in Russian and resorted to cynical manipulation, saying that in the days of the USSR they were allowed to pray, and now they allegedly do dirty tricks on the “holy, catholic and apostolic church.” For some reason, he did not mention that mass arrests and persecution of clergy and religious preachers were carried out in the USSR.
- After that, he recorded a 15-minute video to the president, in which he complained about life and that the UOC-MP did not receive a written notice of the termination of the lease from January 1 and asked Zelensky to “protect” the UOC-MP.
- National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov has already responded to this. He urged the hierarchs of the UOC-MP not to hide their names. Danilov also noted that if the priests really have nothing to do with Russia and want justice, then they need to say that Putin is Satan.
