Home page News
Metropolitan Hilarion’s comments on Ukrainian Supr…

Metropolitan Hilarion’s comments on Ukrainian Supreme Rada’s forthcoming consideration of anti-church bills

An attempt to reformat the religious situation in Ukraine contrary to the opinion of a majority of the faithful – which is fraught with grave consequences for the civic peace in the country torn as it is by a confrontation – this is how Bills No. 4128 and No. 4511, expected to be voted on in the Supreme Rada on May 18, 2017, can be called. Both religious leaders and secular experts have described them as discriminatory towards the largest religious organization in Ukraine – the Ukrainian Orthodox Church with its more than 12 thousand parishes.

Bill No. 4128 provides for amendments to the Law On the Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations. The legislators are to adopt a provision on the belonging of a particular person to a religious organization on the basis of self-identification and to grant such persons a right to amend the statutes of a community through a simple majority vote.

What is there so bad about it, it would seem? But let us look at the situation as it has developed in Ukraine: at present, already over 40 churches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate have been captured in raids. The pattern of captures is usually the same: in a village church some people appear, who were not its parishioners before (these can be people of the same village or even visitors). They declare that they are the community of the church and have the right to it and decide to move the church to the jurisdiction of the schismatics. Even if such actions are illegal now and if a legal action is taken, the communities of the canonical Church win them, in case of the adoption of such a bill the law will turn out to be on the invaders’ side.

The second bill to be considered by the Supreme Rada on May 18 introduces norms unthinkable in a country in which the freedom of conscience and confession is declared. Precisely for this reason, for instance, the Supreme Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Ms. V. Lutkovskaya stated that Bill No. 4511 contradicts the Ukrainian Constitution.

The bill ‘On Religious Organizations Whose Administrative Center is Located in the Country Recognized by the Supreme Rada as Aggressor Country’ proposes that a church organization with such status will be severely restricted in its rights. It will be obliged to conclude a special agreement with the Ukrainian State, to negotiate all the appointments to high and middle leading posts with the Ministry of Culture. Moreover, the state can simply liquidate it under this or that pretext.

The bill, if adopted, will be clearly aimed against one religious organization – the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, the only canonical Orthodox Church in that country, recognized by the world Orthodoxy. So, the matters concerning the election of bishops and appointment of rectors of churches will be decided not by the Supreme Church Authority but will depend on the arbitrariness of functionaries.

There was no such a large-scale and impudent interference in the Church’s affairs as is provided by this bill even in the Soviet Union, in which non-interference of the state in the internal church life was declared at least formally. In today’s civilized society there are no precedents of the adoption of such bills; they simply do not exist. Something similar could be seen, perhaps, only in the legislation of the fascist Germany.

The proposed discriminatory laws are aimed at deepening the schism in Ukrainian Orthodoxy and may provoke all kinds of clashes in society. That is why Bills No. 4128 and No. 4511 have provoked such a strong rejection by representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and other religious leaders in Ukraine, as well as human rights advocates and public leaders. Hundreds of thousands of signatures against the adoption of these laws have been collected for only a few days in various regions of the country.

The adoption of these bills ‘threaten to become a glaring example of encroachment upon human rights, the freedom of religious confession’, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia stressed in his appeal on May 16 to Ukrainian President P. Poroshenko, the Normandy Four members – Russian President V. Putin, Federal Chancellor of Germany A. Merkel, French President E. Micron, as well as to Primates of the Local Orthodox Church, Pope Francis of Rome, UN Secretary-General A. Guterres and Secretary General of the World Council of Churches, O. Fykse Tveit.

Share:
Message from the Primate of the Russian Church to His Holiness Patriarch Porfirije of Serbia in connection with blasphemous act on the ruins of ancient Ulpiana

14.09.2024

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill celebrates on the feast of the 300th anniversary of the transfer of relics of St.Alexander Nevsky to St. Petersburg

12.09.2024

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill celebrates All-night Vigil at the Christ the Savior Cathedral on the eve of Transfiguration

18.08.2024

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' met with the Ambassador of India to Russia

30.07.2024

Catholicos-Patriarch Mar Awa III: Ukrainian government’s support for schism and persecution of the major canonical Church is a religious pogrom against the faithful Orthodox Christians of that country

24.07.2024

Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church consecrates the Holy Transfiguration Cathedral in the city of Tver.

21.07.2024

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill celebrates Liturgy at the Lavra of the Holy Trinity and St. Sergius on the commemoration day of the saint

18.07.2024

The Primate of the Russian Church celebrates All-night Vigil at the Lavra of the Holy Trinity and St. Sergius

17.07.2024

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill celebrates Little Vespers at the Lavra of the Holy Trinity and St. Sergius and reads akathist to the saint

17.07.2024

Patriarchal condolences on the death of Boris A. Nelyubov

14.07.2024

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill congratulates His Holiness Patriarch Daniel of Bulgaria on his election and enthronement

30.06.2024

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill Met with the Released Metropolitan Jonathan of Tulchin and Bratslav

25.06.2024

Patriarch Kirill led the bringing of the icon of the Holy Trinity, painted by the Venerable Andrei Rublev, to the Holy Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius

22.06.2024

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill meets with senior Russian Protestants

18.06.2024

Patriarch Kirill's Congratulations to Prime-Minister Narendra Modi on His Re-election as Head of the Government of India

12.06.2024

Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk meets with delegation of Orthodox Church in America

16.09.2024

DECR сhairman сelebrates in the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Paris

08.09.2024

Nice hosts celebrations marking 50th birthday and 14th anniversary of episcopal consecration of Patriarchal Exarch of Western Europe

06.09.2024

Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations meets with Slovenian Ambassador to Russia

30.08.2024

DECR chairman congratulates head of the Spiritual Directorate of the Muslims of the Caucasus on the occasion of his 7th birthday.

26.08.2024

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill celebrates All-night Vigil at the Christ the Savior Cathedral on the eve of Transfiguration

18.08.2024

Holy Synod deems it expedient that Working Group for Cooperation between the Russian Church and Turkey’s Directorate of Religious Affairs should continue its work

25.07.2024

Holy Synod recognizes importance of resuming theological consultations with Assyrian Church of the East

25.07.2024

Session of commission for international cooperation under the Russian Presidential Council for Interaction with Religious Associations takes place.

23.07.2024

DECR chairman meets with representative of the Macedonian Orthodox Church

23.07.2024

Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk meets with the Syrian ambassador to Russia.

22.07.2024

Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations meets with a delegation from Lebanon.

22.07.2024

Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church consecrates the Holy Transfiguration Cathedral in the city of Tver.

21.07.2024

The Primate of the Russian Church celebrates All-night Vigil at the Lavra of the Holy Trinity and St. Sergius

17.07.2024

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill celebrates Little Vespers at the Lavra of the Holy Trinity and St. Sergius and reads akathist to the saint

17.07.2024

Metropolitan Hilarion: Many things in a person's life depend on faith

29.08.2021

Metropolitan Hilarion: The Holy Spirit is the main treasure of the Christian soul

01.08.2021

Metropolitan Hilarion: Holiness is a constant striving to imitate the Lord Jesus Christ

27.06.2021

Metropolitan Hilarion: God does not want to condemn, but to save us

07.03.2021

Metropolitan Hilarion: The Lord always grants to us the opportunity to display our talents

24.01.2021

Metropolitan Hilarion: The Lord has imbued the waters of Jordan with his divine presence to wash away human sins

19.01.2021

Metropolitan Hilarion: to repent means to change your way of life

17.01.2021

On commemoration day of St. Catherine, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk officiated at the Church of St. Catherine the Great Martyr In-the-Fields  the representation of the Orthodox Church in America

07.12.2020

Metropolitan Hilarion: We can always show compassion for people

29.11.2020

Metropolitan Hilarion celebrates on commemoration day of St. Varlaam of Khutyn at the church of ‘Joy to All the Afflicted’ icon of the Mother of God

19.11.2020

Metropolitan Hilarion: We should remember that the life of each human being is in the hands of God

06.11.2020

Metropolitan Hilarion: For God there is nothing impossible

25.10.2020

Metropoplitan Hilarion: The cross which was an instrument of dishonourable execution becomes the symbol of salvation for millions of people

27.09.2020

Metropolitan Hilarion: Eucharist is the wedding feast, to which Lord Jesus Christ invites each of us

13.09.2020

Metropolitan Hilarion: Faith alone is not enough for salvation

30.08.2020

Page is available in the following languages
Feedback

Fields marked by * are mandatory required

Send a message
Рус Укр Eng Deu Ελλ Fra Ita Бълг ქარ Срп Rom عرب