Metropolitan Melety asks the President to secure UOC from arbitrary rule

Metropolitan Melety with the clergy and parishioners of the church in Vaslovovtsy village. Photo: Facebook

On May 24, Metropolitan Melety of Chernovtsy and Bukovina, on behalf of the clergy and commonplace believers of the Bukovina Eparchy, addressed Vladimir Zelensky with a letter asking the President as a guarantor of the Constitution to understand the arbitrariness of local authorities. This is reported by Vesti.

In his address, Metropolitan Melety stresses that the acting head of Chernovtsy Regional State Administration Mikhail Pavliuk, contrary to the Constitution of Ukraine, according to which the Church in Ukraine is separated from the state, grossly violates the current legislation, transferring religious communities without their knowledge and desire from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to the OCU.

His Eminence emphasizes that the official deliberately neglects the requirements of the Law and the moral foundations of human decency, which leads to further falsification and registration of statutes of the newly established OCU communities at the same addresses and with the assignment of the same identification codes of legal entities which are possessed by the UOC communities in full conformity with the current legislation.

According to Metropolitan Melety, such actions violate the constitutional rights of members of the UOC religious communities of Chernovtsy-Bukovina Eparchy regarding religious freedom and also lead to incitement of religious hatred and hostility, hurt the religious feelings of citizens and restrict their constitutional rights.

In this regard, the Metropolitan asks the President to cancel the decisions of the head of Chernovtsy Regional State Administration "On registration of statutes of religious organizations of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in new editions" and also to consider the inexpediency of M. Pavliuk’s further holding the post of head of Chernovtsy Regional State Administration.

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that the National Police of Ukraine, at the direction of the Shevchenko district court of the city of Chernovtsy, opened criminal proceedings against the acting governor of Chernovtsy region Mikhail Pavliuk as well as other officials of Chernovtsy Regional State Administration for fraud in favor of the OCU.

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