Vinnitsa Eparchy: Acting only in interests of OCU, Saletsky violates law

Igor Saletsky, head of the Vinnitsa RSA for Nationalities and Religions. Photo: Vezha

The official is not afraid to neglect the law and morality, supporting exclusively the OCU, says the statement of the Vinnitsa Eparchy of the UOC after a speech by Igor Saletsky, head of the Vinnitsa RSA for Religions, on one of the TV channels.

The eparchy press service believes that the official “once again demonstrated that the position he holds is in the interests of not so much the state as the Vinnitsa-Bar Eparchy of the OCU.”

“It would seem that the civil servant should take a neutral position, being, so to speak, over the conflict,” the statement said. “However, Saletsky’s actions show that in an inter-confessional conflict, the head of the Department for Nationalities and Religions of the Vinnitsa RSA acts exclusively in the interests of the OCU, while being well aware that he violates the law.”

A clear and far from the only example of this, according to the eparchy, is the situation with the registration of changes in the subordination of the religious community of the village of Luka-Meleshkovskaya.

At the same time, Saletsky’s position forces him to “improvise improperly, inventing terms that are neither in the law nor in the statute, such as, for example, ‘ordinary members of the religious community’".

“Trying in any way to give his own arbitrariness for the performance of official duties, the official claims that the decision to change subordination was made at the general meeting of ‘ordinary members of the religious community’, probably believing that in this way he can somehow ‘relate’ to the religious community people who have had nothing to do with it, but at the same time want the local church to belong to the OCU,” the diocesan press service noted.

In his speech, the official insisted on introducing turn-based services in disputed churches, and "similar proposals from time to time come from the clergy of the OCU – supporters of this structure have repeatedly sent official appeals to the Vinnitsa eparchial administration with proposals and even demands to allow alternate services in certain churches of the Vinnitsa Eparchy".

“Now it hardly makes sense to repeat the known truths that alternate ministry can be a compromise option only in churches, which are common Christian shrines and which are jointly owned by several faiths, or to remind that the practice of alternate service is contrary to the canons and is unacceptable for the clergy and faithful of the UOC,” the press service said.

At the same time, the eparchy emphasized that in villages where the OCU communes require alternate ministry in churches, there is every opportunity to build their own churches and the leadership of the Vinnitsa Eparchy of the UOC has repeatedly offered them assistance in the construction,“but the latter, even having the opportunity to build their own church, continue to insist on alternate service, that is to create a situation where one temple will have to be divided between two faiths.”

“At the same time, the community of the Saviour Transfiguration Cathedral has been praying in the open air for several months, despite the weather, which is getting worse every day, despite the fact that Metropolitan Simeon has at his disposal both the cathedral building and the lower church, which is empty almost all the time. It would not be out of place to mention the village of Makhnovka in the Koziatin district, where the priest, moving to the OCU, took three churches with him at once and now refuses to let the UOC community even into the church in which he does not serve at all, using the premises to store building materials. However, Igor Alexandrovich did not offer alternate service to Metropolitan Simeon or the defector priest from Makhnovka,” the eparchial press service noted.

In conclusion, the Vinnitsa diocese of the UOC urged Igor Saletsky to recall the ethics of a civil servant: “As you can see, an ordinary official is not afraid to neglect the law and morality, supporting a certain faith. Although, isn’t it worth finally remembering the decency, honour and ethics of a civil servant?”

As reported earlier, on October 18 the Court of Appeal reversed the decision of the Vinnitsa City Court to remove Saletsky from the duties of the head of the Vinnitsa RSA for Religious Affairs. We recall that the official is suspected of illegally re-registering the communities of the UOC in the OCU. Saletsky himself claims that he acted exclusively within the law.

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