Poroshenko: We expect Constitutional Court to rename UOC by end of year

Petro Poroshenko. Photo: GLOBAL LOOK press/Shang Jing

On December 30, 2022, ex-president of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko stated that it is necessary to ensure the implementation of the law on renaming Churches, which was blocked by the Constitutional Court, prm.ua reports. The ex-president also reminded the believers of the UOC about the "toxic nature of relations” with the "Church of the aggressor state."

Poroshenko said that in 2018 the Verkhovna Rada adopted a law on renaming Churches. “The Church, controlled from abroad, from the aggressor country, must inform and present this fact to the believers,” the ex-president stressed. But in January 2019, according to him, because of “the deputies of the ‘fifth column’ of Moscow,” the Constitutional Court blocked the application of this law. However, after the SBU “sacked the heads of regional departments who covered up saboteurs in Russian churches,” on November 29 the law on the naming of Churches was returned to the agenda of the Constitutional Court.

“We expect that by the end of the year the Constitutional Court will consider and make an appropriate decision. That the government will decide on the naming of the Churches with the obligatory mention of their affiliation to Russia,” the former president assured.

Going to the “church of the aggressor country,” where everyone prays “either for Putin or for Kirill,” is, according to Poroshenko, “toxic.” “I very much hope that Kirill will sit in The Hague’s dock behind bars next to Putin as a criminal. And Ukrainians all need to think: can they let have at least some relation to these criminals,” Poroshenko said.

“We are not fighting the UOC – we are fighting for Ukraine,” the ex-president emphasized, adding that this struggle in a war “suggests the unity of Ukrainian society and people.”

As the UOJ wrote, Poroshenko discussed the interfaith situation with Dumenko.

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