Catholic Theologian: I don't see anti-Ukrainian activities by UOC

Catholic theologian Dr. Thomas Bremer. Photo: smithsonianjourneys.org

Renowned Catholic theologian and distinguished professor at the University of Münster in Germany, Dr. Thomas Bremer, believes that Ukrainian authorities have no grounds to ban the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC). He made this statement in an interview published on the dialogtut.org website.

According to Professor Bremer, the illegal actions of individual representatives of the UOC cannot serve as a reason for prohibiting the entire Church.

"Any person who violates the law should be punished for it," Dr. Bremer noted. "However, banning an organization requires it to have practically crossed any boundaries. The fact that a certain number of individuals violated the law during the war and belong to a specific organization, in this case, the Church, does not justify banning that Church. To justify such a ban, it would be necessary to prove its systemic anti-Ukrainian activities. However, I do not see such activities in essence."

The German professor also emphasized his skepticism regarding attempts to characterize faithful UOC members as "bad" Ukrainians.

As previously reported by the UOJ, Professor Bremer stated that the conclusions of the "religious expertise" of the Statute on the Governance of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, conducted by Ukraine's State Ethnopolitics Service, should not be taken as a proof of the ecclesiastical-canonical ties of the UOC with the Moscow Patriarchate.

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