DESS head: There isn’t a single word about UOC in bill 8371

Viktor Yelensky. Photo: Unian

The DESS head Viktor Yelensky in a comment to the Voice of America assured that bill 8371 on the UOC ban has nothing to do with the UOC, and those who criticise it, do it for money.

"Of course, if people get very big money for discrediting Ukraine and this bill, it is profitable for them to distort its content," Yelensky said and assured that "in reality, there is not a single word in the law about the ban and the UOC-MP".

According to him, the law only talks about religious organisations with a centre in the aggressor country.

"If there are such ties, they are established by a special religious expertise," Yelensky said. According to him, the State Ethnopolitics Service sends such denominations a prescription to remove the ties, and "if such ties are not broken, the State Ethnopolitics Service files a lawsuit."

"This means there is no talk of a ban here. But, of course, there is a strong demand from both society and the Church itself that there should be no ties with the Moscow Patriarchate, which is directly involved in the war of the Russian Federation in Ukraine," stressed Elensky.

As earlier reported, according to Yelensky, the state already has a plan to fight the UOC but he will not reveal it.

Read also

UOC clergy deliver aid to frontline monasteries and parishes

Clergy of the Kyiv Eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church delivered aid to frontline monasteries and parishes that provide daily support to refugees and the needy.

Vinnytsia region bans religious processions and pilgrimages until December

Vinnytsia’s Defense Council has imposed strict restrictions on believers ahead of the Easter holidays.

Nicaraguan authorities release 1,200 prisoners for Holy Week

In Nicaragua, more than a thousand inmates were released from prison during Holy Week and sent home under a “family cohabitation” regime, with an appeal to begin a “new life.”

Roman Catholics launch petition for return of historic building in Odesa

The Roman Catholic Church in Ukraine says there is a risk of losing the building and is urging people to support a petition calling for the return of a historic seminary property in Odesa to the Catholic community.

Fire breaks out near Holy Trinity Church in Kharkiv after shelling

A large fire broke out near the Holy Trinity Church in Kharkiv following a strike by Russian forces, while the church itself, according to the eparchy, was not damaged.

Media: Canadian clinics offer elderly patients euthanasia instead of treatment

An 84-year-old Catholic woman in Canada says she was offered euthanasia instead of treatment for a non-terminal condition. She refused, as her husband had done before her.