European Solidarity MP calls for fight to implement law banning UOC

Rostyslav Pavlenko. Photo: parlament.ua

Ukrainian MP Rostyslav Pavlenko from the European Solidarity party has expressed concerns about difficulties in implementing Law No. 3894, which aims to ban the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC).

He called for swift and decisive actions against the Church, stating this on his Facebook page.

"Ukrainian society’s rejection of the Russian Church is a temptation for KGB agents to use the religious factor to engineer internal conflict in Ukraine after the war ends. This is a challenge for those who will conduct negotiations (if they happen). It is also a challenge for the executive branch in enforcing the law on protecting the constitutional order in the religious sphere – more precisely, 'the law banning the Russian Church in Ukraine.'

There must be a response to the UOC’s 'sacred awaiting' – where, at all levels, this disguised structural division of the ROC refuses to unite with the OCU at an organizational level and actively obstructs parish transitions to the OCU at the grassroots level," Pavlenko wrote.

He also emphasized the need to intensify efforts against the UOC, criticizing what he sees as slow progress in expelling the Church from the Kyiv-Pechersk and Pochaiv Lavras, and called for more active measures from both the state and society.

"Both the state and society must be ready to act. Right now, systematic explanatory work is needed – particularly, to expose the harm and futility of 'sacred waiting,'” the MP added.

As previously reported by the UOJ, Pavlenko had earlier complained that even after the adoption of Law No. 3894, there has been no significant transition of UOC parishes to the OCU.

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