Vatican opposes UOC ban
A meeting in the Vatican. Photo: DESS press service
On November 18, 2025, in Vatican, the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches of the RCC, Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, received the Ukrainian delegation represented by the DESS head, V. Yelensky, and the Ambassador of Ukraine to the Vatican, Andriy Yurash, reports DESS.
According to the press service of the State Ethnopolitics Service, the cardinal noted that he agrees with the need for fair punishment of individuals, including the clerics who violate state laws or collaborate with occupiers, but emphasized that he "does not consider it possible to impose collective punishments on religious associations".
In response, Yelensky assured Gugerotti that discussing collective punishment for the entire UOC "is not possible".
Earlier, the UOJ wrote that in the USA, a delegation of Orthodox Churches discussed the UOC protection with a congresswoman.
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