UCCRO member: “Abroad, we assure that we have no persecution for faith"

Krivitsky (center) with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Photo: Krivitsky's FB page

Roman Catholic Church Bishop Vitalii Kryvytskyi, a member of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations (UCCRO), described how church leaders respond to accusations of religious persecution in Ukraine during advocacy trips abroad.

According to him, when UCCRO members travel overseas, they are engaged not so much in diplomacy as in advocacy for the Ukrainian authorities in the religious sphere.

“We repeatedly encounter this reproach, this claim that there is persecution of religion in Ukraine. As the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations, we say: today in Ukraine there are no signs of persecution precisely for faith,” Kryvytskyi stated. He emphasized that persecutions for faith like those under the USSR do not exist in Ukraine today.

Kryvytskyi said that only one organization speaks about religious persecution – the UOC – while other UCCRO members deny it. According to the bishop, UCCRO acts as a “watchdog” and always reacts if real signs of persecution for faith appear in the state. “Americans are very sensitive to the issue of persecution for faith,” Kryvytskyi noted.

“Today we have problems with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, but this persecution, so to speak, all these court cases – they do not arise because of faith, that is, the religious confession of these people,” Kryvytskyi said. “Persecution happens only in the political context, which we all know perfectly well.”

He reported that the authorities are demanding that the UOC resolve “issues of subordination,” but acknowledged that this is not easy to settle: “It is a complex process. Here I speak as a churchman – it is ecclesiology, it is canon law; it is not so simple to remove this subordination.”

Earlier, the UOJ reported that Yelensky discussed with UCCRO plans for “advocating” Ukraine’s freedom of faith abroad.

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