MP: Ukrainians should fund OCU and UGCC from their taxes

Mykyta Poturaev. Photo: Ukrinform

Ukrainian MP Mykyta Poturaev, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy, has proposed introducing a mechanism for tax-based funding of religious organizations. He made the statement at a press conference presenting the nationwide survey “Assessment of the Religious Situation in Ukraine.”

“The point is for Ukrainian citizens to be able to support, from their taxes, those religious organizations they consider necessary. This is a widely used model in Europe,” Poturaev said.

Among the organizations he described as “necessary,” he named the OCU and the UGCC. By contrast, he cited the UOC, which he claimed had been financed through a “feudal-lobbyist system.”

According to him, the UOC received funds from people who had “privatized enormous state assets,” and this practice allegedly continues today.

Poturaev assured that the OCU and the UGCC would not take such a path and therefore need Ukrainians’ tax support.

“Knowing the position of His Beatitude Sviatoslav and His Beatitude Epifaniy, our Churches will not go down that road, because this is not the Middle Ages. It is the ROC and structures affiliated with it that are striving toward the Middle Ages, as we can see. Therefore, this issue must be resolved,” Poturaev said.

The MP did not mention that Article 35 of Ukraine’s Constitution explicitly declares the separation of Church and state.

According to Poturaev, giving the initiative a legislative form will take time.

“Of course, this will have to be formalized legislatively, perhaps more specifically after our victory,” he concluded.

Earlier, UOJ reported that, according to Poturaev, the authorities are studying the UOC’s status based on Russian documents.

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