Dnipro City Council calls on Verkhovna Rada to ban UOC

The session of the Dnipro City Council. Photo: dniprorada.gov.ua

Deputies of the Dnipro City Council have sent an appeal to the Verkhovna Rada urging it to ban the activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, reports the City Council's press service.

The appeal states that since 2014, Russian authorities have been using propaganda, "including through the activities of religious organizations that support the war against Ukraine within the territory of the Russian Federation, spread the enemy's narratives, justify Russian aggression, and sow discord on the territory of Ukraine."

The Dnipro deputies remind parliamentarians that anti-church bills No. 8221 ("On Ensuring National Security in the Field of Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations") and No. 8371 ("On Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine Concerning the Activities of Religious Organizations in Ukraine") have been registered in the Rada.

"Therefore, in order to urgently consider the above-mentioned bills, we address the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine with a request to legislatively regulate the prohibition of the activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which has a church-canonical connection with the Russian Orthodox Church, is its structural unit, and is in a relationship of subordination," the deputies write.

As reported, Dr. Thomas Bremer, a renowned Catholic theologian and professor at the University of Münster (Germany), stated that the conclusions of the "religious expertise" conducted by Ukraine's State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience regarding the Ukrainian Orthodox Church cannot be considered as confirmation of the church-canonical connection between the UOC and the Moscow Patriarchate.

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