Pope expresses concern about religious freedom in Ukraine – Detroit Catholic

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – “Please do not allow any Christian church to be abolished directly or indirectly: the churches must not be touched,” said Pope Francis about a Ukrainian law banning the Russian Orthodox Church, which President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed on August 24, Ukraine’s Independence Day.

“I continue to follow with sadness the fighting in Ukraine and the Russian Federation,” Pope Francis told visitors and pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the Angelus prayer on August 25.

But, he said, “when one thinks of the legal regulations recently adopted in Ukraine, one is concerned about the freedom of those who pray, because whoever truly prays always prays for everyone. Whoever prays does no evil.”

On August 20, Ukrainian lawmakers approved a bill banning the Russian Orthodox Church and its branches in Ukraine. The law requires the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which is affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate, to sever all ties with the Russian Orthodox Church or face a trial that would lead to its dissolution.

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow has publicly blessed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine and has repeatedly advocated the ideology of the “Russian World” or “Russian Mir,” which views Ukraine as part of Russia’s religious, cultural and political sphere of influence.

In a speech at the Vatican on August 25, Pope Francis said: “If someone does evil against his people, he is guilty of it, but just because he has prayed he cannot have done evil.”

“Those who want to pray should be able to pray in the church that they consider their own,” the Pope said. “Please do not allow any Christian church to be abolished, directly or indirectly: the churches must not be touched.”

The Ukrainian Embassy to the Holy See stated in a statement published on X a few hours later that the Pope's concerns were “unfounded. The law in no way affects 'the freedom of the person praying.'”

Instead, the tweet continued, the law aims to introduce “logical and reasonable restrictions necessary in a democratic society” to protect the nation “which is facing aggression on a large scale by a state that uses the Church, especially the Russian Orthodox Church – both in Russia and through its allies in Ukraine – as a weapon and launching pad for aggression not only against Ukraine but also against the civilized world.”

Ukraine “respects and observes the principles of freedom of conscience and religion,” the embassy said in a statement.

The Religious Information Service of Ukraine, established at the Catholic University of Ukraine in Lviv, reported on August 21 that Major Archbishop Svyatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Greek Catholic Church of Ukraine, said the law was “not a ban on the church, but a means of protection against the danger of using religion as a weapon.”

According to the archbishop, RISU said the law aims to “protect the religious environment of Ukraine from the instrumentalization and militarization of religion, which has become characteristic of the activities of the Russian Orthodox Church in the context of war.”

RISU also quoted Viktor Yelensky, head of Ukraine's State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience, as saying that once the leadership of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate breaks off relations with Moscow, it can unite with the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which is recognized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, or it can determine its own canonical status.

Yelensky said he spoke with Metropolitan Onufrij of the Moscow Church and “told him that we do not demand that he join another church. I said that we do not demand to switch to a new calendar, etc., that we are only concerned with breaking off relations with Moscow,” RISU reported.