UOC hierarch: We make contributions to the Pension Fund, not to Moscow
Clerics of the Church, like all citizens of Ukraine, pay labour tax to the pension fund and receive a pension, said Met. Iriney. No money is transferred to Moscow.
The UOC does not make financial contributions to Moscow; the only deductions of the Church are deductions to the Pension Fund of Ukraine, Metropolitan Iriney (Seredniy) of Dnepropetrovsk and Pavlograd explained in an interview with the UOJ.
According to him, it is these deductions that allow clergy to provide for their own old age.
“Now we, like all citizens, are paying the labour tax and then we receive a state pension if we live to see it,” he said.
Metropolitan Iriney also shared his point of view on the law on the renaming of religious organizations. This law, in his opinion, is absurd, and can offend the patriotic feelings of Orthodox Ukrainians who love their country and work for its good. “They are not Russians, and this step is the worst mistake and offense for these people. How is that? They are Ukrainians but suddenly have to register as the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine,” he commented on the idea of the authorities to rename the canonical Church into the “Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine”.
