Parubiy’s actions on adoption of anti-church law recognized unlawful
In the newest history of Ukraine, a landmark event occurred: the court took the side of the public, recognizing the actions of the authorities toward the UOC illegal.
On April 5, 2019, the Kiev district administrative court decided to declare illegal the actions of the head of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Andrey Parubiy, in connection with the adoption of the draft law on the forced renaming of the canonical Church. It was reported by MP of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Vadim Novinsky on his Facebook page.
“The Ukrainian Orthodox Church was attempted to be renamed forcibly into the Russian Church in Ukraine – not taking into account either the constitutional norms, the opinion of the parishioners, or the position of the Church itself,” the Parliamentarian said. “Not only the government does not have the constitutional right to interfere in religious issues, but also, contrary to the requirements of the Regulations, the bill was put to a second vote in order to achieve a pre-planned result.”
We are talking about the adoption by the Verkhovna Rada of the draft law “On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine ‘On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations’”, which obliges the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to change its name as the Church, “whose governing center is located in the aggressor country”, and become “Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine”. The lawsuit against the actions of the VR head Andrei Parubiy was filed by MP from the “Opposition Bloc” Alexander Dolzhenkov.
“Thank God that the court showed real respect for the spirit and letter of the Law and satisfied the claim of Alexander Dolzhenkov. Now the question of forcibly renaming the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to please Petro Poroshenko and his entourage is removed from the agenda. I want to believe that it is a final point,” concluded Novinsky.
Recall, on December 20, 2018, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a law obliging the UOC to indicate in its title its affiliation to the Russian Orthodox Church. On December 22, this law was signed by the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko. In turn, the UOC announced its intention to challenge the bill No 5309 in the Constitutional Court of Ukraine.
As the UOJ reported, earlier the UOC appealed to the court with the request to recognize the decision of the Ministry of Culture, which obliges it to indicate its affiliation to the Russian Orthodox Church in its name as unlawful.
