ROC hopes Zelensk as guarantor of Constitution will stop persecution of UOC
The adoption of new discriminatory laws against the canonical Church can be stopped by the current President of Ukraine, says Metropolitan Hilarion.
Vladimir Zelensky is the guarantor of the observance of the Constitution, ensuring the rights and freedoms of citizens, has an extensive toolkit of appropriate administrative powers to stop the persecution of the UOC that began under Petro Poroshenko, the head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate (DECR MP) Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Volokolamsk said in an interview with RIA Novosti.
The hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church noted that the discriminatory laws against the largest denomination of Ukraine, adopted during the years of Poroshenko's presidency, are still not cancelled. And now new anti-UOC bills have also been submitted to the Verkhovna Rada. “It is quite obvious that the rights of believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church have been violated and continue to be violated,” said Metropolitan Hilarion. For all the bias of some European and international human rights organizations, the documents they publish often admit multiple facts of religious discrimination in Ukraine."
He recalled that the powers of the President of Ukraine include direct participation in the process of adopting laws, including the right of veto, and he also has the right to appeal to the Constitutional Court on the constitutionality of certain laws. “I would like to hope that the reaction of the President of Ukraine will be active and appropriate to the situation,” resumed the metropolitan.
As reported, the ROC does not lose hope that the Alexandrian Patriarch Theodore will abandon his decision to recognize the Ukrainian schismatics.
