UOC hierarch: VR lawyers claim that Law 8371 contradicts Constitution

Metropolitan Clement (Vecheria). Photo: Nizhyn Eparchy

Chairman of the Synodal Information and Educational Department of the UOC, Metropolitan Clement of Nizhyn and Pryluky, commented to “Strana” the adoption of Bill 8371 aimed at baning the UOC.

‘The best comment on this creation of the Verkhovna Rada was provided by the Legal Department of the Parliament, which develops detailed analyses of all bills. So, the lawyers of the Verkhovna Rada itself claim that the text of the just adopted law does not comply with several fundamental articles of the Ukrainian Constitution and a number of principles that Ukraine has ratified in international treaties as a democratic state. This concerns the legal side of the law. But there is also a moral one. If millions of believing Ukrainian citizens had known that the current parliament would ban churches, they would obviously have formed a completely different composition at the elections,” the UOC hierarch said.

As reported by the UOJ, on 20 August 2024, the Verkhovna Rada adopted as a whole Bill No. 8371 “On the Protection of the Constitutional Order in the Field of Activity of Religious Organisations” aimed at actually banning the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

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