Ukrainian government moves to outlaw Ukrainian Orthodox Church

By Peter Anderson

Building of the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament. (Photo: Wikipedia)

On Sunday, August 25, Pope Francis at the end of his Angelus address expressed his concerns about a law recently adopted in Ukraine. He stated:

“I continue to follow with sorrow the fighting in Ukraine and the Russian Federation. And in thinking about the laws recently adopted in Ukraine, I fear for the freedom of those who pray, because those who truly pray always pray for all. A person does not commit evil because of praying. If someone commits evil against his people, he will be guilty for it, but he cannot have committed evil because he prayed. So let those who want to pray be allowed to pray in what they consider their Church. Please, let no Christian Church be abolished directly or indirectly. Churches are not to be touched!”

On the prior day, August 24, the World Council of Churches (WCC) had stated that it was “deeply alarmed by the potential for unjustified collective punishment of an entire religious community and violation of the principles of freedom of religion or belief under a new law.”

Both Pope Francis and the WCC were referring to Law 3894, which was passed by the Ukrainian parliament on August 20, 2024, and signed by President Zelensky four days later. Under Law 3894, the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) was banned in Ukraine on the grounds that the Russian Church was supporting the armed aggression against Ukraine.

However, even more importantly, the new law subjects to termination Ukrainian religious organizations which are “affiliated” with the Russian Church and fail to sever their affiliation. The law also requires termination of Ukrainian religious organizations whose “authorized persons” commit certain crimes relating to national security. Furthermore, termination is mandated where there are “repeated facts” that the Ukrainian religious organization is used to propagate the doctrine of Russkiy Mir [“the Russian world”].

If a religious organization is terminated, the penalties are severe. All of its assets are subject to confiscation by the government. “Cult property [such as churches and monasteries] is transferred to other religious organizations.”

Comments by members of the Ukrainian parliament make it clear that the primary target of the new law is the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC). The UOC has more than 8,000 parishes and more than 250 monasteries. Historically, it has been the largest church in Ukraine and has been part of the Russian Church.

After the invasion of Ukraine, the UOC held a Council and deleted from the Charter of the UOC all references to the Russian Church except for two relating to the creation of the UOC in 1990.  At the Council, the UOC also declared its independence from the Russian Church. Since the Council, there is no evidence that the Russian Church has exercised any actual control over the UOC.

The Ukrainian government maintains that the UOC is still “affiliated” with the Russian Church. In Law 3894 an affiliation is defined by the existence of any one of seven “signs.” If any of the signs exist with respect to the UOC, the law requires that the UOC be “terminated” unless it eliminates the signs. Because some of the signs are based solely on the provisions of the Charter of the Russian Church, which the UOC is powerless to change, it appears relatively certain that the UOC will be terminated under the new law and will lose all of its churches and monasteries.