Legal Dept.: Local authorities made 70 illegal decisions to ban UOC

Archpriest Oleksandr Bakhov. Photo: news.church.ua

Archpriest Oleksandr Bakhov, the head of the UOC Legal Department, said that as of today there are about 70 decisions of local authorities to ban activities of the canonical Church. He told this during a press conference on the oppression of the UOC, which took place at the Kyiv-Pechersk Monastery on December 15, 2022.

"Such decisions are illegal. They do not comply with the Constitution and violate the Ukrainian regulation on martial law. Local authorities have no competence to ban religious organizations. In this case, we advise clergymen to appeal to law enforcement authorities. After all, according to Article 19 of the Constitution, an official can only act within the framework of the law," said archpriest Oleksandr.

"The purpose of such bans is to create an information field as if the society demanded a ban on the UOC. In reality, this is not the case," he added.

"When local authorities ban the 'Moscow Patriarchate', they are banning an unknown entity, as there is no such entity in Ukraine. There is no such legal entity. But the problem is that the village head or just people take this decision to ban and go to our temple," the head of the UOC Legal Department noted.

As reported, the UOC is holding a press conference on the persecution and oppression of the Church.

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