Metropolitan Bartholomew of Rivne discusses with OSCE mission violations of UOC believers’ rights

The OSCE mission continues to monitor inter-confessional issues in the Rivne region. This time, OSCE officers, who arrived in Rivne from the Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk offices, met with the Metropolitan Bartholomew of Rivne and Ostroh, reports a UOJ correspondent.

The meeting was also attended by a human rights activist and the clergy of the diocese. Representatives of the OSCE and the diocese of Rivne discussed a number of issues related to non-enforcement of court decisions on the conflict parishes in the Rivne region.

In particular, Metropolitan Bartholomew stressed that the decision of the Supreme Economic Court of Ukraine of December 20, 2016, which obliged the religious community of the Kyiv Patriarchate to vacate Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene’s Church has not yet entered into force in the village of Badivka in the Ostroh district of the Rivne region.

Also, the ruling bishop of the diocese of Rivne mentioned the situation in the village of Ptycha, where local authorities provoke another round of confrontation of believers. He noted that "the authorities pay no attention to violations of the rights of the faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, one of the largest denominations in Ukraine."

As reported by the UOJ, in Ptycha local authorities provoke a new round of confrontation

Tags UOC Rivne diocese of the UOC Metropolitan Bartholomew OSCE church seizure violation of believers’ rights