"Churches cannot be touched": Pope Francis reacts to ban on UOC-MP in Ukraine
On Sunday, 25 August, Pope Francis said that the Ukrainian law banning the activities of religious organisations linked to Russia in Ukraine allegedly prohibits people from praying "in the church they consider their own". The pontiff called for no church to be banned.
According to Censor.NET, citing hromadske, the Vatican's information resource Vatican News quoted him as saying this.
The Pope expressed "fears for freedom", noting that in Ukraine, he said, "anyone who wants to is not allowed to pray in what he considers his church".
According to him, those who pray cannot do evil because of this. He urged not to abolish any Christian church "directly or indirectly": "Churches cannot be touched."
"If someone does evil against his people, he will be guilty of it. [...] So let those who want to pray be allowed to pray in the church they consider their own," Francis said.
What preceded this?
On 20 August, the Verkhovna Rada passed in the second reading the draft law "On Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine on the Activities of Religious Organisations in Ukraine", which bans the activities of religious organisations associated with the Russian Federation.
On 24 August, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a law banning the activities of religious organisations associated with the Russian Federation in Ukraine.
