A controversial new law passed in Ukraine which bans any links with the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) has been supported by one of the country's senior clerics.
According to Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, it is designed to prevent the militarization of religion in the country.
On Tuesday the country's parliament adopted Law 8371 which effectively prohibits the activities of the ROC in Ukraine and bans anything linked to Russia.
Since the beginning of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow has been strongly supportive of its country, describing the conflict as a "holy war" which protects the world from “globalism and the victory of the West that has fallen into Satanism.”
The Orthodox Church of Ukraine and members of the Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organisations supported the bill on Saturday, adding religious freedoms are safe in Ukraine. The issue has been seen as one of national security.
Most Ukrainians are Orthodox Christians and their faith is split between the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) and the Independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine which has been in operation since 2019. The UOC was historically a part of the Russian Orthodox Church but it started to distance itself from Moscow after the February 2022 invasion.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has labelled the new law as “our spiritual independence" adding that "we will continue to strengthen our Ukraine, our society."
According to Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk Russia has used the church as a "weapon". Shevchuk also said the new law helped reset the ideology of a “Russian peace” which involves the ideology of the “Russian world.” Though he added there would invariably be issues as the law works itself out and that, “it is important to monitor how it will be implemented in practice.”
Currently, over a hundred priests of the UOC face criminal proceedings for war-related crimes, the Security Service of Ukraine said on Tuesday 20th August.
However, not everyone was supportive of the new law. Bishop Metropolitan Klyment of the UOC called the new law "unjust."
“The UOC is independent and self-governing in its administration,” he affirmed adding that it was not subordinate to any other body.
And Heorhiy Kovalenko, a representative of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine who switched from the Moscow Patriarchate in 2019, told the Kyiv Post the law only restricted the activities of Ukrainian religious organisations linked to Russia, adding it didn't seek to ban anything more broadly.
Opinion polls showed about 82 per cent of Ukrainians did not trust the UOC and only about 8 per cent of the population trusted it.