Catholic archbishop defends Ukrainian ban on Russian Orthodox Church activities

Sviatoslav Shevchuk is Major Archbishop of Kyiv–Galicia and Primate of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church / Credit: Screenshot/EWTN News Nightly

CNA Staff, Aug 22, 2024 / 17:00 pm (CNA).

Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, this week defended a new Ukrainian law that aims to limit the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church in the country because of its support for Vladimir Putin’s invasion and regime. 

Shevchuk, who has spoken out frequently in Ukraine’s defense since the start of the war, said Russia has used the Russian Orthodox Church “as a tool of militarization” and that the new law aims to offer protection against ideology and narratives being pushed about Ukraine being part of the “Russian world,” Crux reported. 

The Russian Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church with an estimated 150 million members, accounting for more than half of the world’s Orthodox Christians. The leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, has garnered criticism and even international sanctions for his support of Putin’s invasion, which began on Feb. 24, 2022.

The new law, which passed the Ukrainian parliament on Aug. 20, bans the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukrainian territory. It also encourages religious organizations in Ukraine, including the Moscow-aligned Ukrainian Orthodox Church, “to break the existing ties with the Russian state,” according to the parliamentary news agency.

The parliament said the law “establishes a transparent legal procedure for identifying ties with Russia” by way of “an impartial and independent commission of experts. Then, through a judicial procedure, all the facts will be established and the severance of ties with Russia will be ensured.”

“The so-called ‘Russian Orthodox Church’ has become a de facto part of the state apparatus of Putin’s criminal totalitarian regime, and is used by Russia to justify and support aggression against Ukraine and Putin’s insane policies in general,” the news agency said.

“The Russian Orthodox Church sanctifies Russian actions and justifies the atrocities that Russians have brought to Ukraine. There can be no possibility for such Russian structures to operate in Ukraine, either directly or through organizations dependent on the ROC.”

In a statement issued on the first day of the attack, Kirill stressed that he was “the Patriarch of All Russia and the primate of a Church whose flock is located in Russia, Ukraine, and other countries” and called “on all parties to the conflict to do everything possible to avoid civilian casualties,” reiterating that “the Russian and Ukrainian peoples have a common centuries-old history.” The statement did not include any condemnation of Russian aggression but instead seemed to reaffirm the conviction that Ukraine is Russia’s canonical territory.

And in a March 27, 2024 document posted to the Russian Orthodox Church’s website, a council organized by the church called Putin’s “special military operation” a “Holy War.” 

Pope Francis has not met with Kirill since their historic first meeting in the Havana airport in February 2016 — the first meeting between a pope and a patriarch of Moscow. A planned second meeting between the two leaders in Jerusalem in June 2022 was canceled following a video call between the pope and the Russian patriarch in March of that year.

Ukrainian troops staged a surprise invasion of Russian territory on Aug. 6 and captured a town and several settlements, about 480 square miles in all, but their advance has slowed. Meanwhile, Russian forces are advancing toward the strategically important eastern city of Pokrovsk.