Pope Francis, commenting on the law suggesting the ban of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Ukraine, said that no Christian church should be ‘abolished directly or indirectly’.
The Pope said that when he reflects ‘on the laws recently passed in Ukraine’ he has fear ‘for the freedom of those who pray.’ The Roman Catholic bishop emphasised that he who prays truly ‘always prays for all, evil is not committed because of prayer’.
‘If someone commits evil against his people, he will be guilty of it. But he does not commit evil because he prays. And may he who wants to pray be given the opportunity to pray in the place he considers his church. Please let no Christian church be abolished directly or indirectly. Churches must not be touched!’ – Francis said at the end of Sunday’s sermon in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican.
We shall remind you that on 22 August, the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church said that the scale and centralised nature of the bill adopted by the Verkhovna Rada ‘On the protection of the constitutional order in the sphere of activities of religious organisations’ could surpass ‘the historical repressions against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’.