Pope Francis has criticized Ukraine’s ban on the nation’s Russia-linked Orthodox Church, in an indication of a rising rift between Kiev and the Vatican.
“No Christian church may be abolished directly or indirectly. The churches must not be touched,” the pontiff mentioned in his Sunday prayers, condemning a regulation lately handed by President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Ukraine says the ban is justified as a result of the Moscow Patriarchate helps the Russian warfare of aggression.
The pope instructed tens of hundreds of believers in St Peter’s Square that “one does not commit evil by praying. If someone does something evil to his people, he is guilty. But he can’t have done anything bad by praying.”
Kiev has beforehand accused the pope of taking sides with Russia, a cost the Vatican rejects.
For a very long time, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church set the tone in Ukraine’s complicated church panorama. It belonged to the Moscow Patriarchate till 2022, however after the Russian invasion it formally reduce its ties to Moscow and condemned the warfare.
Nevertheless, Kiev accuses it of justifying Russian crimes towards its personal individuals and spreading Russian propaganda. An estimated 3 million worshippers are affected by the ban.
Source: www.anews.com.tr