Pope Francis on Ukraine’s Russian Orthodox Church ban: ‘Churches are not to be touched!’

Pope Francis greets the faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square on Aug. 25, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media CNA Staff, Aug 26, 2024 / 11:09 am (CNA). Pope Francis on Sunday sharply denounced the Ukrainian government’s recently enacted ban on Russian Orthodox Church worship, arguing that the faithful should not be barred from worshipping as they please.The new Ukrainian law, which passed the country’s Parliament on Aug. 20, bans the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukrainian territory. The measure comes roughly two-and-a-half years after Russia invaded Ukraine in a major escalation of the two countries’ ongoing conflict. The new law further 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.In his Angelus address on Sunday, the Holy Father said he has been “thinking about the laws recently adopted in Ukraine,” which he said causes him to “fear for the freedom of those who pray.”“[T]hose who truly pray always pray for all,” the pope said. “A person does not commit evil because of praying. If someone commits evil against his people, he will be guilty for it, but he cannot have committed evil because he prayed.” “So let those who want to pray be allowed to pray in what they consider their Church. Please, let no Christian church be abolished directly or indirectly,” Francis said. “Churches are not to be touched!” he added.The Ukrainian Parliament’s news agency alleged last week that the Russian Orthodox Church has “become a de facto part of the state apparatus of Putin’s criminal totalitarian regime.”The church “is used by Russia to justify and support aggression against Ukraine and Putin’s insane policies in general,” the state agency claimed. Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, last week defended the new law, arguing that the Russian government has used the Orthodox Church “as a tool of militarization.”The new law aims to offer protection against ideology and narratives being pushed about Ukraine being part of the “Russian world,” the archbishop argued.