The website of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine made public the Decree of the Grand Chamber of the Constitutional Court dated March 7, 2019, in which the court dismissed the claim of 47 MPs to institute constitutional proceedings on the Resolution of the Verkhovna Rada requesting the Ecumenical Patriarch to grant the Tomos of autocephaly to Ukraine. This is reported by Tserkvarium.
The website of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine made public the Decree of the Grand Chamber of the Constitutional Court dated March 7, 2019, in which the court dismissed the claim of 47 MPs to institute constitutional proceedings on the Resolution of the Verkhovna Rada requesting the Ecumenical Patriarch to grant the Tomos of autocephaly to Ukraine. This is reported by Tserkvarium.
The court noted that the assessment of such documents in terms of their constitutionality does not fall within its competence, since Decree No 2410-VIII of the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) of Ukraine dated 19.04.2018 outlines the political position of the Parliament, supporting the Appeal of the President of Ukraine to the Ecumenical Patriarch to provide the Orthodox Church of Ukraine with the Tomos of autocephaly.
Explaining the limits of their powers to the MPs opposing autocephaly, the Constitutional Court noted that it can only assess legal issues and not those related to politics.
In December 2018, 47 Ukrainian MPs, mainly representatives of the Opposition Bloc (including Yuriy Boyko, Oleksandr Vilkul, Vadym Novynsky) filed a request to the Constitutional Court to declare unconstitutional the Decree of the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) of Ukraine, which supported Ukrainian President’s Appeal on granting autocephaly.
The causes of action against the parliamentary majority were “state interference in church affairs", "violation of constitutional rights and freedoms of citizens, including the right to freedom of religion”, and others alike.
But there are three other lawsuits filed with the Supreme Court of Ukraine, which contest the actions of state agencies in the process of acquiring autocephaly: a suit filed by the religious organization Religious Community of St. Nicholas Church of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s Berdyansk Diocese in the City of Berdyansk, Zaporizhzhia oblast against the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, in which the plaintiff requests to declare illegal and quash Resolution No. 241-VIII of April 19, 2018 of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine “On Supporting the Appeal of the President of Ukraine to the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew on granting the Tomos of autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine”; a suit filed by St.George's men’s stauropegic monastery of Horodnytsia against the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to recognize illegal and quash the Resolution of the Verkhovna Rada; a suit filed by the Bishop of Makariv, Vicar of the Kyiv Metropolis, rector of the Monastery of Tithes of the Holy Theotokos of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the city of Kyiv to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to recognize illegal and quash the Resolution of the Verkhovna Rada.