On 10 April, The Lviv Regional Council passed an address to the Supreme Council of Ukraine and the local councils of all the levels as to prevention of the transfer of the national shrines to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate.
According to the website of the regional council, 78 deputies voted for the decision.
“The restoration of justice should be applied to all the religious organizations who suffered from the totalitarian regime and not serve to lobby the interests of one of the churches while discriminating the others,” reads the address.
According to the deputies, by granting communities of the UOC-MP possibilities to become the owners of the objects of cultural heritage which can be claimed by other denominations the authors of the bill are plotting a large scale scheme which can have catastrophic consequences for the Ukrainian culture and spirituality.
“The pearls of the historic heritage should belong exclusively to the Ukrainian state and can be passed to the free use of churches and religious organizations. These are the monuments of our history and culture, the signs and symbols of the identification significance for the whole Ukraine!
Therefore, Bill 9690 registered by a group of people’s deputies from the factions of the majority in the Supreme Council of Ukraine does not restore justice regarding religious organizations of Ukraine but, on the contrary, is a threat to the preservation of the spiritual and cultural values of Ukraine, civil accord in the country, sovereignty of our state, leave it wide open to abuse and, therefore, has no right to existence,” reads the document.
The deputies of the Lviv Oblast addressed town and regional councils of Ukraine with a call to condemn “the anti-state bill and use their statehood positions to protect the national shrines.”