A petition has appeared on the website of the Cabinet of Ministers demanding to withdraw the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra from the lease of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is in unity with the Moscow Patriarchate, and transfer it to the use of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine
The petition, similar in content to the one that was previously published on the President's website, was published on May 26.
"As long as the e-petition ... of the similar content on the website of the official Internet representation of the President of Ukraine supported by more than 25,000 citizens, was provided an answer of the President of Ukraine regarding the management of state property in the competence of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine per paragraph 5 of Article 116 of the Constitution of Ukraine, please consider the petition, which is given below," the authors of the document request.
As of May 27, the petition was signed by 545 people out of the 25,000 required for the government to consider it. There are 89 days left until the end of the signature collection.
As RISU already reported, earlier on the President's website, a petition appeared demanding that Zelensky terminate the lease of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra of the UOC-MP and transfer the religious shrine to the use of the OCU. The petition was signed by more than 27,000 people, which was more than enough for the President to consider the issue.
The motivational part of the petition drew attention to the fact that the Orthodox Church of Ukraine Autocephalous Orthodox Church in Ukraine, and the Church of Constantinople believes the OCU to be the sole canonical successor of the Kyiv Metropolia.
According to the signatories, it is quite fair that the spiritual shrine should be used by the Orthodox denomination, which is recognized by the Orthodox world as the Autocephalous Orthodox Church on the territory of Ukraine.
At the same time, it was noted that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate is not Autocephalous. Also, high Church hierarchs of the UOC-MP were repeatedly heard to make statements and perform actions directed against the Ukrainian people, and facts were provided to support this.
In response, Zelensky said on May 22 that the Cabinet of Ministers is responsible for leasing the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. Zelensky replied: "According to paragraph 5 Article 116 of the Fundamental Law of Ukraine, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine manages the state property items. This was reported by the President's website.