Supreme Council Postpones Consideration of Bill on Secrecy of Confession

On December 15, the Supreme Council postponed consideration of the bill prohibiting priests to be called as witnesses regarding information they received during confessions. The author of the bill, a representative of the Our Ukraine–People's Self-Defense Bloc, deputy Volodymyr Marushchenko, asked to consider the bill at the next plenary session.  

According to the press service of the Supreme Council of Ukraine, in November 2009, Volodymyr Marushchenko proposed to the Supreme Council to prohibit priests to be called as witnesses regarding information they received during confessions and registered the draft law as Bill 5335 "On Making Alterations to the Criminal Code (Regarding Secret of Confession)."

The deputy notes that the effective code envisages that priests can be interrogated as witnesses if the person who revealed the information during a confession gives them permission.

According to the deputy, in reality there are no such cases when a person who confessed allows the priest to make the information public and that secrecy of confession is typical of most denominations.