Ternopil Regional Council Asks President Yanukovych Not to Transfer Pochayiv Monastery to UOC-MP
The Ternopil Regional Council called for the leadership of the state to prevent the approval of the Bill on Making Alterations to Certain Laws of Ukraine (regarding the Transfer of Objects of Cultural Heritage to Religious Organizations) envisaging the transfer of the Pochayiv Monastery to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate.
According to UNIAN, at the plenary session today, the council passed an address in this regard to Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych, Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov.
The deputies expressed concern about the response of the church and public circles of the region with respect to the bill as the public of the Ternopil Region, on the whole, opposes the bill.
At the session there were heated debates between representatives of the national democratic forces and members of the pro-regime group Stability and Reforms. Representatives of the Svoboda association, who proposed the text of the address, made a compromise and agreed to remove from it all sharp statements regarding the support by the regime of only one denomination and expansion of the UOC-MP in Ukraine.
As the result, the deputies only reminded the leadership of the state how the monastery found itself rented by the UOC-MP.
“On May 29, 2001, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine included the complex of monuments of cultural heritage in the towns of Kremenets and Pochayiv in the jurisdiction of the Kremenets-Pochayiv State Historic and Architectural Reserve. Then, by an instruction of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, in 2002, all the monuments were transferred from the joint ownership of the territorial communities of villages and towns of the Kremenets District to state ownership and the jurisdiction of the State Construction of Ukraine.
"In July 2003, according to an instruction of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, the buildings of the Pochayiv Monastery were excluded from the reserve, and in December of that year, the buildings of the monastery were transferred to the free use of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate,” reads the address.
In conclusion, the deputies called the leadership of the state to make decisive steps to prevent the approval of the mentioned bill. Seventy-four of the 82 deputies of the council voted for the address.
