Ukrainian Deputies Intend To Transfer Kyiv Cave and Pochaiv Monasteries to UOC-Moscow Patriarchate
The deputies of the Supreme Council registered a bill “On restitution of objects of cultural heritage of religious organizations,” said Ukrainian deputy Vasyl Horbal of the Party of Regions faction.
According to the bill, the Cabinet of Ministers is within 3 month to settle the issue of the transfer of objects located in the Kremenets District to the Women’s Monastery of the Holy Epiphany of Ternopil Eparchy and to the Pochaiv Monastery of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) and the transfer of objects located in the city of Kyiv to the Kyiv Cave men’s Monastery of UOC-MP without the right of alienation and change of intended purposes of use of the objects.
“The bill provides a legally correct description of the actual situation of the monasteries, restores historic justice by returning to the church the religious buildings confiscated by the Soviet regime,” noted the deputy.
The authors of the bill are deputies of the Party of Regions faction, Andrii Derkach, Vasyl Horbal and Dmytro Shentsov, a member of the People’s (Narodna) Party, Serhii Hrynevetskyi, a member of the Communist Party faction, Oleksandr Holub and the head of the deputy group Reforms for the Future (elected from the list of the Motherland of Yulia Tymoshenko), Ihor Rybakov.
According to Horbal, the bill will undoubtedly be passed at the nearest session of the parliament as its authors represent various factions.
The bill distinguishes between the powers of the local administrations and Cabinet of Ministers regarding the transfer of objects, which are architectural monuments, defines a mechanism of strict control over the use of the objects for intended purposes, reported Unian.net.
