First Deputy Minister of Culture of Ukraine, the ex-Head of the State Department on Nationalities and Religions, Yurii Bohutskyi spoke about the reasons why the President signed the notorious alterations to the Law on Freedom of Worship and Religious Organizations and the timing of elaboration of amendments thereto.
At a scholarly conference on State-Church relations in Ukraine held on 11-12 December at M. Dragomanov National Teacher Training University, First Deputy Minister of Culture of Ukraine, the ex-Head of the State Department on Nationalities and Religions, Yurii Bohutskyi spoke about the reasons why the President signed the notorious alterations to the Law on Freedom of Worship and Religious Organizations and the timing of elaboration of amendments thereto. The speaker noted that it was about 38 amendments, which in particular included ones regarding the religious law. According to Mr. Bohutskyi, the President had to sign it because the law concerned not only religious issues. However, he immediately issued an instruction to the Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Justice to elaborate necessary changes to the basic law.
The official assured that on 13 December, a work team will begin to elaborate the amendments. And that the state is interested in the permanent dialogue with the Churches and religious organizations.
After the official’s report, a discussion began on the problem of the Church-State relations. Archbishop Yevstratii (Zoria) of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate said that a dialogue implies a possibility to be heard.
The archbishop stressed that “unfortunately, the dialogue was suspended repeatedly and the position of the Churches was not heard or taken into account. According to him, the situation regarding the mentioned bill has served as a lesson to the Churches stressing the importance of such efforts. In his opinion, the fact that the amendments are submitted as part of a package of 38 other ones affects the quality of them. The hierarch noted that the Churches proposed their amendments which were not taken into account. The representatives of UOC-KP assured that the Churches were ready for constructive cooperation. And that now, it is necessary to pass alterations to the law on making alterations.
As RISU reported earlier, the Department of Religious Studies of the Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine expressed a low opinion of the current Church-State relations. A group of scholars refused to participate in the conference showing their protest against the current State policy in the religious area. In particular, Professor Liudmyla Fylypovych stressed that the current State policy in the religious area is aimed against the freedom of worship and religious organizations.
“The State does not wish to hear its citizens and believers, in particular, who expressed in unity their negative opinion of the approval of the anti-democratic Bill 10221, and, therefore, there is no sense to speak if one will not be heard,” stated the leading expert in the area of State-Church relations and religious freedom.