President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the Cabinet of Ministers is in charge of leasing the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. This was reported by the President’s website.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the Cabinet of Ministers is in charge of leasing the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.This was reported by the President’s website.
The authors of the petition demand that the head of state “stop the use of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate by terminating the lease agreement and transfer the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine”.
The petition has already been signed by 27.5 thousand people, which is more than enough for the President to consider this issue.
Zelensky replied: “Under clause 5 Article 116 of the Fundamental Law of Ukraine, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine manages the state property items.
The powers of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine in the sector of the economy to manage state property items, including corporate rights thereto, per the law, and to delegate certain powers to manage these property items to ministries and other Central Executive bodies per the law are defined by the Law of Ukraine “On the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine” (paragraph 4 clause 1 Part 1 Article 20).”
Earlier, a petition appeared on the President’s website demanding that Zelensky terminate the lease of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra of the UOC-MP and transfer the religious shrine to OCU for use.
The motivational part of the petition draws attention to the fact that the Orthodox Church of Ukraine is an Autocephalous Orthodox Church on the territory of Ukraine, and the Church of Constantinople considers the OCU to be the only 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 is noted that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate is not Autocephalous. Also, high church hierarchs of the UOC-MP have been repeatedly noticed in statements and actions directed against the Ukrainian people, and facts are provided to confirm this. This is reported by Ukrayinska Pravda.