The Сhurch is going through very difficult times, – political expert

Discrimination against the UOC is not only the discrimination against one Church, which is prohibited by our Constitution, this is discrimination against believers of the UOC. This was said by journalist Vyacheslav Pikhovshek in the program "Subjective results" on the NewsOne channel.

"The US State Department has published a report on the freedom of religion in the world for 2016. The authors of this report – American diplomats – criticize bill No. 4511. There, for example, there is such a quote: "The bill will not allow the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to appoint bishops or promote clergymen to senior positions without prior approval by the central government." This is the way Article 5 of the bill reads.

This report also said about several cases of the seizure of UOC temples. Although in fact, these cases are much more than mentioned by the authors of the report," the political expert noted.

Vyacheslav Pikhovshek also commented on the situation with the prohibition to involve the priests of the UOC to chaplain service in the National Guard. "The Church is going through very difficult times. If we had a self-respecting Constitutional Court in our country, this could never happen. Such an order is not only discrimination against one Church, which is prohibited by our Constitution, this is discrimination against believers of the UOC. There are certainly such people in the National Guard. Or those who serve in the National Guard, are forced to fill in some forms, so that they will renounce the Church? " he said.

"Our Ukrainian Orthodox Church is the only Orthodox Church in our country. The only Orthodox Local Church recognized by all Churches. There are things that every person belonging to the Orthodox Church and the UOC in particular should remember," the journalist concluded.