The Head of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience, Viktor Yelensky, met in the Vatican with the Prefect of the Dicastery for Eastern Catholic Churches, Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, and discussed the specifics of the religious situation in Ukraine and the implementation of the law “On the Protection of the Constitutional Order in the Activities of Religious Organizations.”
It is noted that Cardinal Gugerotti emphasized the inadmissibility and moral wrongness of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and stressed the Holy See’s support for the efforts of the international community aimed at achieving lasting peace.
He also expressed his vision of interchurch relations in Ukraine and noted that he agrees with the need for fair punishment of individuals, including clergy, who violate the laws of the state or cooperate with the Russian forces, but does not consider it possible to impose collective punishments on religious associations.
In turn, Yelensky noted that, under conditions when a religious association is not a legal entity, and such status belongs to thousands of religious communities, and also that the final decision regarding the fate of a particular religious organization is made by the court, as it should be in a democratic society, it is not possible to speak of collective punishment for the entire association.
Cardinal Gugerotti was the Apostolic Nuncio in Ukraine from 2015 until June 2020.
The meeting was attended by Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Ukraine to the Holy See and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta Andriy Yurash, First Secretary of the Embassy of Ukraine to the Holy See Serhiy Kozachevskyi, Secretary of the Dicastery for Eastern Catholic Churches Michel Zahal, and Chief Specialist of the Legal Support and Legal Analysis Department of the SSU Viktor Husev.
The working visit of the SSU delegation to the Vatican took place with the support of the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
