Ministry of Culture Threatens Ukrainian Catholic Church

January 13, 2013 (KYIV)  The Ministry of Culture has released a letter warning the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church of lawsuits if its priests don’t stop participating in anti-government protests. “Ukrainian media is actively reporting on the religious activity which has been conducted by the representatives of Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church on Kyiv’s Independence square in December of last year and at the beginning of 2014 and it is a violation of Ukrainian legislation regarding the freedom of conscience and religious meetings ... Non-compliance with the principles stipulated in the article 16 of the law of Ukraine regarding the freedom of conscience and religious meetings can result in the issue of cancelling the activity of the following religious organizations being taken up to the court,” reads the letter posted by Ukrainska Pravda.

In response to the letter, Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, said that the church can’t stay away when its parishioners are asking for help. “The church is still preserving its right to assess the situation in the country if people’s rights and principles of public moral which come out of God’s law and are represented in social doctrine of church are violated,” he said at a press conference in Kyiv, according to the press service of Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.