Francesco, during the greetings after the Angelus, expresses his concerns arising from Kyiv’s decision to ban the Orthodox Church affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate. His appeal: “Let no Christian Church be directly or indirectly abolished.”
By: Francesca Sabatinelli – Vatican News
Date of publication:
Francesco expresses a deep concern immediately after the Angelus prayer: that those who wish to pray in what they consider their church should not be prevented. This is a direct reference to the Ukrainian Parliament’s decision to ban the Orthodox Church affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate.
I continue to follow with sorrow the conflicts in Ukraine and the Russian Federation, and thinking about the recent laws adopted in Ukraine, I have a fear for the freedom of those who pray, because those who truly pray always pray for everyone. Evil is not committed because one prays. If someone commits evil against their people, they will be guilty of it, but they cannot have committed evil because they prayed. And so let those who wish to pray in what they consider their church pray. Please, let no Christian Church be directly or indirectly abolished: Churches are not to be touched.
The Kyiv Decision
The bill voted on August 20 in Kyiv by an overwhelming majority, allowing the affected parishes nine months to sever ties with the Russian Orthodox Church, has prompted an immediate reaction from the Moscow Patriarchate, which referred to it as an “obvious violation of internationally recognized human rights in the field of religious freedom.”
Praying to End Wars
After the Angelus, Francesco also asked for prayers to “put an end to wars in Palestine, Israel, Myanmar, and every other region,” because “peoples are crying out for peace.”
