VATICAN CITY — “Please, let no Christian church be abolished directly or indirectly: the churches are not to be touched,” Pope Francis said about a Ukrainian law banning the Russian Orthodox Church, which President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed Aug. 24, Ukrainian independence day. “I continue to follow with sorrow the fighting in Ukraine and the Russian Federation,” Pope Francis told visitors and pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square Aug. 25 for the recitation of the Angelus prayer. But, he said, “thinking about the legal regulations recently adopted in Ukraine, a fear arises for the freedom of those who pray, because those who truly pray always pray for everyone. One does not commit evil because one prays.” Ukrainian lawmakers approved a bill Aug. 20 to ban the Russian Orthodox Church and its affiliates in Ukraine. The law requires the Ukrainian Orthodox Church affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate to sever all ties with the Russian Orthodox Church or face a process that would lead to its disbanding. (CNS)
