The Ukrainian Justice Ministry’s commission reviewing state registration complaints has cancelled the reregistration of the buildings of the Holy Dormition Pochayiv Lavra (monastery, Ternopil region of Ukraine), the ministry’s press service said.
“At its session, the Justice Ministry commission ruled in favor of a complaint lodged by the Kremenets-Pochayiv Historical and Architectural Reserve, which asked the court to annul the state registration of the Holy Dormition Pochayiv Lavra religious organization’s right to use the complex of the buildings of the Holy Dormition Pochayiv Lavra. The Justice Ministry’s relevant decree was signed today [on Nov. 23],” the ministry’s press service quoted First Deputy Justice Minister Olena Sukmanova as saying.
The commission’s members concluded that the registrar had registered the right to use the monastery’s buildings such as its Dormition Church, Trinity Church, monastic cells, the bishop’s house, and also the over-the-gates bell tower with legal violations, she said.
“Therefore, the state registration decision has been cancelled and the relevant state registrar’s access to the state register of rights to real estate property has been blocked,” she said.
The Justice Ministry said earlier that the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra (Kyiv Monastery of the Caves) and the Holy Dormition Pochayiv Lavra are owned by Ukraine as a state and have been leased out to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) for 50 years. However, if it turns out that some irregularities occurred in concluding the leasing agreements, the Ukrainian government might revise them, the ministry said.
