Roman Catholics of Sevastopol Ask Public Prosecutor To Call to Account Deputy of City Council

Roman Catholics of Sevastopol demand that the Office of Public Prosecutor should call to account a deputy of the city council, Artem Maltsev, for groundless accusations against the Church and untrue information about the Catholic Church building which is 100 years old.

According to UNIAN, the parish priest of the Roman Catholic community of Sevastopol, Fr. Yurii Ziminskyi, stated so in an interview to the independent online newspaper New Sevastopol.

“Speaking at the session of the city council in September, the deputy Maltsev spread disinformation as he said that the church was destroyed by bombardment during the war and then, the cinema was built in its place. The deputy also compared the Catholic Church to Nazism and the Roman Pope to the inspirer of the struggle against the Soviet Union and Orthodoxy. The deputy also said that all the deputies baptized in the Orthodox Church should vote against the transfer of the Church to the Catholics. We reported all that to the Office of the Public Prosecutor. We view these actions of the deputy as a criminal abuse of a state office aimed against the freedom of worship as such,” said Fr. Ziminskyi.

According to him, the Roman Catholics ask the Public Prosecutor to protect them “from the self will of some deputies of the city council.” “We ask to defend one of the historic values of Sevastopol, the Catholic church in the former Katolytska Street,” added Y. Ziminskyi.

In addition, he sees in the statements of Maltsev “political implication” based on an incorrect generalization according to which the Orthodox Church is the embodiment of Russia and the Catholic Church is the pro-West Ukraine.

According to the press, Maltsev views the fact that the Roman Catholics of Sevastopol approached the law enforcement authorities as attempts to put pressure on him as a deputy.