A group of Lithuanian MPs have registered draft amendments allowing the courts to deregister or liquidate a religious organisation for national security reasons.
The move comes in response to the pro-war views toward the Russian invasion of Ukraine by some religious groups, said Tomas Vytautas Raskevičius, member of the Freedom Party in the ruling coalition and head of the parliamentary Committee on Human Rights. He did not name which groups he had in mind.
"We had such discussions in the public sphere when certain religious communities, in the international context, expressed very interesting views on the war in Ukraine, and if they are recognised as a threat to national security, the court would have the discretion to overturn such a recognition," Raskevičius said.
Lithuania’s Christian Orthodox church, which is now subordinate to the Patriarchate of Moscow, has been criticised for allegedly supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine, an accusation rejected by the heads of the church.
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However, five priests have since been expelled from the organisation in what they said were reprisals due to their anti-war stance.
A parallel Christian Orthodox structure under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople is now being created on the basis of the five former priests. Although defrocked last year by Metropolitan Innokentiy, they were reinstated by Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople in February.
The Moscow Patriarchate accused the priests of canonical offences, but Constantinople ruled that they had been defrocked because of their position on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, rather than for breaking the Church rules.
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‘No reference to Orthodox Christians’
Another MP of the task group that registered the amendments denied there was a link to the war in Ukraine.
"There was no specific reference to the Orthodox Christians," Rimantė Šalaševičiūtė from the opposition Farmers and Greens Union told BNS.
"It was a very competent task group bringing together representatives from the Justice Ministry and other institutions, and us, members appointed by the parliamentary groups. The provisions of the law were analysed, and these are the final collegial decisions," the MP said.
"It was not identified as a threat to Lithuania's security coming specifically from the Orthodox Church," she added.
Under the draft amendments, the Justice Ministry will be able to ask a religious community or association to provide explanations if it has information suggesting that their activities may pose a threat to national security.
The ministry will then have the right to ask the court to remove the community from the Register of Legal Entities if it is recognized as a traditional religious community in Lithuania. If it’s not, the court will be able to liquidate the organisation.
Lithuania currently has nine traditional religious communities, including the Christian Orthodox church.
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