"Do not touch the churches. Thinking about the law recently passed in Ukraine, I fear for the freedom of those who pray," the Pope said in his weekly prayer, a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed the ban law.
Zelensky - who met with the Pope in June during the G7 summit in Italy - signed a law banning the Russian-linked Orthodox Church in Ukraine.
Ukraine has sought to distance itself from the Russian church since 2014, and efforts accelerated after Russia's invasion in 2022.
Zelensky approved the bill, which Russia has vetoed, on the day of Kiev's independence from the Soviet Union.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church officially separated from the Moscow Patriarchate in 2022, but Ukrainian officials have repeatedly accused its clergy of remaining loyal to Russia.
Pope Francis said he continues to follow with sadness the fighting in Ukraine, which Russia invaded in February 2022. | BGNES
