MOSCOW, July 25 (RAPSI) — The Russian Justice Ministry has allowed clergy to bring Eucharistic bread and wine to detention centers for communion, hegumenia Xenia Chernega, head of the legal department of the Moscow Patriarchate, tells RAPSI.

This humanitarian measure was introduced by a ministry order of July 4, 2022 on approval of a number of regulations concerning detention facilities of the Russian penitentiary system, which had already come in force.

One of those regulations permits to perform religious rites and allows clergy to bring into the pretrial detention centers books, objects of religious worship needed for religious rites, including those to make communion, Chernega pointed out.

The Patriarchate reminded that clergy of traditional confessions will be allowed in the pretrial detention centers in accordance with cooperation agreements concluded by the Federal Penitentiary Service with centralized religious organizations and determining the conditions for the admission of priests to prisoners held in prisons and other correctional institutions.