Neste artigo vou juntar as palavras e declarações de líderes religiosos relevantes sobre a actual guerra na Ucrânia. Agradeço que submetam quaisquer declarações em falta nos comentários, com links, por favor. Quaisquer destaques nos textos são da minha responsabilidade, com o objectivo de sublinhar pontos chave. Todos os comentários de líderes internacionais serão postados em inglês. Para compreender melhor as dimensões religiosas deste conflito, leiam este artigo. Ao longo destes dois meses esta lista tornou-se muito extensa e infelizmente o Blogger não tem ferramentas que tornem a pesquisa mais fácil. Todas as declarações estão por ordem de data, a começar pelas mais recentes.
Daily video message
A year of pain and suffering passes, a year of
war crimes that the world must recognize and condemn... On the 365th day of the
war, we thank the Lord God that we can continue the fight against the evil of
war. We thank Him
and the Armed Forces of Ukraine for surviving and can say today: Ukraine is alive!
Ukraine stands! Ukraine is fighting! Ukraine is praying!
On the anniversary of great tragedies, we will
try to reflect and summarize the great tragedy that happened. However, today
we can say that about 700 medical care centers, including hospitals and
dispensaries, were attacked by Russian criminals. About 500 churches, prayer
houses, mosques, and synagogues were destroyed. A great blow was dealt to the
achievement of civilization — culture, education, science, spiritual life,
which Ukraine was proud of. Thousands of people were killed, tens of thousands
of people were injured...
23/02/2023 (Source)
Online meeting with Vaticanists
To sum up this year, two opposite feelings are
present in my heart. On the one hand, there is a feeling of joy and
gratitude to God, who helped us survive and serve our people, gratitude to the
international community and the Universal Church for their solidarity with us
in this difficult year. On the other hand, there is powerlessness in trying to
stop this terrible war. The whole world feels powerless before this absurd and
sacrilegious war. Every day the war takes the lives of many people and,
unfortunately, our helplessness in rescuing the tortured and killed is a great
wound on the body of our people.
20/02/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
How much Ukraine has seen during the last
year! How much our Kyiv archdiocese and its priests, who are standing
around the throne today, have seen! We saw Russian tanks, we saw death, we
saw pain and suffering, blood and tears of our people. But we saw Christ
himself in the tearful face of Ukraine, we saw that He is with the least, with
those from whom the right to life is taken away. We saw Christ being
crucified again in the body of Ukraine. I thank you for the fact that you so vividly
felt where Christ is in those wartime circumstances, and turned our communities
into centers of social service, serving Christ to the least. We saw in our
parishes the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, who had to leave their burnt
houses. You did everything you could to help these people, and turned our
parishes into places of encounter with the living Christ.
Today Bishop Andrii joins this group of
ministers with a special mission to show the modern Ukrainian where God is
when we are being killed. This is a question we are all looking for an
answer to. This is a question that children ask their parents. We
thank the Lord for another bishop who will direct all the forces of our Church,
especially our archdiocese, to this difficult service during the war.
19/02/2023 (Source)
Words during a meeting with youth
The slogan that leads us to victory is "I
believe in the Armed Forces of Ukraine!". But in order to keep this
victory that we will win, we must say to ourselves: "I believe in the
Ukrainian family!".
Because if young girls and boys today do not have the courage to start families
in Ukraine and give birth to children here, then for whom are we fighting, in
the name of what are we gaining our independence
16/02/2023 (Source)
Words during the inauguration of a kindergarten
The consecration of this kindergarten is one of
the events of the social service of our Church for the good of the
long-suffering but God-loving Ukrainian people. Children of war is unfair,
because those children who know what war is, are already children with special
needs. How painful it is sometimes to watch when children from the East or
South of Ukraine, and even Kyiv region, together with their mother, seek refuge
in a safe part of the country and the world when they enter a new environment.
The first thing they ask is: "Where is the nearest bomb shelter?".
Children of war grow up too quickly.
War steals childhood. And the children of war need
special attention, social service, pastoral care of disciples of Christ.
Because children during the war are one of the most vulnerable categories of
our society.
16/02/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
How special today are the words about the
loving Heavenly Father, about the arms open to us in His Son, about the power
of God's love, given to us by the Holy Spirit during this cruel war. We
know that the war did not start when the guns started firing and Russian
missiles and bombs started falling on us, but when the Russian aggressor began
to dehumanize Ukraine, saying that there is no such people, but only the
territory, there are no such people, but there is our resources. The
war began with a crisis of values. Those who believe that they decide
the fate of nations, love things and use people, make faceless even their own
people to achieve their low, lustful, criminal goal. We see it today.
The whole world is surprised by what is
happening in Donbas. Political scientists say that the Russians set absurd
political goals, which they try to achieve with the help of military
force. In fact, the existence of each of us is being denied. Many
people in the world wonder why Ukrainians believe that the victory of Ukraine
will be the liberation of our entire land. They are surprised because they
do not understand that what is important for us are not the resources that have
already been destroyed, but the people who live there, the sons and daughters
of Ukraine, who beg God for salvation day and night. Can a father's heart
be at peace when his child is in a foreign land in slavery?
Therefore, on this Sunday, let us pray that
each of us may rest in the arms of the Heavenly Father. When we hear the
word "God", let's imagine a Father with open arms, watching over his
child, over the most precious thing that he has. Having sinned, let us
feel that He is waiting for us and loves us, even if we have wasted everything
that He has given us. Let the words of the father be the slogan of
Ukraine's victory today: "My son died and came to life, he was lost and
was found" (Lk. 15, 32).
12/02/2023 (Source)
True Christian patriotism is love for the land
that raised you, that gave you a path in life. The vocation to belong to one's
people cannot be disrespected.
Today, the Ukrainian people have their own
mission – a Christian task and vocation among other peoples of the world. Ukraine
has become the epicentre of world events, the future of humanity is forged in
it. And we, as faithful sons and daughters of our people, must defend their
right to exist with weapons in hand, but the main motivation of Ukrainian
indomitability today is love for our native people.
We thank the Lord God for giving us the
vocation to be the sons and daughters of the Ukrainian people, who are crying
and suffering today, who are martyred people and who gave so many heroes of the
Christian faith throughout the thousand-year history of life in God, Christian
life in our lands.
Today we ask all the holy martyrs of the
Ukrainian people to help us be patriots, good sons and daughters of that
nation, which we are called to accept as a gift and vocation from God, belonging to which is the key to
the success of each of us. And the legacy of our national culture today is
capital, a treasure from which a new, great, bright future of our people and
our Motherland will grow.
12/02/2023 (Source)
Online meeting with ACN
Almost 80% of people in Ukraine need
rehabilitation to a greater or lesser extent in order to overcome trauma -
psychological, physical or of another kind.
(…)
We cannot survive without your help. But we
have hope. If we managed to survive for a year, then, I think, Ukraine will
win. Because not only strength is growing, but also hope among the Ukrainian
people. Thank you
for being with us in such a difficult situation. Thank you for praying for us.
Thank you for spreading the truth in your countries. Thank you for being our
friends.
08/02/2023 (Source)
Online meeting with French journalists
It was announced that Ukrainians as an ethnic
group of people with their own language, culture, and history do not exist,
that being Ukrainian means being an adept of some ideology, and not a people.
Those who call themselves Ukrainians, on the conviction of Russia, are the same
Russians, but a little heretical. Therefore, the Russian aggressor wanted
either to reeducate those who call themselves Ukrainians, or to destroy them.
And the Russian army systematically applies this type of genocidal policy in
its presence in Ukraine. Wherever the Russians occupied Ukrainian territories,
they created torture chambers.
(…)
This war did not start with the first bombings
or shots, but with lies, lies, which Russia turned into weapons and bullets, with which it
bombarded Ukraine, Europe and the whole world long before February 24 of last
year.
We hope that the Lord God will enable us to
persevere. Ukrainians have no other chance to survive, except to persevere
in this unequal battle. Thank you, who are not indifferent to this great
tragedy in the East of Europe, which can be called the colonial war of the
third millennium, which is being waged in Europe, which Russia is waging
against the Ukrainian people in order to destroy it as a historical phenomenon,
to take away from it the right to exist. We believe that we will stand, we
believe that the Lord God, who gave us the right to life and existence, will
help us defend this right.
(…)
Everyone united to stand up for the defense of
their people. We had unprecedented cases of cooperation when it was
necessary to save our people. And the representatives of the UOC MP, and the
OCU, and Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Muslims — all as one stood up to protect
Ukraine from the Russian aggressor.
07/02/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
During the war, we see that today Ukraine is
fighting human pride and the pride of modern Pharisees who come to us and say:
"We want to show you the way to true perfection." And we see
murderers who, under the pharisaical slogan of spreading the ideas of the
sanctity of the "Russian world", now claim that they are coming for
the "desatanization of Ukraine". What Pharisaic narcissism and false
illusion of those who do not understand that they are the carriers of the
satanic spirit, which brings ruin and death to entire nations, and first of all
to their countrymen! Because in the Holy Scriptures, the word "Satan"
means "accused." Today, these ideologues, who claim to be the only
defenders of Christian values in the world, build their own supremacy only
against the background of humiliating and destroying others and, taking away
the right to exist from Ukraine and Ukrainians, accuse us of all mortal sins
for the whole world. The unfortunate ones do not realize that they are the
source of the spread of satanization of the modern world... The modern
evangelical Pharisee unwittingly does the satanic thing - he accuses and
humiliates! What a strange contrast! Because it is the Lord who justifies,
raises and exalts his lowly ones!
05/02/2023 (Source)
Excerpt of a sermon
We greatly respect our Armed Forces of Ukraine
— you, guys, our defenders and soldiers who are present here
today! Because of you, who love your family and friends and the
Motherland, God immediately wants to defend his people.
Apparently, now there is not a single family
in Ukraine in which God's children do not cry out to Him day and night:
"Protect us from a powerful unjust invader and occupier who neither fears
God nor is ashamed of people." This can happen thanks to the
courage, courage and strength of our Ukrainian army. It protects and
defends the weakest, the smallest — and thus differs from the armed formations
of other nations. This is not an army of invaders or occupiers. We
do not need someone else, but we will not give up our right to life and
freedom, to our own state! And we know that this mission - to be the voice
and protection of the smallest and weakest children of Ukraine - was given to
us by God himself. Whoever believes in God, that He will defend us,
can say: we believe in the Armed Forces of Ukraine given to us by God, we
believe in our victory! We believe that God's justice will always have
the last, the highest word. Christ himself tells us this today: God
protects, he will protect - and immediately.
06/02/2023 (Source)
Words to young people in Ternopil
War is a completely unnatural human condition.
Just as it is unnatural to live in hatred. This emotion burns out the
personality. We are created to love and be loved, to live and give life. And
being at war, we are, in fact, in the most absurdly unnatural state.
It is a pity that today, in order to save one
life, we are forced to take another. Not because we want to kill someone, but
because we are forced to protect our people, our Motherland in this way. Does
war cancel God's Commandment "Thou shalt not kill"? No. Each of our
soldiers feels guilty deep in his soul. This can be justified to some extent,
from a moral point of view. But then it requires prayer and spiritual healing.
Unfortunately, war is a circumstance where we
look death in the eye every day. Today, the majority of Ukrainians are forced
to look into the eyes of those who came to kill us, forced to defend the
Motherland. From a moral point of view, this is called proportionate use of
weapons. If there is no other way to stop an attacker than to strike back, then
we have no other choice. The Pope says that any war is a defeat for humanity.
From a Christian point of view, this is a very
powerful challenge and a certain wound. We must be able to experience it in a
Christian way. But, unfortunately, such dramatic circumstances are not always
subject to the rules of book theology. For many years I taught moral theology,
social ethics, the rules of war and peace in the modern world as a doctrine of
the Catholic Church. But when I witnessed the terrible consequences of the war,
it forced me to rethink everything I knew until now: not to deny and reject,
but to understand more deeply, to develop and in that context to live on.
05/02/2023 (Source)
Daily video address
These days, new data on the number of religious
buildings destroyed during the war in Ukraine — more than half a thousand —
were made public. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (of the Moscow Patriarchate)
lost the most churches, our Church — 17, the Roman Catholic Church — 12. The enemy
is really trying to destroy everything that can create some livable space,
particularly in the occupied territories.
04/02/2023 (Source)
Daily video address
Yesterday we learned that the enemy is starting
to hunt Ukrainian children in the occupied territories. This is some new
inhumane tactic that we have been seeing lately. Almost 100 children were taken from Lysychansk
to Tatarstan. We know for sure that 50 of them are high school students. We
have no information about others. A total of 14,000 Ukrainian children were
forcibly deported from the occupied territories. Life there, unfortunately, is
becoming more and more unbearable.
03/02/2023 (Source)
Daily video address
A total of 1,376 children are registered as
victims of this war. However, the real number is much higher. While visiting the Vatican
hospital "Bambino Gesú" in Rome, we learned that only this
institution accepted about two thousand Ukrainian children for treatment.
Children continue to suffer. A world in which children suffer has no future.
(…)
We pray for them [over 20,000 Ukrainians in Russian
concentration camps], we ask the Lord God for their release. Even today, our
fathers Ivan and Bohdan are in prison and are being tortured in Berdyansk. We beg the Lord and everyone who
can help us, to release these courageous priests who are imprisoned and
suffering for the sake of Christ.
29/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
We see how modern despots, dwarfs, want to make
a name for themselves by humiliating and destroying other peoples and the
achievements of human civilization, killing millions of people and sending
their own peoples to death. Listening to the testimonies of our people who
survived the occupation, we hear them saying in one voice: the Russian invaders
came to us to take away our dignity! These invaders behave like scoundrels,
because they feel that no one respects them in their own army, in their
country, no one needs them - they are considered the garbage with which Ukraine
is littered today.
29/01/2023 (Source)
Daily video address
We see how today, when a humanitarian crisis is
unfolding in Ukraine, various Churches and religious organizations cooperate
very fruitfully and actively to feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, and
clothe the naked. Together we saved our faithful, clergy during the threat of
Russian occupation of various parts of Ukraine. In particular, we organized green
humanitarian corridors together: Catholics, Orthodox, Protestants, Jews,
Muslims. The war forced us to see how much we can already do together in the
name of saving human life in Ukraine
28/01/2023 (Source)
Interview with Vatican Radio
His Beatitude Bishop, the historic visit of the
All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations to the Apostolic
Capital has come to an end. How did the idea of such a visit come about and
what is the significance of this event in today's context?
The idea or rather the initiative of the visit
belongs exclusively to the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious
Organizations. It was we who made such a decision, in fact, we have been
looking for such an opportunity for many years. This is in the context of the
entire activity of the Council of Churches, which is international relations.
We visited the Holy Land, Israel, European structures, Canada, the United
States, Germany, Poland many times. And now they have come to the Apostolic
capital. What is the meaning of this type of international contacts? The
All-Ukrainian Council of Churches is a very important voice of Ukrainian civil
society. Because who do we represent? We do not represent the state or official
state diplomacy. Every country has its own ambassador, and the Vatican has one.
We do not represent the political forces of Ukraine. We represent our faithful.
That is, we are the voice of our parishioners, whose hearts we listen to every
day, and then we become the voice of ordinary people, believing people, which
we want to convey to the powerful of this world. And in this case, we wanted
to bring this voice of the heart, pain and hope of the Ukrainian people
together to the Holy Father, because we know how important his voice is today
for Ukraine and the world. Because when the Pope speaks about Ukraine, he
speaks to Ukraine, but he also speaks to the hearts of all people of good will
throughout the world. And that's why we wanted him to really take to his heart
the voice that we wanted to convey to him.
Yesterday [January 25] this touching meeting
took place, which became the culmination of the visit: a meeting with the Holy
Father, when I had the opportunity to share my experiences with him and hear
his words of encouragement. What were the main points from the side of the
Ukrainian Churches, what did they want to convey to the bishop of Rome and what
did they learn from communication with him?
My impressions are that it was a moment of
mutual gratitude. That is, on the one hand, the Pope thanked us for being who
we are. He was surprised that such a council or a similar body of cooperation
between different Churches and religions exists in Ukraine at all. Moreover, I
saw a deep light of hope in his eyes. He was very thankful for the fact that we
really act together as brothers. He expressed this through a good metaphor
about mother Ukraine, that when the need arises, there is no more Christian, Muslim,
Jewish Ukraine, but we are all children of that mother, Ukraine, who unite in
the name of her goodness. And on the other hand, it was a voice of gratitude to
the Pope from the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and prelates, heads of
various Churches and religious communities.
It was gratitude for the fact that the Pope is
the heart of world solidarity with Ukraine, particularly in the humanitarian
sphere. We also thanked for the fact that the Holy Father is very active in
order to release our hostages, prisoners. I presented him with a folder with
the stories of 41 medics, military and civilian, asking for their release. He
promised that he would hand it over to the Russian ambassador, and in this way
he would do everything possible to save those people.
We also asked the Pope for something – to
declare February 24, when the first anniversary of this full-scale war passes,
a Day of prayer and fasting for a just peace in Ukraine. And the Holy Father took this
very seriously, he said that a number of different events are planned for this
day. There should even be a prayer in Assisi. He does not know how he will
personally experience it, but he said that it will also be a very serious
moment of prayer for peace in Ukraine and many other events, including the
showing of a film about the war in our country. He took our request very
seriously.
The participation of the Ukrainian Churches in
the prayer in St. Paul's Basilica for the unity of Christians was also a
special moment. What is the significance of such a prayer, which, in
particular, took place this year under the slogan of seeking justice and doing
good?
As I felt from the faces and impressions of the
members of our delegation, they were very moved by such a prayer, because they
saw many of their brothers from other countries: both Orthodox and Protestants
of various denominations, who were present and prayed together. That is, we
felt like we were in a very, I would say, real, warm family. And it was the day
when the Latin Church celebrates the conversion of the Apostle Paul, and we
came to his tomb. We all understand that when we pray for unity among
Christians, we must first experience our own conversion. And now, when we turn
with all our hearts to the Lord God, who is one and the same for everyone, as
father Omelyan Kovch said, then this prayer for unity will have practical
consequences, we will do good together, which was exactly what was said in the
sermon of Pope Francis.
When we talk about the good, it comes to mind
that the crown of this visit, after the meetings, let's say with high-ranking
people on earth, with high officials of the Roman Curia, with the Head of the
Church, this visit ended with a visit to those who are great in God , that is, children. What is the
role of the Holy See's solidarity with regard to Ukrainian children injured by
the war?
This became the pastoral aspect of the visit of
the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches to the Vatican. Indeed, we wanted to
visit these children of ours, the children who are being treated here. I saw
the emotions of the mothers, I saw how the doctors experienced the visit of the
interfaith delegation from Ukraine. It was an opportunity to see the
suffering of innocent children related to war and to think about it together.
And I had a thought: a world that makes children suffer has no future. We must
really persevere in that battle. We must pray for the victory of Ukraine, so
that the children do not suffer any more, so that together we can build a
slightly better world for them than we found it, a world where there will be
less suffering, especially for the innocent. And I think that this
communication was a stone of such construction of a better world.
Indeed, there are many different medical
institutions in the world, but this "Bambino Gesù" ("Baby
Jesus") is special, because it is not only a hospital with the highest
standards of pediatrics and care, but a hospital with the motherly face of the
Church, and this distinguishes it. These doctors not only treat, fulfilling
their professional duty, they also love those children. The lady head of this
hospital said: "You don't thank us, because we do it according to the
dictates of our hearts, because we not only treat them, but we also love
them."
26/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt of Sermon on Sunday after Epiphany
Now, during the war, we feel like a people
sitting in the dark (even literally due to the lack of electricity and other
means of livelihood, especially in the cold season of the year), because every
day we feel the cold breath of the country and the shadows of death. That is
why we are in great need of Christ's light - Christian hope and the light of
life! Already in the early Christian monument, in the "Letter to
Diognetus", we read about the high calling of Christians who "are on
earth, but are citizens of heaven; obey the established laws, but with their
lives they surpass the laws themselves" (5; cf. Phil. 3, 20). So, as
conscientious citizens, builders and defenders of the cathedral Ukraine, let us
bring the gift of our Baptism to its construction: let us be citizens of the Kingdom
of God, let us spread it around us and love the earthly Motherland, heading for
the eternal Motherland in heaven.
Today, Christ tells us: a great light has
dawned on those who sat in the land and shadow of death. On the Day of the
Congregation of Ukraine, let us, the Christians of Ukraine of the third
millennium, be preachers of God's word, bearers of eternal values, builders of
the hope that arises from the presence of the living Christ among us.
22/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt of sermon on Feast of Epiphany
We celebrate the great holiday of God's deepest
revelation about Himself, which He gives to man, the holiday of knowing our
adoption, our dignity as God's sons and daughters. We celebrate this
Christian identity of ours during war, which is the moment of the greatest
humiliation of man, the denial of his right to life and existence.
But on this day, Christ reveals to us the
highest goal for which it is worth and possible to win in this war - in the
name of God's sonship. We realize that the enemy has no right to take away our
human dignity, therefore every person is created in the image and likeness of God.
And we can say: no one will deprive us of Divine adoption! That's why we also sang: "God
is with us!" at the Evening Meal yesterday.
(…)
Let us discover our Divine adoption in this
holiday, let us be enlightened by the truth that the name of each of us is
written on God's palms. In the midst of the horrors of war, let us hear the
words of God the Father: "I will not leave you"!
Lord, today You who enter the Jordanian waves –
give us the strength to immerse ourselves in Your victorious power! Let this
Jordanian holy water, with which we receive communion, sprinkle ourselves, be
the wave that will cleanse ourselves, our homes, our Ukraine from any evil.
Because today we, who are fighting, protecting the dignity of a person, must
fulfill this gospel truth even in these tragic circumstances: "You are My
beloved son, you are My beloved daughter, whom I have pleased!
23/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from interview with Open Church
An important message is the Ukrainians'
understanding of what peace is. We see that in the mouth of the Russian
aggressor the word "peace" undergoes a devilish mutation. For him, it
means the destruction of Ukraine. Moreover, since Russia's war against Georgia,
the formula of "compulsion to peace" has been used. And today Russian
peacekeepers are coming to force us to peace, that is, to kill us. It is
important to convey the truth about real peace. For Ukrainians, real peace is
victory over the Russian aggressor.
20/01/2023 (Source)
Full interview with Ukrainian Pravda
There is a lot of pain around us: Mariupol,
Borodyanka, Bucha, Irpin, Izyum, Dnipro, Brovary - we can list the mutilated
cities and villages of our country for a long time. Why does God allow this
horror?
We dont know. We do not fully understand God's
plan.
It is obvious that through pain we learn
something, it transforms us and makes us different.
There is no excuse for inflicting pain, but we
must learn to experience it properly. There is no such person who goes through
life without ever experiencing pain. But poor is the person who lives, running
away from pain and difficulties. After all, the ability to experience pain
makes us indomitable.
Sometimes we can't change the circumstances and
avoid the pain. But what can we do? We can form our attitude both to pain and
to the circumstances in which we live.
Forming an attitude towards what hurts us is a
search for meaning, why we do it. Your question is a question about the search
for meaning: why?
If my suffering has meaning, then I understand
that it was not in vain.
We hear the following words in the Gospel:
"He who endures to the end will be saved."
From the beginning of the war, when the pain
was only increasing, people turned to the Church precisely for help in order to
find the meaning of their pain. And when a person - be it a soldier, be it a
civilian, or even a statesman - saw that there was a higher value for which it
was worth suffering, then that pain became a source of indomitability.
In such circumstances, a very special role and
mission of the Church appears. I remember how, during the painful days of the
siege of Kyiv, I visited the mayor of Kyiv, Vitalii Klitschko. I wanted to ask
how many people are left in Kyiv, what are their most urgent needs. We talked
about different things, and then he says to me: "You know, more than bread
and clothes, we need a word of hope." And apart from the Church, apart
from God's word, no one can give that hope. In Christ's Gospel, we see
life-giving higher values for which it is worth living.
The topic of pain is very complex, and each
person experiences this pain uniquely. I remember many such circumstances when
you cannot do anything for a person, but you can share their pain without even
saying anything. That's why we need to be close.
We do not know everything and we do not
understand. We should not explain everything, rationalize everything, because
war is nonsense that does not lend itself to a clear rational explanation.
But we can change our attitude to the circumstances we are in and overcome
them.
How should Ukrainians rightly treat Russians
from a Christian point of view?
When we hear the word "Russians" in
Ukraine today, images of mass torture, destroyed cities and villages appear
before our eyes. Therefore, in a human way, Ukrainians now feel that the
Russians are foreigners and murderers who came to take away from us everything that
we have and who we are.
We cannot compromise with evil. And it is
humanly difficult for us to see people in those murderers. We see that
everything that today opens its murderous mouth on Ukraine is the consequences
of the diseases of the post-Soviet society, which in Russia, instead of getting
better after the Soviet Union, began to rot.
I remember the words of Eldar Ryazanov, who
said: "We have a big country, we will rot for a long time."
But in a Christian way, we want to give
everyone a chance to repent. It is very difficult now.
Anger, especially when we see all the crimes, is a natural human instinct. If all those crimes did not cause rage in us, it would mean that we are complicit in evil, that is, that we tolerate and praise it in one way or another.
But anger needs transformation and framing. In
the Christian sense, righteous anger is the material for the virtue of courage.
We need courage today.
Courage to persevere, courage to conquer. Because
if anger is not transformed into courage, it can become destructive.
They say fear is a bad counselor. Anger can be
like that too. Therefore, Christian ascetic practice shows that we can indeed
transform anger into courage and resilience. This righteous anger can become a
force, a force that can win.
Ukrainian Orthodox Church – what is your
personal attitude towards it?
Relations between the Ukrainian Greek Catholic
Church and the Russian Orthodox Church, which was called the Ukrainian Orthodox
Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, are historically complex.
We survived the process of liquidation of our
Church.
Allow me to clarify: is the Moscow Patriarchate
equal to the Russian state?
Yes and no. The Russian Orthodox Church in the
Soviet Union was an instrument of the state. Many historians claim that Comrade
Stalin was its real creator. It is obvious that it was a tool for channeling
the religious feelings of believers in the right direction for the Soviet
state.
A tragic moment in relations with the Russian
Orthodox Church was the pseudo-cathedral in Lviv in 1946, when the Stalinist
regime forcibly liquidated our Church and handed over all property to the
Russian Orthodox Church. Today, the Russian Orthodox Church lives by the
ideology and vision of itself and its territory from those times.
The leaders of this Church say that Ukraine is
their canonical territory. All former Soviet Union countries fall under this
definition. This is something that comes from the idea of conquests from the
time of Comrade Stalin.
I remember how, before the start of the
full-scale war in Ukraine, the then head of the department of external church
relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeev, received an
order from the hands of Putin and said: "Many people say that our
department of external relations is the church's Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
but in fact it is not, we are a church Ministry of Defence".
Going back to your previous question, I will be
honest: we tried to enter into a dialogue to build a relationship to heal the
wounds of the past.
And what happened?
Unfortunately, there has been no big change. Why?
Because our position was that we want to build normal relations with the
Russian Orthodox Church, as with all Orthodox Churches. We want to talk to them
as to the subject of the relationship. After all, we still have the wounds of
the Lviv pseudo-cathedral, and perhaps the Orthodox side also has them from the
1990s, when our Church came out of the underground and regained its own. We
felt that until 2014, the UOC was still building its subjectivity, but then
Moscow completely deprived it of this.
How did it happen in practice?
When I met with Metropolitan Alfeev, I said:
"We want to have a dialogue with the Lavra", he replied: "They
are not ready. The only entity with whom it is possible to talk about them is
us." That is, Moscow already then took away the subjectivity of the Ukrainian
Orthodox Church and acted as its sole spokesperson to world Christianity.
It was quite difficult for us. Moscow did not
really want to talk to us. They did not consider the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic
Church a subject of negotiations. Rather, they spoke with the Vatican about us,
but without us. It is interesting that the Apostolic capital constantly
emphasized: "Here is the local Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church -
communicate with it." As you can see, our relationship is not easy and
quite different.
From the blessed memory of Volodymyr Sabodan, I
had many good personal meetings. Instead, all my requests for a bilateral
meeting with Metropolitan Onufriy were always refused.
We saw each other exclusively at state events.
Didn't want to meet?
In a human way, we obviously greeted each
other, but we did not reach bilateral relations as heads of Churches. Although
we constantly initiated them.
Should the activity of the UOC be banned?
I doubt it. I don't want to tell our
legislators, but... We were also banned, we lived underground. Moreover, the
very fact that we were a martyred Church, which did not become a Church
collaborating with the Soviet authorities, saved our moral authority.
It is important to understand that banning the
Church does not mean the end of its existence. Why? Because the Church is not
only a religious structure, not only an organization that has a charter, a
leader, a religious center. The Church is a people who have constitutional
rights. As long as there are people oriented towards Moscow Orthodoxy in
Ukraine, this Church will exist. Even when, according to state law, it would be
illegal. If it is banned, then we will give it the palm of martyrdom, we will
give it the opportunity to go into deaf opposition and become those who will
later claim authenticity.
I recently told one legislator: "If you
want to perpetuate the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine, ban it."
But the state has the right to take care of its
national security. And therefore, if among Catholics, Protestants, Jews,
Muslims, or Orthodox there are traitors who are dangerous for the state, in
particular during martial law, then they must be identified and, observing all
laws, certain measures must be taken.
We should not be persecuted for belonging to
the church structure, but for crimes against our state, because in this we are
all equal.
Therefore, perhaps it is necessary to ask the
same question in a different way and understand that it is not really a
question of restricting someone's religious freedom, but that the northern
neighbor, who is killing us today, cannot use any of the Churches for his
geopolitical goals
By the way, how can you comment on the SBU
searches in the churches and monasteries of the UOC?
This is a matter for state authorities. When
they have reasons for it, then they act.
We'll take note of that for now. That is, we
cannot somehow form our position regarding the fact of searches. Let's see what
the result will be.
Regarding the legality of searches, their
legality, you should consult a lawyer. If the actions of the services are
lawful, then we cannot tell the law enforcement agencies how to act.
On January 7, the service of God in the
Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra was led by Metropolitan Epiphany, the head of the OCU. Will
we see the Divine Service of His Beatitude Sviatoslav in the Pochaiv Lavra?
Then, when this laurel is returned to us
(smiles) .
Do you claim this return?
We do not claim any property of the Orthodox
brothers.
Our Church in the Russian Empire was liquidated
as early as 1839. And all our property was given to the Orthodox. If we started
demanding his return today, we would start another wave of religious war.
There are national symbols that speak to minds
and hearts. And this is Sophia of Kyiv - the mother temple for all of us. It
cannot be claimed by one denomination, because everyone has common roots here.
God willing, one day we will all be one. That
is, all the divisions that exist today between the Orthodox world and the
Catholic world, I hope, will be overcome step by step. And then Sophia of Kyiv
will once again be a common temple for all the heirs of the Kyiv Church.
Therefore, we do not claim property, but we
say: "This is also about our history, our identity. We also want to feel
at home there."
The form of this can be negotiated. We say the
same about the Pochaiv Lavra: we do not want to make property claims, but we
say that it is a historically great spiritual center of our Church.
Researchers of Kyiv Christianity in the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth claim that there was once an unwritten agreement
between the Orthodox in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra and the Greek Catholics in
Pochaivska regarding the printing of liturgical books: what was printed in
Pochaev was no longer printed in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. Why? Because we
exchanged books.
The Pochaiv Lavra was a unique center of
musical, spiritual, religious and international culture.
Obviously, when the Union was liquidated, the
Russian tsars turned Pochaiv into a border outpost. And the Soviet authorities
specially annexed the Pochaiv Lavra and its territory to the Ternopil Oblast in
order to destroy the Union in Galicia.
Therefore, the one who will make the decision
to whom to grant access for prayer must take into account that the Pochaiv
Lavra has a historical connection with our Church.
UGCC cherishes and remembers this history.
You say that you are not interested in
property, but access for service is? What specific steps do you take to gain
access to the Pochaiv Lavra?
None yet, because we have not heard of any
concrete steps regarding changing the status of this holy place. We will see
what opportunities will be created, we will communicate with those who will
create new circumstances.
Property claims are one thing, and the right to
pray where our ancestors prayed is another. We do not question the ownership of
the state, but we want to have access to this shrine.
We try to build our own, and not wait for
something to be handed to us.
In recent years, we have seen great activity of
the OCU. Even the fact that they managed to conduct the Divine Service in the
Lavra already means a lot. Against this background, the Ukrainian
Greek-Catholic Church looks quite slow. What steps do you take in order not to
lose your faithful, so that they do not transfer to the OCU?
Even during the war, we try to be the Church
first and foremost. And in no case do we want to become a tool in some
political movements, even if they are super popular.
Obviously, we are watching the reformatting of
Ukrainian Orthodoxy. This is an internal Orthodox situation that also has an
important political dimension. We do not participate in this, just as we did
not participate in the movements around the Unification Cathedral or receiving
the Tomos. Therefore, there is no need to wait for some kind of activity from
us, because these are the internal affairs of our Orthodox brothers.
As for the faithful, I don't think we are
losing them. We try to do our own thing. We are active where we should be
active, where we feel that this is our competence, our field of activity.
Who in the Vatican is informing Pope Francis
about the war in Ukraine today?
I don't have a complete answer to this question
and I can't say what channels of information he uses. But, knowing the Pope
personally, I will say that he does not like to be tied to any of the channels.
He, like a good Jesuit, lives by the rule: we consulted and I decided. That is,
he listens to a lot of people, but makes decisions independently and forms his
vision.
When it comes to socio-political circumstances
or matters of military circumstances, he is not infallible here. He could be
wrong. Therefore, it is very important to communicate.
Since the beginning of the full-scale war, I
personally communicated with him very intensively.
Why didn't you refuse him from the Stations of
the Cross, when a Russian woman and a Ukrainian woman carried the cross together?
Then there were several controversial statements by the Pope. Why didn't you
influence him if you were constantly in contact with him?
We influenced as much as we could.
Why didn't it work?
This is another question. There were reasons
that I may not fully know and understand. But you see that his position is
evolving, as are, ultimately, Western leaders. Remember how the German
authorities reacted to our ambassador at the beginning of the war: "You
will be gone in two or three days, why should we help you?". Today, the
position is different. And the Vatican lives in the information field of Europe
and Italy in particular.
Indeed, I had the feeling that we were not
fully understood. I asked myself why? And he realized: to understand us, one
must be with us. For example, the papal nuncio is here with us. He understands
us, because he never left Kyiv for a single day. That is, the further away from
the epicenter of events, the more it looks different. Although our mission to
inform had an effect and consequences.
You mentioned the Stations of the Cross. This
was not the Way of the Cross of reconciliation with Russia. It was the Way of
the Cross, which takes place every year on Easter Friday in the Colosseum. It
was prepared even before the beginning of the great war.
We learned about the content on Monday of Holy
Week, and the event itself took place on Friday. We immediately realized that
this is completely out of context now. These gestures are offensive to us.
What did you do?
First of all, we talked.
Did you call the Pope?
Of course!
What did he say?
He could not understand what the protest of
Ukrainians was about. After all, reconciliation is one of the main messages of
Christianity. How is it that Ukrainians today do not perceive the main message
of Christianity?
Apostle Paul considered himself the apostle of reconciliation.
I told him: "Holy Father, we are not saying that we reject the idea of reconciliation. We say that we cannot be forced to reconcile." So my comment was, "Yes, but not yet."
What did the Pope say?
He listened very carefully.
And did it in his own way?
But what did he do? No prepared texts were
read. That is, they did not change the already announced ceremony, but there
was no interpretation, no text about reconciliation.
In addition, I communicated with other heads of
the Vatican Curia, in particular the Secretary of State, to whom I explained
the mutation of the concept of peace carried out by Russia. I explained that
the idea of "compulsion to peace" is the idea of Russian
aggression, which it first used against Georgia. Therefore, today, when the
idea of "compulsion to peace" is filled with religious symbols, it
can really create a situation where Ukrainians will generally reject the idea
of peace as such.
First you have to stop killing us. Then justice
must be restored - they must leave our land. The moment must come when the
criminal will be called a criminal and will be convicted, compensation must be
paid to Ukraine and the Ukrainians who suffered. That is, certain steps must be
taken before the moment when we can start talking about the reconciliation
process.
And now I can claim that we were heard. On
November 24, the Pope wrote a letter to the Ukrainian people. I think we need
to go back and read it again. The Pope said everything there! It was not about
any diplomacy, it was not about any traditions of mediation between warring
parties, which the Vatican has always followed in its policy. It talks about
the heart of a pastor, which is rooting for his people.
We read this letter in all our parishes.
Therefore, we see that it is worth speaking, even when you will not be heard
immediately, they will not immediately change the planned action, but the truth
about Ukraine has its own power and we must testify to it.
Does the Russian ambassador to the Vatican have
a great influence on the Pope? Is there even a pro-Russian lobby in the
Vatican?
I think that it exists, because Russia very
intensively developed its diplomatic relations with the Vatican, invested huge
resources in the promotion of its culture in Italy, in particular in the
Vatican. Since the war in Donbas began, it has "bombarded" the
Vatican with various initiatives, including cultural ones.
Therefore, I think that the Ukrainian state
should activate high-quality diplomacy at this level, so that we can also be
actively represented there.
You saw the Pope in November. Did he talk about
his meeting with the head of the Main Directorate of Intelligence, Kirill
Budanov?
There was no conversation about the Pope's
meeting with Budanov. I didn't want to ask because it would be unethical.
What then is the Pope's participation in the
exchange of prisoners?
Indeed, the Pope is very intensively involved
in all possible channels to free Ukrainian prisoners. I personally submit a
list of documents for prisoners of war at least once a month, because when I
visit our communities, I constantly hear: "Help!". I tell people:
"Okay, give me specific information." And I immediately try to hand
it over to the Pope. Even during the last meeting, he handed over a folder with
documents. And I know that things are moving.
What tools does the Vatican have? These are
diplomatic channels. How successful are they today? This is the question.
We see that Russia despises diplomacy. Sometimes for them, diplomacy is like a servant to satisfy military and political decisions. Therefore, it is difficult to answer how effective the diplomatic path is today in general for any settlement of this confrontation. But I can testify personally that the Apostolic Capital is making all possible efforts.
We are already beginning to see many problems
that we will have to solve after the victory. There are a lot of wounds,
worries, hatred. What do you see as the biggest challenges for Ukrainian
society after the victory?
To see everything, you have to wait for the
victory. But the wounds we mentioned are already visible, and they will make
themselves known. The signs of a wounded society will be very different. In
particular, there will be a high level of aggressiveness and conflict.
Therefore, today everyone who works with people
needs to be doubly wise so as not to offend anyone, not to provoke anyone. In
fact, it is quite difficult for our priests at that stage. We see that domestic
violence is on the rise. And this is also a challenge, in particular for the
Church.
I see another important problem that may not be
so pressing yet. However, I have a feeling that society is getting tired of
democracy.
I wanted to ask you about democracy...
There is a risk that we are beginning to be
impressed by the specter of a dictatorship in Ukraine. And it is very
dangerous.
Throughout the years of Ukraine's independence,
our Church trained citizens to mature personal responsibility for society. We
see that the Orange Revolution, the Revolution of Dignity, was to some extent
the fruit of such upbringing. Society wanted to control the government, became
very demanding of it and did not want to repeat the mistakes of previous
revolutions.
I remember the Maidan of 2013-2014. There was
no single bright political leader on whom responsibility for the state could be
placed, unlike the slogans of 2004, remember? Yushchenko! Yushchenko!
But, unfortunately, today some are beginning to
feel that democracy does not provide an adequate level of security, that it is
weak in responding to challenges.
Fatigue appears, which forces you to give the
responsibility to someone else: I chose you, and now you take care of yourself
- I'll stand aside and see what you can do. Again: this is a very big danger!
We understand that the world supports Ukraine
precisely because we want to be a free, democratic state. The world supports
democracy in Ukraine as opposed to the totalitarian regime of its northern
neighbor.
We must not turn into an internal copy of the
one who attacked us. Psychologists talk about cases when the victim begins to
resemble his offender.
Therefore, I urge everyone to remember and
understand that the war in Ukraine is a war for democracy and values.
We all need a fair trial as a separate branch
of government, true parliamentarism, a true political culture in Ukraine that
would provide certain counterweights. That is why the challenges of a real
democracy, a transparent and open society in Ukraine after the end of the war
will be very difficult.
Finally: is it a sin to wish for death?
Yes, a sin. Because when I wish death to
another, I die myself. This is a very delicate thing in wartime.
Sometimes I have to stop the aggressor, even at
the cost of his death, but then I have to choose life for my people, my
Motherland.
Is it a sin to wish Putin dead?
(Pauses
and begins to laugh) Oh, you will have to repent for that.
19/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from daily video address
Lord, we know that today you immerse yourself
in your baptism in the pain and suffering of Ukraine. You take upon yourself
the sins of our people to wash us away. You, as the culprit, ask for baptism instead
of those who are really guilty. You are the only Saint, with your holiness you
purify us, weak people. Give us strength, cleanse our Ukrainian land of all
uncleanness, especially that which brings death and destruction. Lord, you
who are going to immerse yourself in the waters of the Jordan, be blessed,
because you come to us as the living God revealed to us in our circumstances.
17/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from daily video address
The word "freedom" is devalued today,
as well as "love" or "peace". Now, more than ever, we in
Ukraine feel that we are paying a very high price for freedom. It is not enough
to be free from slavery, you must become free for something. And we want to be
free in order to say "no" to Russian slavery forever, to be free for
God, to do good, to protect human life. That is why the Russian occupier is
killing Ukrainians, because they said no to Russian, imperial, communist slavery.
15/01/2023 (Source)
Words during Prosphora with the Patriarch
Many say that this year will be the year of
victory, but we still have to win it. Russia has already lost, but we have
not won yet. We
will approach this victory step by step. You will see that the time will
come and we will gather here in the Patriarchal Cathedral to celebrate together
the victory over our enemy. And may God's blessing generously bear its
fruits on all of us.
15/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt of sermon on Sunday before Epiphany
Today, we in Ukraine are so in need of a
herald that the war will end, that the period of destruction is finally coming
to an end. We are so in need of preparation for the new reality — Ukraine after
the war. We understand, more than ever before, that it is impossible to
continue living the way we lived until now. And the victory of Ukraine will not
come when we win back all the occupied territories, but when we come out of
this fiery cauldron of war renewed, become a different people, qualitatively
different from the people, the state that we were before the beginning of this
great calamity.
15/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from daily video address
In this difficult time of war, we see that God
makes the impossible possible, giving us the strength to fulfill God's law, to
live by our baptism, as Saint Basil the Great testified. The life of a
Christian is the life of the baptismal essence of our daily effort. The Lord
God becomes the guarantor that, thanks to His help, we will be able to fulfill
God's commandments and the vocation to which He calls us in Baptism. He gives
us strength without hope to hope. He is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets.
The key and secret of Ukraine's victory lies in Jesus Christ.
14/01/2023 (Source)
Full interview with NV
In your New Year's greeting, you said that
every day, by doing good, we bring the day of victory closer. Do you feel how
long the road to it will be?
It is difficult to predict any terms. I watch
how the heart of the Ukrainian people beats. Every day we have lived, in
which we have defeated death and done something good, we have already won.
Because by doing good, we overcome evil. As one wise man said: "It is
better to light one candle than to complain about the darkness." And so we
have been moving for more than 10 months. In the plans of those who came
from the war, there was neither a new year nor Christmas for us. But we are
here, the new year is here, Christmas is here and there will be victory. I
am convinced that the inner strength and courage we are full of will be enough
for victory.
It's a little sad that every day we survive
instead of living.
It's like looking at it from which side. When
one lives this day, running away from difficulties, he is not living. If we
live every day to do good for ourselves personally, then we die every day. And
if we forge victory every day, then we live to the fullest. Our fathers, who
were expelled from Melitopol, and freed heroes tell the same story: we did not
know how long we would have to live in captivity - a day, two, a month, a week,
but we wanted to live this time with dignity. These are very strong words.
Without looking behind the curtain of time, without spying on the future, they
tried to live in the day that the Lord God had given them.
Another pressing issue of recent weeks is the
events surrounding the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra and the Moscow Patriarchate in
general. How do you see it should be solved?
It is clear to everyone that the Ukrainian
Orthodox Church (MP) is an integral part of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC).
It is quite natural that with the beginning of the war, it is going through an
identity crisis: there are patriots who are faithful to this Church and at the
same time loyal to the Ukrainian state, who defend their Motherland. This division
causes an internal crisis in this Church. The fact of collaboration of its
representatives with the Russian occupier is also obvious. And we lacked an
official reaction of the church hierarchy regarding this fact.
We must pray for the wisdom of our government
and its determination, so that there is a political will to act in a certain
direction. Here, everyone is equal before the law: whether they are Orthodox
of the Moscow Patriarchate, OCU, or Catholic, or Jewish, or Muslim. And when
there is a proven fact of collaborationism, then the state cannot remain
silent, otherwise it covers it up. Instead, there is freedom of conscience and
freedom of religion. Their observance is a matter of national security.
This is important for the state from the point of view of its obligations to
the world community. It is necessary to act wisely in the question of what
tools to use to neutralize Moscow agents in cassocks.
Experts say that it is wrong to ban it, so that
this Church does not become a martyr, because it will only strengthen its
position.
Our Church was banned during Stalin's time, so
what? We won. That is, banning does not mean ceasing its existence. If we want
to perpetuate the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine, then let's ban it. That would
defeat our purpose. We need to pray for the wisdom of our lawmakers to help
them act skillfully here.
How does the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
perceive the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra? Would the fathers of the UGCC want to have
the opportunity to serve in the Lavra churches?
We have no claims on the shrine of the
Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, although we are watching these processes very carefully.
Even when we, as a Church, do not claim to worship there, we, as citizens of
Ukraine, do not care. There is another Lavra that had a certain historical
connection to our Church and for a long time was a very important spiritual and
cultural center of it – Pochaivska [in the Ternopil Region]. At one time, the
famous Basilian monastery was located there, the Pochaiv icon of the Mother of
God crowned with papal crowns. This should be remembered. There was also an
important printing center of our Church. And we don't care what happens there.
As for the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, we will ask the Lord God for wisdom for
statesmen, so that this national shrine truly remains a common treasure of our
people.
Over the past year, Ukrainians have heard and
seen ambiguous statements and actions of the Pope regarding the war. How do you
comment on this?
In Ukrainian-Vatican relations, I would call
2022 the year of great misunderstandings. I had the feeling that our Ukrainian
authorities do not fully understand what the Vatican is, and the Apostolic Capital
was not able to quickly understand the constantly changing situation. All of us
were somewhat surprised and hurt by certain phrases of the Holy Father.
Although, according to the ancient tradition of the first millennium, the Holy
See was the highest arbiter of the Ecumenical Church. This is its function in
international relations. And precisely as the highest appeal center of the
Christian world, the Vatican became the founder of European diplomacy, and
later diplomacy on a global scale. Therefore, such a position as a world
arbiter imposes a certain style on activity. The arbitrator tries to be
equidistant or equidistant from the parties to the conflict. Therefore, there
was an attempt by the Holy See to maintain neutrality regarding the war in Ukraine.
We all tried to convey the truth. I think we were slowly changing the vision of
the Vatican, as well as European society, regarding the war in Ukraine. There
was a profound change in the perception of Ukraine by the world community. In
this context, the position of the Apostolic capital also changed.
Did you communicate with the Pope during the
war?
Yes, as the Head of the Church, I had
constant personal contact with Pope Francis. Our last meeting took place on
November 7, the day the Pope returned from Bahrain. I remember, the day
before, he spoke about the humanism of Dostoevsky, about the professionalism of
the Russian ambassador to the Vatican, and so on. And so on Monday, November 7,
when there was another information crisis in Ukraine regarding the perception
of the Pope's statements, I was at his place. I have known him personally
for many years. It was a warm and deep meeting. He perceived me as someone who
rose from the dead, because I survived the siege of Kyiv. My every word was
very authoritative for him. Our conversation began with my question: do you
know what is being said about you in Ukraine today? - What? — The fact that you
read Dostoyevsky poorly. - Why? I explained to him: you know, today,
unfortunately, regarding Russia, Europe and the Apostolic Capital fall into a
certain trap. Do you remember what arose in the imagination of a cultured
person before the beginning of the Second World War, when they said
"Germany": German philosophy of the 19th and 20th centuries, high
standards of music, poetry, but the Nazis, that is, criminals, were in power.
And then the whole world wondered how a great cultured people could create
Auschwitz and start the Holocaust of the Jewish people. Cultured, educated
Europe and the intellectual circles of the Catholic Church fall into this same
trap today. Russia has made great efforts to promote the myth of the
"sanctity of Russian culture." I remember how whole Jesuit circles
were formed to study "Russian spirituality". Professor Ovsiychuk
introduced the concept of the Ukrainian icon to cultural and scientific
circulation only in the 1990s. Until now, no one had heard of the existence of
a separate Ukrainian icon. I am not talking about the spirituality of
theologians, the liturgy of the Kyiv Church. Therefore, when the
intellectual circles of the Vatican hear about Russia, Russian spirituality,
everyone imagines certain patterns created artificially, like a soap bubble.
Currently, Nazis are clearly in power in Russia. Now, when the world is looking
at the genocide of Ukrainians, everyone is wondering: how can such a great
nation, which created Dostoyevsky, commit such baseness? That is why there were
these sentiments of the Pope, who shared Dostoevsky's humanism. It was not a
fascination with humanism. It was a surprise: how could those who have such a
culture come to crime?
I asked the Pope for a few things. I won't tell
you everything - I'll keep the intrigue. But I asked to write a letter to the
Ukrainian people. He said that my people do not understand his politics and
diplomacy. People need to feel his paternal warmth. To feel that he is with
Ukraine, that he is not indifferent to the pain and suffering of the Ukrainian
people. Then the Pope asked for help. And we tried to help him write such a
letter. And what is interesting, the Pope signed it on November 24, just when
nine months of war had passed. This letter was read in all our churches as the
Pope's address to the Ukrainian people.
It turns out that it was you who influenced the
fact that the Pope "warmed up" to Ukraine?
If I said that, I would be a very proud person.
There are certain processes in which I also take part.
Can we say that Russia is now the embodiment of
evil?
This is a deep theological question. I think
that Russian politics and its actions are the bearer of evil. That's for sure!
As Christ says: "...by their fruits you will know them." All those
who gave birth to the ideology of "Russian peace", who bless the war,
fight, kill, support the war as citizens of that state, are complicit in the
crime. It is still difficult for me to call Russia the embodiment of evil.
This, you know, can only be said by the Lord God, who sees the depths of human
hearts. And maybe history will tell about it all.
Do you leave Russia the opportunity to rethink
its history and everything it has done?
The Lord God always gives a person a chance to
repent. I think that repentance for Russia must be a very deep process. If
this Church and this people are not capable of repentance, then it is very
difficult to talk about the true Christian faith in national dimensions. The
trait of a true Christian is the ability to repent.
Today in Russia we don't see anything close to
that.
Unfortunately.
How do you see Ukraine after the war? What will
forever change in this state for the better?
It's hard to say until the end, but there are a
few thoughts. First of all, we who survived the war will really have a very
deep understanding and respect for the dignity of the human person and human
life. Because those who have seen war and death will never forget it. We will
rebuild everything, our cities and villages will be better than before the war.
Perhaps this war will be the final point in everything that we have called the
"scoop": starting from architecture and ending with the very social,
state system. I hope that we will finally get rid of the Soviet vision of
man as a tool or a cog in a big machine, and we will respect man and the
dignity of his life. I am convinced that we will be able to take care of the
common good, because after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the pendulum swung
in the other direction: from excessive collectivization to a culture or
circumstances of excessive individualism, when one's own benefit, one's own
enrichment, even one's own happiness has become a kind of idol. We did not
know how to understand and evaluate the common good, but now we understand: we
can defeat Russia when we defend the Motherland as a whole community. The
Ukrainian army is a national army. Teachers, scientists, businessmen left
everything and went to fight, because this is a common cause. They went to
fight for a better future for their children, for their independent state. We
are beginning to understand that the state is not something hostile to be
defended against. The state is a common good and a condition for survival and a
dignified existence. Next is solidarity. We see that without solidarity not
only within our people, but also the whole world, we cannot stand with Ukraine.
Solidarity saves lives. This is the ability to help each other in trouble.
You said earlier that Christmas must be
celebrated and rejoiced at this holiday. What about events like birthdays?
It is worth distinguishing between these
things. There are similarities and differences between them. When we talk about
Christmas or Easter, we are talking about the celebration of a certain reality
that goes beyond the human horizon. To celebrate Christmas is to accept a gift
from God, the gift of His only begotten Son, the gift of His joy. In the most
difficult times, our people celebrated Christmas. Our children caroled in their
hiding places. Celebrating Christmas at the time of the underground of our
Church, at the time of militant atheism, turned into a manifestation of
socio-political protest. The police chased the carolers who caroled under the
windows. Moreover, we learned the truths of the Christian faith from carols.
Therefore, when it comes to the fact that the Lord God wants to give us
something, then do not be afraid to accept Him - do not be afraid to celebrate.
When it comes to other circumstances, such as
birthdays, anniversaries, I call for wisdom and balance. Psychologists say
that the enemy wants to lead us into total depression. He wants to take away
positive emotions from us, so that we always cry, so that we do not have the
opportunity to restore our mental and physical strength. Therefore, let's not
give him such pleasure. We need to preserve the hygiene of work and rest even
during war. If it's about social entertainment, loud parties, then maybe you
shouldn't do it. But when it comes to the smallest and necessary for
maintaining mental and physical health, it must be done without fail. I
recall the advice of a wise psychologist: when you are sitting in bomb
shelters, take care of your hygiene - wash and brush your teeth every day. This
is what our soldiers do at the front. There is a minimum necessary to maintain
spiritual, mental and physical balance,
Regarding church holidays: you recently met with His Beatitude Epiphanius, Head of
the OCU, and discussed the creation of a joint working group. Tell me how this
process will proceed?
First, the background story. The so-called
calendar wars began at the end of the 16th century, when the Gregorian calendar
was introduced. Then the Polish king Stefan Batory tried to forcefully
introduce a new style in his state. You know, at that time both the Orthodox
and the Union sides of the Kyiv Metropolitanate became victims of violent
administrative pressure from the state. And, obviously, this was not accepted. It
has absolutely nothing to do with Moscow. The epicenter of that period of
the calendar war was the city of Lviv. Then churches were forcibly closed,
priests and faithful were expelled from the churches when they wanted to
celebrate Christmas according to the Julian calendar (January 7). And this left
a deep wound in the memory of both our Orthodox brothers and us Greek
Catholics.
The reform must be done unambiguously. But how
to convince society to support it? Our Church, in particular in Galicia and
modern Poland, understands that the calendar reform will be perceived by many
of our people as a transition to the Polish calendar.
The task of church leaders is to be sensitive to the debate, even to the political charges that the topic of the calendar may have, but to care for the good of the people. And do what is right, not what everyone likes. In today's circumstances, we have a unique situation that cannot be ignored. Our society demands a calendar reform. And we take this very seriously.
Today, in our Church, we see that the number of
those who consciously, not politically, ecclesiastically, want a new style is
growing. Most of them are in the West of Ukraine and in Kyiv. This is exactly
what we talked about with His Beatitude Epiphanius, because we want to make the
transition to a new style together. We need to understand how many people will
support it in order to minimize internal tensions. We need to depoliticize it a
little. We offered the Orthodox side to create a joint working group where experience
can be exchanged. Our Church has more experience in calendar reform, and our
Orthodox brothers are just gaining it. The permission to celebrate Christmas on
December 25 is a kind of step to see how the faithful will react. When I
received from His Beatitude the new church calendar of the Orthodox Church of
Ukraine for 2023 at the meeting, it was the Julian calendar. An interesting
gesture.
That is, we will work together and our
patriotic forces will no longer be able to accuse us that we are Polonizing
someone when we want to move towards the implementation of the Gregorian
calendar.
Will the next Christmas be held in a new style
in both Churches?
Let's wish ourselves that, okay? Let's wish for
changes together. I really want it, and we will do everything to make it
happen. I am an optimist, although I try to balance between two extremes. In
every Church there is a group of progressives and a group of traditionalists.
We need to convince people that the calendar is not a dogmatic issue. The
calendar is a condition that must be agreed upon. Someone is more ready to
transition, someone is not yet ready. Although all this directs our energies in
another direction instead of concentrating on solving the biggest existential
problem of our time — war. And we start discussing when and what to celebrate.
When the house is on fire, it is not the time to discuss which icons to hang on
which wall.
11/01/2023 (Source)
The Son of God became a Child, your Child,
crying mother. The Son of God, who became a Child, wanted to suffer with us,
took upon himself our suffering and pain, became incarnate in our Ukrainian
pain, to turn it into a redemptive, holy sacrifice for the future of Ukraine
11/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from daily video address
The enemy is trying to shell our peaceful towns
and villages, the places where the most people gather. It seems that in recent
days, in particular, the enemy has been deliberately shelling the markets where
people come to buy food.
10/01/2023 (Source)
Press Conference with journalists
Today we are experiencing the holidays and the
beginning of the new year as a great gift from God. Recalling the beginning
of the war at the end of February in Kyiv, I can say that none of us thought
that we would live to see the new holidays, until the beginning of the new
year, because they wanted to steal it from us. But we are, we survived! And
today, all those who are engaged in analytical activities, people who try to
analyze events from a military, international, diplomatic point of view, say
that this year really has every chance to be a year of victory. Therefore, I
wish all of us victory in 2023!
10/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt of sermon on Sunday after Nativity
What will Ukraine be like after victory? What does the light of Christ's
Christmas tell us on this topic? During the war, we properly pray for our
army, support it. The saying that today all of Ukraine is either at the front
or for the front has gained popularity. Although we believe in one God, we say
that we believe in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, because we understand that our
lives depend on them today, just as the life of the Child depended on Joseph.
Warned by an angel in the night, he had to get up, take the Child and His
mother and save them.
This day of the Cathedral of the Most Holy
Theotokos we in the people still call the holiday of the Holy Family. Today we
welcome our sisters of the Holy Family. Consecrated persons, like the
evangelical Nazarene, are the driving force of the new history of salvation,
which the Lord God is making through his Church. But, celebrating the day of
the Holy Family, we cannot help but look into the face of the Ukrainian family,
which is now wounded and divided. Listening to the story about Herod the
murderer, about the flight of the Holy Family to Egypt, we see the story of
millions of Ukrainians who were forced to leave their homes and flee to
different parts of Europe and the globe.
We ask: Lord, one day send an angel to them,
tell them to take their children and mothers and return to their native land.
We want Ukraine to be like this after the war.
However, there is also some deeper meaning that
God's word wants to tell us today. As we figuratively say today: "I
believe in the Armed Forces of Ukraine," because our lives depend on them,
so after the end of the war, we all, as a people, must say: "I believe in
the Ukrainian family." The family, as a faithful, fruitful and
inseparable union of a man and a woman, blessed in the Sacrament of Marriage
and open to the birth of children, is the place where a new Ukraine will be
born by the power and grace of the Holy Spirit and that Nazarene, about whom we
hear in Christ's Gospel. How important it is that all those who today think
about Ukraine after the war understand that the main point in the
"Marshal's plan" for the reconstruction of our country should be the
sanctity of the Ukrainian family and respect for it! Without this, there will
be no real recovery. This is Jacob who speaks to us about the future as the
first bishop of Jerusalem. And we, as the Church, must take care to support the
Ukrainian family, to heal its wounds, so that our young girls and boys are not
afraid of married life, that they trust the idea of a new Ukraine and have
the courage to give birth to children in Ukraine, raise them here, and pass on
the faith to them here to God, here to build the future of our native people
and our Church.
08/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from daily video message
Despite the simulation of the Christmas truce,
the fighting at the front does not stop for a minute. Even on this festive day,
the enemy does not stop killing us, shelling our towns and villages. Our border areas in the North will
suffer from shelling: Chernihiv Oblast, Sumy Oblast and Kharkiv Oblast. The
Zaporizhia and Kherson regions are being hit by Russian attacks, but the center
of fire and the biggest military clashes is our Donbas.
07/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from sermon on Nativity
Experiencing a humanitarian crisis due to the
war, we are happy that the whole world has come in solidarity with us, started
helping us, in particular with means of defense, thanks to which we can protect
life. But if we rejoice, receiving support from people, then how we should be
comforted by the help of God himself! We must sing together with heaven and
earth: God is with us! Let us not be afraid to accept that joy, let us hasten
to worship the newborn Savior - and we will become stronger.
The whole world is now asking itself the
question: what is the secret of the resilience and courage of the Ukrainian
people, who dared to stand against an unfair, much larger attacker? The secret
of our stability is the power of God, which is constantly born in us, renewed,
manifested even in our weakness, as the apostle Paul reminds us today (cf. 2 Cor. 12, 9). And the
bearer of the power of God is the meek and fragile Child of God, the sign about
which the shepherds heard from the angels from heaven, "for as if the
unwise God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weak God is stronger than human
strength" (1 Cor. 1, 25).
Let's rejoice and share joy with the help of
the ancestral carol. Back in the days of the communist regime, our Christmas
carol was a certain form of socio-political protest, a spiritual weapon that
the godless authorities were very afraid of. Our followers caroled in hiding
places, Stalin's prisoners caroled in the cold expanses of Siberia, the
underground Church caroled... Growing in that joy, we strengthened ourselves,
received the necessary means of spiritual struggle in order to win. And we won.
Because today, where are those who covered the mouth of a Ukrainian caroling?!
Gone like dew in the sun!
Let us rejoice, let us thank the Lord God that
He is with us, that He was born in Ukraine. Where God is the center of the
world, there is fullness of life and joy.
Let our Christmas joy and caroling visit those
who stand guard in the frosty steppes of Ukraine, our military. They gave us
this holiday that the enemy wanted to steal from us. Let our soldiers carol,
and let our long-suffering Ukrainian people rejoice together with them in the
God who was born among us.
We ask: Lord, as You came to the dark cave of
Bethlehem, having upset and defeated the child killer Herod, so come today to
our prisoners of war, to the prisoners of the Russian aggressor, be their
strength, hope and comfort.
We congratulate you on Christmas and want to
share the power of heavenly Christmas joy with our brothers and sisters in the
occupied territories. We pour our thoughts and prayers to Donetsk, Luhansk,
Zaporizhzhia, Melitopol, which celebrates Christmas without priests, to
occupied Berdyansk, in particular to our "prisoners for the sake of
Christ", fathers Ivan and Bohdan. To you, dear fathers, we send an
angel to tell you: do not be afraid! I announce to you great joy: today a
Savior was born to you!
06/01/2023 (Source)
Christmas message
Celebrating Christmas from year to year, we
delve into the mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God in human history,
which became an integral part of the history of our people with the Baptism
of Russia-Ukraine. This year, when in the Ukrainian sky the enemy is trying to
dim the glow of the Christmas star with its missiles and bombs, we should pay attention
not to the calendar, not to astronomical phenomena, but to the fact that Christ
came today to be born in the body of a tortured, crucified and wounded Ukraine.
Perhaps it sounds paradoxical, but our victory in this war will come not by the
power of the mighty of this world, but by the newborn Child of God, about whom
Isaiah prophesied: "For a child is born to us, a son is given to us; power
is on his shoulders; and they will give him a name: Wonderful Counselor, Strong
God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace" (Is. 9, 5).
To celebrate Christmas means not to be afraid
of heavenly joy in the midst of a sea of tears and blood. Allowing Christmas
joy to enter our hearts is a guarantee of our stability and indomitability, our
ability to overcome all life's challenges, as explained by St. Paul: "I
know how to be in humility, I know how to be in abundance: in everything and in
all circumstances I am used to being full and starving, living in abundance and
suffering the poor. I can do all things through him who strengthens me"
(Phil. 4, 12-13).
Now, during the war, we should celebrate
Christmas more than ever.
(…)
Having received the power of the born Son of
God, we are called to share it with our brothers and sisters to strengthen
their faith, confirm their hope, and cement their love. Singing carols is not
about having a loud party. Caroling is about sharing the power and joy of
Christ's Nativity, in which the Lord God originally laid down the promise of
Easter triumph. That is why many generations of our ancestors drew inspiration
and strength to fight against the enslavers and invaders from their faith in
the incarnate Christ, our crucified and risen Savior. Let us recall how our
insurgents in hiding places and prisoners of Stalin's concentration camps were united
in the fight against the enemy by our ancestral carols, how our underground
Church caroled despite the repression of the communist authorities. In those
dark times, carols became a hymn of victory over the night of atheism and
godlessness, a prophecy of the inevitable fall of the prison of the nations,
the Soviet Union. Today, let the Ukrainian army on the front line carol. Let
our captives, the wounded, and those brothers and sisters who are in the
temporarily occupied territories carol. Let the joy of Christmas carols in
their mouths turn into a hymn of victory over the Russian invader. Let our
cities and villages, our faithful families in Ukraine and in the settlements,
our volunteers and activists carol. May this caroling become a space of solidarity
and sharing of our gifts, both spiritual and temporal. Let our Christmas gifts
to Koliada be a personal contribution to supporting the Ukrainian army and
helping those affected by the war.
Dear brothers and sisters! I heartily
congratulate you all on Christmas: from East to West, from North to South - in
Ukraine and in settlements, on all continents of the world. In a special
way, I connect with our soldiers at the front. I embrace you with Christmas joy
and thank you for your courage and heroism. I embrace those who were forced
to leave their homes or even their native land by the war. I embrace our
wounded, both military and civilian. With tears, I embrace those who lost
relatives and friends in the past year. I share words of love and support
with everyone who is in captivity or in temporarily occupied territories,
who endures torture and abuse by the occupier and is unable to prepare
Christmas dinner for himself or pray in his native church on Christmas. I
sincerely congratulate our volunteers and those who
05/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from daily video message
Modern killers set themselves political goals
that they want to achieve by military means. And that's why they kill everyone:
both their own and strangers. They do not consider it necessary to go to the newborn Christ, because
they are convinced that they seem to control the situation and have all the
necessary resources for this.
(…)
Jesus comes into the world as a serious
challenge. As two thousand years ago, He appears now in the thick of events,
hopeless situations, life's contradictions, war, occupation, struggle of
political parties, stubbornness and self-confidence of religious leaders. Despite the fact that the birth of
Christ was expected and announced for a long time, it became unexpected, as if
it caught everyone by surprise.
(…)
Recently we have been and continue to be
witnesses of the feat of ordinary people. With a smile on their face, they show
admirable determination, courage and self-sacrifice. Those whom we would
never have paid attention to in peacetime, during the calamity of war, show
themselves as true heroes. And thanks to them, most of us today will be able to
sit at the festive table and enjoy family comfort, while they cover our
Christmas with their breasts at the front and defend the birth of God among us.
05/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
We are experiencing the Sunday before Christmas
in the context of war. Today is the first day of the new year. We
feel that even the war is the story of the salvation of Ukraine, which the Lord
God writes because of the hope that He sends to His people. We understand
that the culmination will be in 2023: for us, Ukrainians, it will be nothing
more than victory over the unjust aggressor. The Lord seems to fuel this
hope of ours. We are now more confident in our ability to win than a year
ago and even before the war. It's hard to scare us. The Lord God really revives,
increases the flame of hope in us that the history of the Ukrainian people in
pain and suffering is a movement towards Him. At the same time, He comes
out to meet us. And this meeting, the joy of God in man and man in God,
will be the joy of our Christmas during the war, which we will celebrate in
just a few days.
May our incarnate Savior in his Christmas among
us give content and meaning to all our pains and sufferings. May he
fulfill all our expectations that we present to him in prayer. Let this
Christmas be a moment of great joy for the entire nation, which no one can take
away from us. They wanted to steal New Year's Eve from us with shelling,
strikes - both rockets and "Shaheds", but it passed and the first day
of the new year came. Likewise, Christmas will inevitably come, because
the Lord God is preparing it for us. We just have to accept it,
following the example of Saint Joseph, who was told by the angel not to be
afraid to accept what is born of Mary, because it is from the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
01/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from daily video address
Kyiv is wounded today... People have died,
there are many wounded, destroyed houses in the city center. Several metro
stations are closed due to the fall of rocket debris on the tracks. And on this
first day of the new year, our capital is just beginning to recover from that
massive blow.
We have started a year that will be a victory,
a year of victory for our Motherland
01/02/2023 (Source)
New year’s greeting
It's a miracle we're alive! Because someone
wanted us to be gone. It is a miracle that we are starting the New Year.
Because someone said that there will be no more New Year for Ukraine and its
people. The Lord
God is the giver of life, the lord of life and death, the Lord of times gives
us a New Year.
Today, we want to first of all thank the Lord
God for the fact that He performs the permanent miracle of the gift of life to
me and you, to our people and our state. In the face of death, He gave us
the opportunity to live and fight, work and pray, so that the new year would
be. The Lord God is the one who renews the face of the earth. By giving us
life, He also gives us a certain task, a certain mission — to gain something
new, to build and live the New Year.
We want to thank the Lord God for the fact that
every day of our lives is a small victory over a deadly enemy.
In the New Year, I want to wish you all God's
blessing, the strength that makes it possible to live from our faith, the
strength that makes us stable and unshakable! To wish that the war ends as
soon as possible, victory comes and a just peace reigns, so that everyone
who may be far from home returns to their homeland as soon as possible.
31/12/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from daily video address
We ask God that the year 2023, which will come
in a few hours, will be the year of victory for our people and for Ukraine, - the
victory of good over evil, light over darkness, the courageous Ukrainian people
over the vile invader, - the people who know how to build their Motherland,
over the people who come only to steal
31/12/2022 (Source)
Message of condolences on the death of Pope
Benedict
At the beginning of the war, the Pope emeritus
sent me a letter in which he expressed his solidarity with the Ukrainian people
and assured me that he was praying for peace in our country. Amidst the horrors of war, we
always felt that in his great, but at the same time humble figure, in the
silence of the "Mater Ecclesiae" monastery in the Vatican, we have a
suppliant to God for long-suffering Ukraine.
(…)
During our conversation, Pope Benedict,
although he was physically weak, but with the light of his mind assured me: I
continue to pray for Ukraine. Now in his person our people have a deputy before
the throne of the Most High.
31/12/2022 (Source)
Words on Open Church television programme
We must be grateful to the Armed Forces of
Ukraine that we are alive, that we can move forward, that our state is standing
and fighting. We see that there is not a single family in Ukraine in which
someone did not fight. Therefore, the Ukrainian army is truly national. These are
the sons and daughters of our people who defend us and secure our future.
Therefore, on the one hand, we must thank them for being alive, and on the
other hand, we must live to support them.
Indeed, we can say that today all of Ukraine is
either at the front or for the front. We do not have the right to get used to
war or to live as if it does not exist. Because sometimes, when the front line
has moved away from our city, we are tempted to forget and build our lives as
if there is no war. This is very dangerous. We cannot put up with the war, but
we must do everything so that it ends with the victory of Ukraine.
We should be grateful to all those who help
Ukraine at various levels: our partners, believers all over the world, who are
now taking morsels of bread from their mouths to share with Ukraine. We have
them to thank for the fact that our hands are not empty when we bring help to
those in need.
We must thank our youth who stood up for the defense of the
Motherland. The case of protecting Ukraine has turned into a youth movement.
We should thank the doctors who treat and heal the wounds of
war.
We must thank the rescuers who continuously save human lives,
pulling out those who came under fire from under the rubble.
We have to thank the energy workers who
are repairing what the enemy is trying to destroy once again.
I want to thank the women of Ukraine. After all, the woman of Ukraine
today is a heroine, a protector of life, who took the burden of this war on her
shoulders, particularly in the rear, who raises children, sews clothes for the
front, prepares food for the hungry in order to feed millions. Unfortunately,
the face of a crying woman is an icon of our state today
29/12/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from daily video address
According to the morning reports, the
Russians have set themselves the goal of reaching the administrative borders of
Donetsk region by the end of the year. But we see that the Lord God destroys
the wicked plans of those who consider themselves powerful in this world.
He protects the poor, the humble, is always on the side of those who cry and
are unjustly wronged.
(…)
In the midst of war, hatred, murder, maiming,
grief and tears, we Christians are called to share our faith in God's love for
us, because this is the only way we can defeat evil. This is the only way we can avoid
becoming like an aggressor who in his rage tries to destroy all living things.
Only believing in Divine love and being its bearers, we will be able to win in
this unequal battle, we will be able to protect life, protect the space of life
and love for ourselves and future generations.
27/12/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from daily video address
And this morning we again
thank God and the Armed Forces of Ukraine for the fact that we are alive, that
we can continue to work for the good of our people in our peaceful
territory, that we can pray, bringing our victory closer day by day.
26/12/2022 (Source)
Christmas message to Pope Francis
I want to thank the Christians of the world for
turning off the light in order to be in solidarity with Ukrainians who suffer
from a lack of electricity. Thank you for limiting the heat in your churches
and homes to stand in solidarity with Ukrainians who suffer from the cold,
which the Russian aggressor uses as a weapon against Ukrainians. Thank you all
for your solidarity with Ukraine!
The enemy who came to our land wants to deprive
us of everything: life, the Motherland, even the Church. But he will not be
able to steal Christmas from Ukrainians! We want to tell ourselves and the whole world:
Christmas is a holiday that was not prepared by man, but by God! Despite our
weakness, our grief and our pain, Christ comes to be born among us. Heavenly
joy is coming to Ukraine!
Congratulating you, Holy Father, on this
holiday, we want to thank you for becoming the center of universal solidarity
with the long-suffering Ukrainian people. We were all moved by your tears in
the Spanish Square in Rome on the day of the Immaculate Conception, when you
could not speak for about 30 seconds, but were deeply moved and cried over the
grief of Ukraine.
We thank you for organizing countless types of aid that the Universal Catholic
Church provides to the long-suffering Ukrainian people.
Because of such concrete gestures of Christian
love, we feel that God is with us, we feel that we are not forgotten and not
abandoned in our trouble, that the Lord God is coming to be born today in Ukraine.
25/12/2022 (Source)
Christmas message to those who celebrate according
to the Gregorian calendar
Today, throughout Europe and the world, many
Christians are consuming less electricity in order to be in solidarity with us
Ukrainians who are suffering from a lack of electricity, reducing the heating
in their cathedrals and homes in order to be in solidarity with us in Ukraine
who are enduring the cold. Nowadays, the whole world wants to share its
Christmas joy with us. Therefore, we thank everyone who celebrates Christmas
today, thinking about Ukraine, as the Holy Father Francis calls for this.
To all those celebrating this great holiday
today, we send our heartfelt Christmas wishes, God's blessing and a happy,
peaceful coming year. We say to them from Ukraine: Christ is born! Let's praise
Him!
25/12/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
Celebrating Christmas during war is not
easy. Many people ask whether it is possible to celebrate anything at all
now, whether it is possible to rejoice when the whole nation is
crying. But today God's word announces the good news: it is not man who
prepares Christmas, but God, the Heavenly Father! Don't be afraid to
accept the invitation! Don't be afraid to rejoice! Celebrate not only
as called, but also as chosen! Do not be afraid to become a participant in the heavenly banquet
of the Kingdom, which our Lord and Savior will open for you on Christmas
night. Amen.
25/12/2022 (Source)
Words during Christmas Eve Mass according to
Gregorian Calendar
On the eve of Christmas, there were so many
discussions in society about whether it is appropriate to celebrate Christmas,
or whether it is possible to rejoice in a time of war? Moreover, the
discussions surrounding the church calendar have led to the fact that instead
of Christmas, many today celebrate Christmas, Christmas without God, perhaps
responding to some commercial needs or under the slogan "Get away from
Moscow".
There is no Christmas without God! We invite
everyone to a real Christmas. It is the new-born Savior who is the content and
meaning of Christmas joy.
(…)
Only that warrior can defeat the enemy who
knows how to kneel before God. He is given the power of good and light, which
drives away the darkness of sin and death.
(…)
Let the secret of our resilience, our Savior
who is among us today, be the source of our vitality in the new year. May the
new year bring us victory and peace, because we know that Christ, who is the
light, the way, the truth and the life, is also our peace. Merry Christmas,
merry Christmas, heavenly blessing to you, your families, all of our
indomitable Ukraine.
24/12/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from daily video address
There is destruction and new victims, killed
and wounded. Kherson is turning into a city of indomitability and courage,
where the enemy continues to sow death, and Ukrainians affirm life every day,
repairing broken infrastructure networks, bringing joy where the enemy wants to
make us cry. All volunteers, state and public organizations are now rushing
to Kherson and the Kherson region to warm the people there, to bring life there
24/12/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
This exarchate is the most wounded by the war
today. As an assistant to the Apostolic Nuncio, you went to the
occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk and saw what the Russian invader
was doing to people. He not only deprives her of what she has, but also
takes away from her what she is, takes away human dignity. Recently,
when we visited our Donetsk Exarchate, one of our priests from Mariupol told me
the following phrase: "These occupiers do not so much take people's lives
as steal their dignity. I saw how people cut each other for a packet of
vermicelli, how they fought for a bottle of clean water”. Bishop Maximus,
the Holy Spirit anoints you to carry the word of the Gospel of Christ to where
there is the greatest pain and darkness, to pour healing balm on the
wounds of suffering people, consecrating them. Give them hope! It is
you that the Lord God sends to announce, to deliver the release to the
prisoners. After all, your exarchate includes two of our courageous
priests - Ivan and Bohdan, who are prisoners of the Russian
occupiers. Bring them and other captives, and with them all the faithful
in the occupied territories, the glad tidings of liberation. The Lord
God is sending you today to set the oppressed free. Today, this war
oppresses, torments, bleeds us all. But Christ places you as a beacon of
hope for our Church and Ukraine.
23/12/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from daily video address
Even children who save their wounded parents
under shelling behave and think like adults. One gets the feeling that the war
steals childhood from children, and youth from young people.
20/12/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from daily video address
Victory can be seen in the eyes of soldiers,
wounded and released from Russian captivity. It can also be seen in the eyes of
the elders in the destroyed villages of Kherson region and Kharkiv region,
where they live without light, without heat in the midst of the Ukrainian
winter. Victory looks at us through the eyes of war victims who say: "The
Ukrainian people are already winning, the enemy has already lost."
19/12/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
It is a privilege for me to arrive today in
Kryvyi Rih, in the city that was probably the most affected by the Russian
rocket attacks the day before yesterday, in which people were killed, in
particular, the dead body of a one and a half year old child was removed from
the rubble...
We ask today in this church: "Lord,
come to us! In the midst of the horrors of war, we cry to You: where are You?
Come and untie the knots that the Russian invader is tying over us. Speak that
word to us so that we stand up and straighten up. Give us the strength to win,
which the apostle Paul tells us about today: "You must put on the full
armor of God, so that in the hour of trouble you can resist and, conquering
everything, stand firm. Stand, therefore, having your loins girded with truth,
having put on the armor of justice" (Eph. 6, 13-14), because, as the
apostle warns us, we fight "against the principalities, against the
authorities, against the rulers of this world of darkness, against the spirits
of malice in the heavenly spaces" (Eph. 6, 12), so we must put on all the
power that flows from this throne of God. Lord, arise, strengthen us, because
we know that You love us. Save, God your people and bless your inheritance.
Amen.
18/12/2022 (Source)
During visit to Kryvyi Rih
Everyone who at least once in his life
experienced shelling, heard the sound of Russian explosions and rockets,
forever received a certain wound in his soul, which will always make itself
known. And what can we say about our women who lost their husbands and children
in the war?! Can someone heal these wounds? It is humanly impossible. But it is
on these wounds that the Lord God wants to pour healing balm with the power and
action of the Holy Spirit.
18/12/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from daily video address
We heard the sound of sirens all over the territory
of Ukraine... The enemy continues to destroy the cities and villages that
were recently liberated, in particular in the Kherson region. People are dying
again. However, this Sunday we once again announce to the whole world: Ukraine
stands! Ukraine is fighting! Ukraine is praying! We continue to pray for
our soldiers, especially for the defenders of Bakhmut and Avdiivka,
18/12/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from daily video address
God, help our youth to preserve the freedom you
have given us. Help us all to understand that in order to defend the freedom of
our Motherland, we ourselves must be free people.
(…)
The entire northern border region: Chernihiv
region, Sumy region, and Kharkiv region - suffers from dozens of Russian
shelling every day, which Russia carries out from its territory on our land... Bakhmut
is already being called the Stalingrad of the third millennium.
15/12/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
In times of war, we Christians have learned to
live in a deeper way because we don't know when our souls will be taken from
us, maybe tonight.
They learned to live without grave sin, in God's grace, to confess often and to
receive Holy Communion every day, that is, to be ready to stand before God with
a heart full of goodness, love for God and neighbor, for their Motherland. We
sometimes define that good with the word "patriotism" as love for
one's people and native land. To be rich in God during the war in Ukraine — let
it be our Christian wisdom and strength.
Let's live this day, week, month with dignity -
and then we will see that a mad and unworthy invader cannot stand before a worthy
and wise Ukrainian.
11/12/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
In his recent letter to the Ukrainian people,
the Holy Father Francis separately addressed the Ukrainian youth. He painfully
stated that today Ukrainian youth are forced to take up arms to defend the
Motherland, abandoning their dreams of the future. However, young people should
not stop dreaming.
Let's support our youth! Today, the special vocation of the Church is to
accompany young people in these difficult, terrible, dramatic circumstances of
the war in Ukraine.
(…)
The enemy continues to try to deport Ukrainian
children en masse. Moreover, the Russians released a commercial about children
deported from Ukraine, in which they encourage Russians to adopt Ukrainian
children who were taken from their parents. The Russians themselves claim
that they took more than 150,000 Ukrainian children out of Ukraine. But the
biggest barbarism is that the Chechens create military camps for Ukrainian
children from the Donbas in order to instill in them hatred of their Motherland
in the most aggressive way. Weapons are placed in children's hands... Let
us wrap our prayers around the children who today fell into the hands of the
enemy, from whom the Motherland, language, culture, love for everything native
are stolen.
09/12/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
We will need the world to condemn these crimes
at the international level. If they are not condemned, unfortunately, they will
repeat themselves, as happened with Hitlerism or Stalinism. Hitler's crimes
were condemned at the Nuremberg Trials, but communism was not. Therefore, the
communist ideology, changing like a hydra, under the guise of modern Russian
ideology, continues to kill. We must do everything to stop this chain of
blind violence, this sacrilegious war against man that is happening in Ukraine
today.
Yesterday, the United Nations report on mass
executions of civilians in Ukraine was published. It is simply amazing. We read
that only in the three occupied regions of Ukraine during the first six
weeks of the Russian occupation, the murder of 441 civilians was proven, of
which 341 were men, 72 were women, 20 were boys, and 8 were girls. We
understand that those figures are a drop in the sea of Ukrainian grief and
pain and a drop in the sea of crimes that Russia is committing in Ukraine.
However, it is very important to collect and record those crimes bit by bit, so
that later they can be officially condemned in an international tribunal,
because otherwise it will be impossible to achieve peace in Ukraine. If the
murderers are not named and the victims are not honored, it will be impossible
to talk about the process of reconciliation between nations.
08/12/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
God, bless our soldiers at the front! God, send
Your arch-strategist Michael with the heavenly army, so that evil is once again
defeated on the battlefield! God, grant victory to Ukraine! God, grant Ukraine
Your just, heavenly peace!
(…)
Let us pray for those of our children who ended
up in the occupied territories. We know that the occupiers are systematically destroying the Ukrainian
education system in the occupied territories, threatening to deprive those
who refuse to send their children to hastily created Russian schools of
parental rights. May the Lord God help us to preserve the dignity of the
child and raise the dignity of a person in the network of our school,
particularly the Catholic, education system.
06/12/2022 (Source)
Pastoral letter from the UGCC on Patriotism
In this terrible hour of military calamity and
extremely difficult trials, we want to address you, dear compatriots, with a
pastoral word about patriotism as love for one's people and the Motherland. Its
purpose is to inspire our heroes-defenders with the word of God's truth; to
comfort all those who have lost their loved ones with a word of sympathy; to
support with a word of love those who suffered from the criminal war waged by
the Russian aggressor against our state; finally, to speak a word of hope to
our compatriots.
We call on believers to become "salt of
the earth" (Mt. 5:13) and "leaven" (1 Cor. 5:6) to strengthen,
unify and renew our Motherland. We appeal equally to all Ukrainians, because
we believe that, regardless of religious and confessional affiliation, everyone
should strive for moral values to serve the improvement of the entire
society. We direct our word to people of other national origin who live in
our common Motherland and love it as their own, having found here the land with
which they connect their present and future and the future of their
descendants. Our message is based on God's commandments and the example of
Jesus Christ,
The destructive actions and war crimes
committed by the aggressor cause a flurry of emotions in each of us, including
restlessness and anxiety, pain and sorrow. We, the bishops of the UGCC, share
the feelings of our suffering people. The rules of the Christian experience
of defensive war, which our people are now fighting, include the rules of just
self-defense. Ukrainians have a sacred duty to defend their Motherland, even
taking up arms. Therefore, we wrap our prayers in support of our soldiers
who went to the front to protect their native land, their families, the lives
and future of their children and grandchildren.
At the same time, we call on our compatriots
not only for an emotional reaction. Our feelings even now, during the war,
should serve as an impetus for deeper reflection, which should not be postponed
until victory. On the contrary, right now, despite the destruction and
suffering, is the time not only to act and feel, but also to think, to think in
the light of faith. Therefore, in this message, we invite you to think together
with us about the meaning of existence and historical tasks of our people,
about the Motherland as our common value and sanctuary, about our attitude
towards friends and enemies of our country, about the development of the future
Ukraine, which should become even better after the victory over the enemy
Patriotism, which we offer to think about from
a Christian perspective, is one of the manifestations of the main commandment -
to love your neighbor as yourself. Derived from the Latin "pater", that is, "father",
the word "patriotism" should help us realize that our earthly
Motherland is given to us by God the Father. We turn to our heavenly Father
with the words of the prayer "Our Father". Ukraine is our
Motherland, that is, the earthly inheritance of the Father who is in heaven. It
is our earthly "home", in which we are residents, and among ourselves
we are relatives (people), because we are children of the same Father.
Therefore, the roots of earthly patriotism are in heaven. Giving the
Motherland to us as a gift, the Lord calls us to be responsible for it, and the
responsibility is to enter into the Father's plan for Ukraine and transform our
land according to His commandments.
(…)
The Church of Christ, formed from different
peoples, preserved love for the earthly Motherland as a duty. Christians,
loving their parents, are called to love their land, "the land of their
fathers." However, unlike the people of the Old Testament, who
associated themselves only with the land that God gave to their forefathers,
Christians seek first of all the high Jerusalem (cf. Gal. 4, 26), and call
themselves citizens of heaven (cf. Phil. 3, 20 ; Hebrews 13, 14). The
words of the apostle: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave
nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ
Jesus" (Gal. 3, 28) do not diminish the richness of different cultures and
national characteristics of the embodiment of Christ in their history Gospel. Yes, the holy apostle Paul,
following the Teacher, opens a vertical dimension to us, because all of us, the
peoples of this earth, stand together before the face of God. Christ's
mission is to unite all people in one people of God. This does not mean
that Christians should neglect their earthly Motherland, because the Apostle
Paul, whom St. John Paul II called "a teacher of love for the
Motherland", writes in the Epistle to the Romans: "I speak the truth
in Christ, I do not deceive, as my conscience testifies to me in the Holy
Spirit [...] I myself would like to be separated from Christ for my brothers,
my relatives in the flesh" (Rom. 9, 1-3). Other words of the apostle
are also important: "If someone does not care for his own, and especially
for his family, he has fallen away from the faith: he is worse than an
infidel" (cf. 1 Tim. 5, 8). as my conscience testifies to me in the
Holy Spirit [...] I would like to be separated from Christ myself for my
brothers, my relatives in the flesh" (Rom. 9, 1-3). Other words of
the apostle are also important: "If someone does not care for his own, and
especially for his family, he has fallen away from the faith: he is worse than
an infidel" (cf. 1 Tim. 5, 8).
(…)
The absence of direct calls to love one's
earthly Motherland among early Christian authors can be explained by the fact
that in the society of that time, Christians were a persecuted minority, and
the state system was permeated with a pagan religious worldview, unacceptable
to Christians.
Therefore, the position of the martyrs, who chose the death of the body rather
than sin, remains exemplary for subsequent Christian generations; life in the
Kingdom of Heaven than living in the state of "this world", which
grossly violates God's commandments and natural law.
(…)
The Christian faith is the source of thousands
of years of Ukrainian state building experience. And when the state was declining in difficult
moments of our history, it was our Church that bore the image of the lost
"home" and provided spiritual impulses for its restoration. In this
way, the Kyivan tradition nurtured by our Church served to preserve and develop
not only the church, but also the national identity of the local people of God.
Over the centuries, Ukrainians preserved their spiritual and cultural
identity, perceiving Christianity not only as a personal matter of a person,
but also as a patriotic idea of the Rus-Ukraine community.
The church-national identity of Ukrainians was
not always understood by other peoples, because they had their own history with
a different relationship between the services of the Church and the state.
For some, the role of the Kyiv Church in state construction seemed
comparatively insufficient, for others - excessive. Hence the objections
regarding the "apoliticalness" (insufficiency) or, conversely, the
"nationalism" (excessiveness) of our Church in the social life of the
Ukrainian people.
(…)
Metropolitan Andrey distinguished two types of
patriotism – pagan and Christian, and defined hatred as the point of
distinction. Pagan patriotism contained hatred as a necessary element of
opposition to foreigners: "Pagan patriotism is love for one's own, combined with hatred
for all others. And Christian love for the Motherland, embracing all people,
unites Christians with opponents and enemies and gives patriotism the basis
it needs: it teaches that unity" (Decree "On Unity" and rules
for the decree, September 28, 1943). Christian patriotism has a basic red line
outlined by Jesus himself: "I say to you: Love your enemies and pray for
those who persecute you" (Mt. 5, 44). The basis of Christian patriotism is
a special love for one's people, which does not contradict the Christian duty
to love all people.
(…)
“A Christian can and should be a patriot,
but his patriotism cannot be hatred, nor dare he impose duties contrary to
faith. What would appear to be patriotism, but [in reality] would be hatred or
contrary to faith, is not true patriotism.”
(…)
In the modern teaching of the Church, the
Second Vatican Council speaks several times about patriotism. In the Decree on
the missionary activity of the Church "Ad gentes" it is stated: (…) As
good citizens, let them nurture a real active love for the Motherland; completely
avoiding contempt for other peoples and extreme nationalism, let them cultivate
universal love between people" (p. 15). So the Council fully supports
patriotism, while opposing chauvinism or extreme nationalism.
(…)
The Catechism of the Catholic Church on
patriotism teaches as follows: "It is the duty of citizens to cooperate
with civil authorities for the good of society in the spirit of truth, justice,
solidarity and freedom." Love for the Motherland, service to it arise from
the duty of gratitude and from the order of love".
(…)
Unfortunately, not everyone adequately
perceives the desire of Ukrainians to build a "native home" - their
earthly Motherland. This became most evident when the northern neighbor,
denying the very right of the Ukrainian people to exist, launched a bloody war
against it, causing terrible destruction and numerous human
casualties. Even in the so-called to the free world, not everyone
understands the Ukrainian defensive struggle, the defense of its own identity,
accusing our people and our Church of excessive nationalism. This once again emphasizes how
important it is not only for Ukrainians, but also for all other nations to
understand the meaning of true Christian patriotism.
(…)
True patriotism will never be seasoned with
antagonism or hatred, even towards enemies. Christian patriotism must be
distinguished from a distorted attitude towards the Motherland, which is not
love, but rather national egoism, which can imperceptibly develop into open
chauvinism. Because
a chauvinist or a Nazi also says that he stands for his country, but he wants
to achieve the greatness of his state by humiliating or even destroying others.
Instead, a Christian understands that it is not hatred of others and opposition
to them that makes us able to fulfill our Christian task of protecting the
Motherland, but rather the ability to give ourselves in love.
(…)
Love creates heroes, and hate creates
criminals. A patriot is someone who first of all identifies with his people and
takes responsibility for his country.
(…)
Therefore, a patriot should be especially
careful not to introduce ungodly principles into the state system, such as
uncertain and unverified concepts of human identity or family and principles of
gender education, which are no less threatening to the nation than military
aggression.
(…)
Let the Ukrainian struggle today give evidence
of true freedom not only for Ukraine, but also for the whole world. And true
freedom, as the experience of Ukraine shows today, is the ability to do good.
And let this spiritual truth be our strength that enables us to win.
05/12/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
In times of war, we see a mutual rapprochement
through Christian love and charity carried out through social service and
various humanitarian initiatives. They bring together and unite the East, West,
South and North of Ukraine, unite our people in their native lands and in
settlements in different parts of the world. This unity is the key not only to
the treatment of modern wounds, but also the guarantee of our victory, the
victory of Ukraine. Evil and death will never have the last word. Only Divine
love, which heals and saves, is eternal.
04/12/2022 (Source)
Words to Fr who was arrested by Russian troops
and then liberated and expelled from Melitopol
Today in the Gospel we heard about the hand of
the Good Samaritan, the hand of the priest who administers the Holy Sacraments.
And here is the hand that brought God's grace to our brothers and sisters in
Melitopol and its surroundings, the hand that was shackled and taken away from
the parish by force! Allow me to make one gesture - to kiss the hand that
poured and will pour God's grace on the wounds of our people.
I asked him several times: "Father, can we
save you?". And he said with tears in his eyes: “No, there are so many
people here who ask for Confession, Holy Communion, get married, and are
baptized. Who will serve them if I am not here?!" He was under special pressure
during the pseudo-referendum. Seven times they came to him to accept a Russian
passport!
Our two priests in Berdyansk - Father Ivan
Levitskyi and Father Bohdan Geleta - are imprisoned. We know that they are
tortured mercilessly, confessions are extracted from them in crimes they did
not commit.
May the Lord bless all our priests. May he save
our fathers Ivan and Bohdan and again give them to the Church for service.
04/12/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
The enemy continues to commit various crimes in
the occupied territories, but what surprises us all the most is widespread
looting. No matter how difficult it was for our people, we never ransacked
shops or destroyed warehouses with food. Instead, those who supposedly have power in
these territories engage in looting. In Novaya Kakhovka, Russians broke into
shops and began to steal even freezers and cash registers. But Ukraine stands!
Ukraine is fighting! Ukraine is praying!
Unfortunately, the enemy is intensifying
repression and humiliation of the civilian population in the occupied
territories. Numerous searches, arrests, torture are carried out, people
disappear, about whom there is no news. Our heroic priests from Berdyansk —
Ivan Levytskyi and Bohdan Geleta — are still in captivity and are humiliated
and tortured every day.
04/12/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from television interview
During the audience, I asked Pope Francis:
"Do you know what they say about you in Ukraine?". He asked:
"What?". I answer: "That you didn't read Dostoevsky well."
"But why?" – he was surprised...
(…)
And I told the Pope that it reminded me of
certain romantic ideas about Germany before the Second World War: when someone
heard the word "Germany", they imagined the German philosophy of the
19th century, high examples of German culture... But in power were nazis And
then the whole world wondered how such a people, with such a high culture,
created Auschwitz and was the cause of the great Holocaust.
The same thing, unfortunately, is happening in
Russia. Criminals, Nazis, are in power there. And the whole world today is
watching the crimes against the Ukrainian people, their genocide. We see these
mass burials. And the Pope simply could not believe that such alleged examples
of humanism could commit such a crime.
Today, our people are like a sick child who
sees the world in shades of black and white. And they believe that when someone
is not with us, he is against us, if someone speaks positively about those who
kill us, it causes offence.
Our people do not understand this. That's what
I told the Pope. And he asked what he could do as a gesture, a word of comfort,
empathy. I said: Holy Father, write a letter to the Ukrainians. And he did.
02/12/2022 (Source)
Appeal for the release of Fr. Ivan Levitskyi
and Fr. Bohdan Geletu
These two priests decided to stay with their
people in the temporarily occupied territories. They served both the Greek
Catholic and Roman Catholic communities, bringing a light of hope to people
under occupation. They were arrested, then some military items were thrown into
the temple, and they begin to accuse these fathers of illegal possession of
weapons. Yesterday there was a report that they were being mercilessly tortured.
In accordance with the classic Stalinist repressive methods, confessions of a
crime they did not commit are simply beaten out. They are in danger of death
every day.
I ask everyone, first of all those who beat and
torture, to release them immediately. This is not the fault of Christ's
priests. They were guilty only because they love their people, the Church, the
people entrusted to them.
Lord, we entrust Fathers Ivan and Bohdan into
Your hands! Give us all the light of understanding, how we can help them,
how to save them. And where it is impossible for a person to do something,
Lord, be present! God, may their lives, testimonies, and sufferings be the
newest treasure of our Church and people.
01/12/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from sermon
How many wounds our people have today! How
deeply we carry the pain of despair in our hearts today! So many times we
experienced the feeling that everyone left us and forgot about us! It seemed to
us that the whole world was just watching how many days it would take the enemy
to conquer Ukraine. It is already the ninth month, and we are standing. Now the
whole world is asking where we get our strength and resilience from.
Today we can say to ourselves and to the whole
world that the stability of Ukraine, our strength and victory and our peace,
for which we are fighting for our Motherland, has a name - the Lord our God
Jesus Christ. It is
He who tells us today: "Don't be afraid, just believe!". Because we,
as people, are afraid. Anyone who says they are not afraid during war is
telling a lie. When rockets fly, bombs fall, our houses shake and windows fly
out, everyone gets scared.
How to live in such circumstances? One woman,
whose husband was killed, asked me: how to continue living? That is why
Christ's words addressed to us sound so strongly today: "Do not be afraid,
only believe!". The Lord wants to touch us, he is looking for those who
would believe in Him and to whom His power could be transferred.
Now He touches us through the body of His
Church. This touch of the fullness of the Universal Church is mentioned by the
Holy Father Francis in his recent letter to the Ukrainian people: "In
these months, when the harsh climate makes what you are going through today even
more tragic, I want you to feel the gentle touch of the Church on your faces ,
the power of prayer and the love with which numerous brothers and sisters
around the world surround you." Even now, in this Divine Liturgy, Christ
is looking for those whom he would touch with his Body and Blood. He calls us
to Holy Communion, His Body and Blood for the forgiveness of sins and eternal
life. He is looking for open, believing hearts that can receive His healing
power because He wants to heal our inner, not only bodily, but also spiritual
bleeding, which is our sin. Because sin is the bleeding of the soul. Sometimes
a person who is bleeding may not feel much pain, but she dies. Christ wants to
touch both our soul and our body to stop our internal bleeding and restore the
fullness, integrity of our life.
(…)
We ask the Lord God to touch each of us: me and
you. We ask Him for peace for our Motherland, for victory over the Russian
aggressor, for victory over sin and death, which the enemy brings to Ukrainian
land. Because Christ is our peace, healing, life and resurrection.
(…)
Today we say: God, save Ukraine, save our boys
and girls at the front! With your strength, heal the wounds of Ukraine, touch
the suffering, sick hearts. Pour out your power on them as You did in today's
Gospel regarding the bleeding woman and the dead girl. God, bless our Ukraine
with Your true, just, heavenly peace! Amen.
27/11/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from speech on Holodomor remembrance
day
Unfortunately, in history it happened that
when we lost our statehood, the northern aggressor exterminated our people. The
same is happening today. The enemy tells us to surrender our country. However,
we understand that by losing our statehood, we again become victims of
genocide. It was not for nothing that Pope Francis found a deep internal
connection between those two tragedies – the 90-year-old Genocide-Holodomor and
the genocide that Russia is wreaking on the land of Ukraine today. Then
Stalin's killers turned hunger into the cheapest and cruellest weapon of mass
destruction, and today their descendants want to turn cold into such a weapon
against Ukraine again.
(…)
We pray today to protect our people from a new
deadly threat, which is now being openly carried by Russia with the intention
of taking away the Ukrainian people's right to exist, we remember to prevent.
We should unite and do everything in our power,
so that such crimes never happen again on Ukrainian soil. We remember to prevent! Eternal
memory to all those who were deprived of their right to life and existence, who
became victims of the great famine in Ukraine!
26/11/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
It is sometimes not easy for internally
displaced persons and refugees to integrate in a new place - foreign people,
circumstances, customs, maybe even languages. Therefore, I am asking everyone:
let's accept our brothers and sisters, especially children, as relatives. Let's
not pay attention to the language of communication - let's help integrate
social life in them. I thank all our communities and parishes abroad, which
welcome brothers and sisters from the East of Ukraine and give them the
opportunity to feel that they are full-fledged members.
25/11/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
However, what strikes us the most is the
brutality of the Russian occupiers towards their own people. We are already
used to seeing terrible footage of mass burials, torture chambers, abuse of the
peaceful Ukrainian population in the liberated territories. However, residents
of Kherson said that the Russians burned the bodies of their dead soldiers in
the city cemetery. And they called it a secret special operation. However,
they failed to hide this crime against the dignity of their own soldiers
22/11/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from sermon
In the conditions of the current war, we see
the evil that, due to the crimes of the Russian invaders, materializes in this
visible world. From a person's evil decision, from abusing the opportunity
to choose between good and evil, from abusing freedom, a person joins that
spiritual struggle, enters the vortex of evil and, as it were, lets it into this
world. But at the same time, a person is invited to be a winner. The
final victory over evil is given to us in Jesus Christ, God incarnate, who
defeated death by death, destroyed the devil and his army. In Him, we also
see the final victory over evil at the end of history, as we read about in the
book of Revelation.
So, this holiday has an open invitation for
each of us. We are participants in this confrontation, so we cannot help
but act, fight, decide on which side we stand. The Church invites us to
stand on the side of the arch-strategist Michael, so that his victory, which
was completed in the sacrament of the incarnation of Christ, becomes a reality
in our personal life, in the life of a person, human community, human culture
and in the life of this visible world. The whole world groans with
inexpressible groans, says the apostle Paul, waiting for the liberation of the
sons of God, for the final victory of good.
Today, on the holiday of Kyiv's patron saint,
arch-strategist Michael, all our thoughts are directed towards the
capital. We feel that from the beginning of the war, when there was an
attack on Kyiv, arch-strategist Michael with all the heavenly army fought
against evil over this city. At the beginning of the war, there were many
testimonies of people of different denominations and religions about the
presence of an angelic host. At that time, when explosions rang out around
the capital, fighting was going on in Gostomel, Irpen, the heavenly army fought
on the side of the Ukrainian army. In those most dramatic moments of the
history of our capital, we felt all the disgust and destructive power of evil,
as well as the beauty and invincible power of good! And we become
partakers of that victory that took place in heaven and is carried out on earth
through the right choice in favor of the good of people, the Ukrainian army,
Ukraine, which is today resisting Russian aggression.
We are also currently celebrating a state
holiday – the Day of Dignity and Freedom. We commemorate the Heroes of the
Heavenly Hundred, all those who gave their lives on the Maidan, saying
"no" to evil, violence, untruth and corruption, opening a new page in
the history of the national liberation struggles of the Ukrainian people. Praying
today with our Heroes, who in the heavens today form a single army with arch-strategist
Michael and his disembodied forces in this Cathedral, we ask for the power of
goodness, help, and prayers for the victory of Ukraine in this war, which has
come to our home today. Let the final word of goodness be revealed in
our victory. Let the victory of Ukraine be the victory of good over evil
of arch-strategist Michael and his heavenly forces over the devil and his
servants. May we see this strange vision of how Satan, who was created as
a day-star, a star, will fall once more from his pedestal of human
history, so that we can experience this vision together: "I saw Satan
falling like lightning from heaven" (Lk. 10, 18). Amen.
21/11/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from sermon
We know that the word "freedom" has
many meanings.
Sometimes in the modern world it undergoes such a mutation that it loses its
original, true meaning. Everything is done in the name of "freedom". Even
the Russian occupier comes to "liberate" someone on Ukrainian soil.
(…)
Today, we ask the Lord God through the prayers
of St. Josaphat for true freedom for our people. We ask for that
freedom from new enslavement. Because we see that this invader and
murderer who comes to our home is a new colonizer. We are telling the
whole world that now, at the beginning of the third millennium, a war of
colonization is going on in Ukraine, which lies in the center of Europe. This
is difficult for many people in the world to understand. The colonizer
wants to take everything from us. However, what makes Ukraine today the
epicenter of world events is precisely the fact that we tasted freedom, that we
said "no" to the legion that is attacking us, because we want to be
disciples of Jesus. Today, Ukraine is becoming the heart of the
struggle for freedom throughout the world.
Lord, let us return home, just like this man
whom You set free. Millions of Ukrainians are waiting for this
moment. We want to go home and then tell everyone about what God has done
with us or for us. We want to tell the whole world about free,
independent Ukraine, which lives in the freedom that the Lord God gives and
guarantees to us, in the freedom of God's sons. Amen.
20/11/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
We were particularly worried by our President's
statement that Russia deported more than 11,000 Ukrainian children from
Ukraine. And these are only the ones we know about. And those we do not
know about, unfortunately, are not included in the statistics. Therefore,
today we are asking all international institutions: let's do everything
together so that the children of Ukraine return to their Motherland, to their
parents, to their homes!
(…)
The war brought ruin to our Ukraine and to the
soul, psyche and physiological sphere of all Ukrainians. However, there are those among us
who have lost more than we have. When it's hard for us, let's remember that
there are those who endure more. When we are in pain, let us understand that
someone is suffering much more. Therefore, let's be attentive to those who need
help
15/11/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from an interview with Avennire
The Pope asks to start negotiations, calling
Putin and Zelenskyi by name.
He made this
address after the Sunday prayer "Angel of the Lord", condemning
Russia's annexation of four regions of Ukraine, referring to international law,
which guarantees the inviolability of the borders of a sovereign state. Those
are really brave words. I consider his address historic and am convinced
that it will mark the history of Central-Eastern Europe, as well as the history
of the entire Catholic Church before the outbreak of this war.
Why?
The appeal to
the two presidents is striking in its asymmetry. The Holy Father
appeals to Putin to stop the aggression. We are talking about something
special, because the Russian side is in the grip of its own logic of war. And
addressing Zelenskyi, he asks him to accept "serious proposals for
peace." This saying reveals the deep wisdom of the Pope, which not
everyone has yet fully understood.
What are the conditions for
negotiations?
After the
invasion of Georgia, Russia changed the very concept of "peace
proposal." For the Kremlin, peace means the pacification of the
colony it conquered. This is the peace that needs to be planted -
"peace coercion". Basically, it's about giving up. However,
this model is unacceptable for us, therefore "not serious", according
to the Pope's statement. I can assure you that all of Ukraine seeks peace. Our
president declared peace with Russia as one of the most important points of his
election program. We, as the Church, teach how to build peace. But
first of all, we need to recognize Ukraine's right to exist, a right that Putin
denied us very recently. After that, it is necessary to guarantee
subjectivity — and this is only a prerequisite for dialogue. And if a
serious offer of peace really comes, the Ukrainian people will accept it with
great joy. So we pray that it will happen as soon as possible.
Can the Holy See be a mediator?
No doubt. This
is what the Pope himself says in the letter he sent me: "I assure you that the Holy
See, at different levels and in different areas, continues to make efforts to
stop the conflict and to prevail over all actions for a peaceful path." Pope
Francis tells us that Vatican diplomacy is at our service. Ever since the
beginning of the war in Donbas and the annexation of Crimea, the Holy See has
always shown readiness to mediate. Our President Zelensky even suggested
that the Vatican city-state could be the geographic location of the meeting. However,
certain prerequisites are necessary. First, both parties must agree to
mediation. Second, they must commit to abide by and ratify what they
agreed upon. Thirdly, it is necessary to hear the arguments of both sides.
Is the intervention of other great
powers necessary?
I am not a
politician, but every contact and channel that can contribute to saving human
lives is very necessary. History shows that pandering to the aggressor
is always harmful. In any case, if there is someone who can remind the
Russian authorities, we sincerely ask you to do so.
Are you afraid of nuclear
escalation?
This whole war
is a constant escalation. And now, after Russia's latest defeats on the
battlefield, we constantly hear nuclear threats. However, people have
already crossed the psychological threshold of fear. This is also not
good, because the danger has not passed. Many people say: our houses are
destroyed, missiles and kamikaze drones shoot at us - what difference does it
make to die from another missile or an atomic bomb?! This indicates that
we, Ukrainians, have no other choice but to fight for survival. However,
no one loses hope. People understand that giving up means making
things worse.
What do the priests in the occupied
territories say?
The
intention of the occupiers is to depopulate Ukrainian territories. We do
not understand the motives. They say that they have come to protect the
population — but why is it necessary to destroy everything? We also see
the systematic deportation of the population. Ethnic cleansing is being
carried out in Kherson, people were given two days to leave the city. And
this is the policy of the state that just annexed the territories? The task of the Church is to protect
the most disadvantaged and, if necessary, to be their voice. That is why
we consider it our duty to tell about all this.
Is this Putin's war or the Russian
people's?
Russia is
not a democratic country. No one there is interested in what the people
think, overwhelmed by propaganda about the supremacy of the Russian nation. Of
course, Russian society suffered a lot from this propaganda, but it also
adapted it. If it is true that 65 percent of the population supports the
war, then we are sorry. When we see the tears of Russian mothers mourning
the death of their own children, believe me, we are not happy. When we see
their huge losses at the front or when we see those fleeing from forced
mobilization in order not to go to kill, we realize that this people is also
suffering. The Russian government behaves irresponsibly and cruelly
towards its own people. And I sincerely hope that a sense of peace will
prevail in Russian society. If it is obvious that starting this war was a
big mistake, you have to have the courage to admit it. And we, the victims
of this war, pray for our enemies,
Russian Patriarch Kirill blessed the
invasion. Is the war in Ukraine dividing Christians?
It is in
everyone's eyes. Christians are divided even in their assessment of the
war. But no one will justify the attack, except for the Russian
Orthodox Church in Russia. Even the same church outside of Russia has a
different position. The way in which the Russian Orthodox Church supports
the war reminds us of the doctrine of ISIS. The Islamic State used Islam to
legitimize the most brutal violence - we see the same in the preaching of the
Moscow patriarch and the highest representatives of this church. Like
ISIS, the Russian Orthodox Church views the Western world as immoral and
deserving of destruction. The doctrine of the Islamic State calls for
self-sacrifice for the sake of fighting the West, promising eternal life - we
hear the same in the sermons of Patriarch Kirill. However, the Islamic
world has managed to develop antibodies to reject and defend against this
provocative ideology. And also we Christians must distance themselves
from this apparent instrumentalization of the Gospel. Otherwise, we will
face not only the threat of the division of the Christian world, but also a
crisis of confidence in Christianity as such.
They predict a
hard winter. Do you need the proximity of the West?
Ukraine needs
solidarity at various levels. First of all, we ask the world to condemn
attacks on civilians. The All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious
Organizations, which unites Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox, Jews and Muslims,
recently made a statement on the protection of the Ukrainian sky. It
may seem strange to some that Churches are asked to provide anti-missile
defense systems, but we do this not to kill people, but to save them. We
also need help to restore the energy infrastructure. Not so long ago,
Ukraine was an energy exporter for Europe, and now we need Europe's support in
this important area.
Peace will not come only from the
signing of a certain agreement. Will it be necessary to cleanse hearts?
In our Church,
we adopted the Pastoral Plan until 2030. An important part of it is wound
healing. We realize that war not only inflicts physical wounds, but
also creates feelings of hatred and revenge. As Confucius said, if we
hate, we have already lost. And that's why it will take time for peace to
come not only on paper, but also in hearts, as God's word tells us. However,
when we manage to stop the hostility, it will be necessary to clearly indicate
who is the criminal, otherwise we cannot talk about justice. Therefore,
it is necessary to start a certain path, on the horizon of which there should
be objective truth. Many Russians do not realize what their army has
done on the territory of Ukraine. We will need time to pray together at
the graves of our victims.
Italy, in particular the Italian
Church, has always been close to the Ukrainian people...
I am grateful
to the Italian people for the help we receive, as well as for their hospitality
to refugees from Ukraine. In the first ranks of this help, we see dioceses
and parishes. I want to thank the Episcopal Conference of Italy, which
supports our Church every year. However, we especially feel this help now,
when bombs are falling on us. I will also note that although many of our
priests live on the verge of poverty, they perform sacrificial service to all
people.
14/11/2022 (Source)
Opening
of jubilee of St. Josaphat, in Rome
Those words about our Christ the Lord Jesus as a good
shepherd were reread again and again by each of our bishops, priests, abbots of
this or that monastery, when they saw the approaching Russian army. When
he had to make a difficult choice - what to do: stay here, in place, or leave
the occupied territory, that community, those people? And today I want us all to give
thanks together that our Church has good shepherds on the example of our Savior
Christ Jesus.
12/11/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
Apparently, the past day will go down in the
history of Ukraine as the Day of Liberation of Ukrainian Kherson. Yesterday
we watched with emotion the video of how the residents of Kherson and Kherson
Oblast met the Ukrainian soldiers with flowers, with Ukrainian flags, and most
importantly, with tears of joy and with smiles that they are finally free.
Today, on behalf of all of our God's people, I thank the Armed Forces of
Ukraine for restoring the gift of freedom to Kherson and the entire
right-bank Mykolaiv region and Kherson region.
(…)
We feel a nationwide elation and say: God,
liberate other Ukrainian lands by the power of the grace of the Holy Spirit!
God, support the Ukrainian army in its victorious march!
(…)
Unfortunately, the war also causes an increase in
internal tension in Ukraine. People are becoming embittered, aggressive,
the number of conflicts within our communities is beginning to increase.
12/11/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of address to monastic superiors
When the war started, 500 people often spent
the night in the crypts of our Patriarchal Cathedral. Together with them - cats, dogs,
parrots, hamsters, fish. In this, I saw the Church as Noah's ark, which
saves those people in the midst of a turbulent world, in the midst of death
lurking outside. We saw how Russian helicopters circled over our cathedral,
how rockets flew into high-rise buildings in Kyiv before our eyes. Where did
the people go? To his Church. Because they knew that there they would be
received, hugged, warmed, fed and entertained.
We want to be a Church that doesn't just shut
itself up in its bomb shelters, but comes out like the Basilian Fathers came
out to serve the Divine Liturgy in the Kyiv subway. I want us to especially
remember the Fathers in the occupied territories, because now it is the most
difficult for them. I spoke personally to the Holy Father about their
fate: about the Basilian fathers in Kherson, in the Crimea, about the
Redemptorist fathers in Berdyansk, about the Fathers of the Incarnate Word in
Skadovsk – about our newest confessors of Christ's Gospel in extraordinary
circumstances.
He who survived confession in the Kyiv subway
under bombs will never forget the loving motherly face of his Church.
One of our priests in Zaporizhzhia was called a
priest who smells like bread by the Russian military. Because he carried
bread and smelled of it. For him, the smell of bread was a document that
opened all Russian roadblocks.
I am proud that we have such monasticism, which
is ready to serve its Church where it is most difficult, where there is the
greatest need. When we serve others, we solve many internal
problems. We are healing our wounds, overcoming difficulties.
08/11/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
We see that Russia spends tens or even
hundreds of millions of dollars every day on the huge amount of weapons it uses
to attack Ukraine. If, for example, those funds were invested in the
development of medicine, in the development of people, even in Russia itself,
then it would be possible to do a lot of good and serve life, instead of
bringing death and destruction.
We are witnessing the fact, that Russia,
instead of treating the sins and vices of its people, wounded by decades of
communist terror, is trying to solve internal problems with external
aggression.
08/11/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon, during a trip to Rome
It is a miracle that I am among you. It's a
miracle we're alive. It is a miracle that our Motherland, which has been
crucified for the 256th day, is alive. From a human point of view, this is
impossible, because we should have been gone a long time ago. And then everyone
would be calm, satisfied, no one would have problems - neither political, nor
diplomatic, nor military. But the Lord God does not see such a world without
us. We, as a people, as the Church, have a special task from Him in front of
this world, which thinks about its own benefit, its own comfort - thinks only
about itself. We have a mission given to us by God.
(…)
The question, where is God, torments and burns
every Ukrainian who today is looking for meaning in the most insane reality -
in war. A little girl asked this question to her mother in Mariupol: Mom, where
is God when a bomb falls on us? Mother, where is God? This is the question that
everyone asks themselves when they see those who suffered from this war, those
from whom the enemy took away their relatives, those whose house burned down in
front of their eyes, and in that house - their entire previous life. Where is
God when you look at the mass burials of murdered young men, women and children
with their hands tied. You ask: God, where are you?
God answers us today in this parable: I am
where no one expected to see Me. I am among those who today they want to kill,
denying their right to exist. That is why we can say today: God is in the body
of the Ukrainian people, who, like that Lazarus, reaches out to the world,
sometimes asking for that little bit of humanitarian aid or other things. We
are the people to whom God himself gave the right to exist and live, and no one
can take this right away from us. God is wounded every time Russian rockets and
bombs fall on the heads of Kyivans, residents of Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv,
Mykolaiv, and Kherson. His wounds can be seen in our wounded soldiers. What
wounds - if only we could imagine!
Those who today close their hearts and minds to
us, thinking that they decide the destinies of the whole world, do not want to
give God even a crumb of their attention. Again and again our Lord Jesus
Christ is killed, shot, tortured, publicly executed in the body of our soldiers
and civilians in the occupied territories and in Russian captivity. And He dies
again in the body of Ukraine to be resurrected!
And when today we want to ask ourselves, what
is our strength, the strength of stability and invincibility of Ukraine, which
surprises the whole world - El-Azar - God is still present in his Lazarus
today! Moreover, it is the Lord who reveals to us, Ukrainians, the prospects of
our life and existence as God's people far beyond the earthly hell that the
occupier created for us on earth, and even beyond the limits of death itself.
Therefore, we are not afraid of death - Christ defeated it and rose from the
dead. He is in us, and even if the mind, will or heart of some politician or
head of state, philosopher or thinker does not accept and understand us today,
know that Abraham's bosom will accept us in the heavenly abode. We will be
embraced by the Heavenly Father as His beloved children. And those who today
do not want to see the hand of Ukraine, which, dripping with blood, knocks on
the hearts and minds of the world community, they will never receive the
desired finger of Lazarus, which would cool their tongue in the midst of
eternal hellish suffering and torment (cf. Lk. 16, 24). Only we, as God's
people, must be able to live it worthily.
Let's not be afraid and let's not get
discouraged when someone doesn't understand us today, when they don't understand why
Ukrainians don't give up, but fight. Let's not worry about the fact that
someone does not understand the meaning of our pain and suffering. One
victorious European politician of the 20th century said: "You must win
first, and then everyone will understand you."
Do not despair! Don't get tired! But every time
you get into difficult life circumstances, ask yourself: where is God? You will
see that He is much closer than you thought. And even when you carry the wounds
of Ukraine, our nation, on your body, you will be able to say with the apostle
Paul: "Let no one trouble me, because I carry the wounds of Jesus on my
body" (Gal. 6, 17).
Here in Italy, in this temple, you have a
privilege, and therefore a special task in this national, church-wide battle
against evil. Your privilege is not that Russian bombs and rockets do not fall
on you and you do not hear the sounds of sirens, and not that you have light
and warmth, but that you can stand in prayer in front of the Zhirovitsa icon of
the Mother of God. This is a unique privilege. This is your special place of
mission here in the temple near Her steps. Because it was Her eyes that
absorbed not only the prayers, tears, and groans of that icon painter, the monk
of God, who wrote it just when his homeland, today's Belarus and Ukraine, was
in the flames of war, but also the numerous prayers of God's people for their
Church and for his people Therefore, I ask you: pray to Her! Because Ukraine
stands and wins precisely because it prays. Ukraine stands and wins by God's
power, not by the support of the powerful of this world. Pray for us - in Kyiv,
Kharkiv, Odesa, in Donbas. You will see: we will endure, we will win, because
the hand of God reaches out to the world today through Ukraine, through the
Ukrainian people, through its visible destiny, historical mission in the past,
present and future.
Today, at the feet of this icon of our Heavenly
Mother, I begin my visit to the Apostolic Capital. I want to submit to Her feet
all the prayers and requests that I have collected from the suffering Ukrainian
people and believers in various cities and villages of Central, Eastern, Northern,
Southern and Western Ukraine.
Yes, today the Lord God has placed upon us,
upon our Church, a special mission to be the voice of the Ukrainian people, to
knock on the doors, hearts, and minds of the rich of this world. But today
we ask, as our Church sang from time immemorial: "Don't entrust me to
human intercession, Most Holy Mistress, but accept the prayer of your servant:
sorrow envelops me, I cannot endure the demonic shooting, I have no cover, and
I have no one to run to, wretched one, always defeated, and I have no comfort
except You, Mistress of the world: hope and protect the faithful, do not reject
my prayer, but make it useful for us"! (Stikhira ch. 6, Canon of prayer to
the Most Holy Theotokos).
Mother of God, our hope, our light in the midst
of darkness, save Ukraine, save our Church, save Your sons and daughters, save
God's people who call out to You day and night, raising their hands and hearts
in prayer! Holy Mother of God, save us! Amen.
07/11/2022 (Source)
Words to Pope Francis, in Rome
The war in Ukraine is distinctly colonial and
the peace proposals coming to us from Russia are nothing more than the
pacification of the colony. Behind them is the denial of the right to the
existence of the Ukrainian people, their history, culture and, in particular,
the Church. They
carry within themselves the denial of the very right to the existence of the
Ukrainian state, recognized by the international community with its sovereignty
and territorial integrity. Russian proposals for peace do not yet have any
objectivity for dialogue.
(…)
This is a symbolic gift not only because it is
a fragment of a Russian mine that destroyed our church in the martyr city of
Irpen, but also because we daily extract similar fragments of Russian mines,
bombs and rockets from the bodies of soldiers, civilians and even innocent
children. They
are visible signs of the total destruction and death that Russia is bringing to
Ukrainian land.
07/11/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
Every word of this Gospel knocks on our hearts
today. Because each of us feels like a hostage of death. We in
Ukraine live in constant danger of death. Mothers mourn their dead
children almost every day.
However, in the midst of our national grief,
crying and pain, we hear good news: God sees! He sees everything, even
what a person no longer has the strength to look at or what he wants to look
away from. I remember one Soviet dissident, an atheist, who wrote the
following words: "God, if You are not here, then please: be! Because
I need a witness who would see the hell that his man created on
earth." Lord, look! Be a witness to all the evil that the
murderous enemy is doing to us.
God sees, but he does not easily see from afar –
He is moving towards us today, He extends His life-giving hand to us even when
our hands are down, He touches us and lifts us up. The Lord sympathizes
with us. Now there is no longer any human patience in which our God and
Saviour does not suffer with us.
Just where it would seem that the complete and
final kingdom of death reigns, our Lord and Saviour comes. Perhaps He is
telling us, me and you: daughter, mother, son, don't cry! These are not
words of human comfort. The Lord God is moving towards us in Ukraine in
order to eliminate the very cause of our pain and crying. Today, the
whole world wonders where Ukrainians have so much strength to
endure. Where does Ukraine have the strength to resist the onslaught,
which the whole world fears in the future? Why are Ukrainians not
afraid? Our philosopher Hryhoriy Skovoroda aptly answers these words when
he says that we are a people who believe in the resurrection. Whoever
believes in the resurrection, the fear of death has no power over him.
"Seeing her, the Lord looked at her and
said to her: "Don't cry" (Lk. 7, 13). Lord, today our Ukraine
is a weeping widow - come to her, come to us and show us the power of Your
three-day resurrection and Your victory over death! Lord, turn our sadness
into joy, because You promised it to Your children at the Last Supper and You
promise it every time You touch us with Your Body and Your Blood in the
Sacrament of the Eucharist! Lord, extend your life-giving hand to us and
be the author, source and strength of our life, our stability and
victory! Lord, help us today, together with the inhabitants of the city of
Nain, to say: indeed, God has visited his people (cf. Luke 7:16)! Amen.
30/10/2022 (Source)
Daily vídeo address
We
know that the Ukraine that existed before February 24 of this year no longer exists.
And our Motherland, our people, our state can and must become better, emerge
renewed from this barn, from this crucible of war.
27/10/2022
(Source)
Excerpts from interview with Patriarchate magazine
I have not personally seen those hitlists, but
everyone says that I was there. I heard this from many ambassadors who had left
Kyiv at that time, but sent us messages with warnings in different ways. In
particular, from the ambassadors of many European states, with which we are in
closer contact.
(…)
As they say, when someone in wartime says
he's not afraid, don't believe him—he's lying. Fear and hatred are normal human
reactions to such circumstances. Because when you see a Russian tank approach a
peaceful town and start shooting, killing, turning peaceful people, including
pregnant women and children, into living targets, shooting at living people for
fun, then if it did not generate hatred, it would mean that we are fake people.
Hate is a natural human emotion for this type of crime, a reaction to their
rejection, condemnation, recognition of their inadmissibility and a demand to
stop and punish them. But like fear, hate can never be a good counselor.
Because when a person begins to give his mind and his free will into the hands
of emotions of fear and hatred, he becomes their slave. That is why the ancient
sages said that when you allowed the enemy to threaten you or arouse hatred in
your heart, it means that you have already been captured: he has already
defeated you, captured your inner world, your heart, your imagination. The
heart of a person is where our thoughts are born, where the foundations of
actions lie. That is why Christian asceticism teaches that the natural
energy of hatred must be transformed into the virtue of courage. Courage is
a virtue that takes "material" from the realm of anger and transforms
it with the help of humanity, reason, and free will. Those who are able to
survive the transformation of their angry state in this way become very
courageous, aimed at bravely defending their territory. This is how the emotion
of hatred turns into an extremely constructive force that allows not only to
gnash one's teeth and curse the enemy, but to stand up for the defense of one's
Motherland, expel the enemy from one's heart, imagination, and most importantly
from one's city, village, native land. And I saw how our soldiers did it.
Having seen the atrocities and crimes of the occupiers, they courageously
fought the enemy to the last, and even with smaller forces, fewer in number,
but with the power of courage and a sense of moral superiority over the
attacker, they defeated him. Because we don't seize other people's property,
but we defend our own, and this gives us courage in our actions. seeing the
atrocities and crimes of the occupiers.
(…)
Seeing the bodies in this grave gave me an
emotional shock.
You know, the ground there is a little sandy, and when it was opened, there
were mutilated murdered young women, men... We were able to stand on the
edge of this mass grave to pray. And now, during the prayer, I begin to feel
that I am standing on other bodies that have not yet been unfurled from the
ground. I am beginning to realize that the grave I see is actually much bigger!
In such cases, you are thrown into a cold sweat, and you begin to realize: man,
you too could have been in such a grave, because there are people lying in this
one who did not offend the occupiers any more than you. Before the mass grave,
everyone is the same, everyone is equal. It does not matter who you are:
a worker, a priest, a bishop. We are all people, and the enemy who came to us
takes away, wants to take away, the right to life from all of us equally. This
was a very personal experience for me... I also once taught moral theology,
we discussed the rules of "just" war, legitimate self-defense, and so
on. And in the circumstances of cruel reality, this whole theory "falls
down". You have to rethink everything that you knew, knew, and understood
until then. Your knowledge of moral theology suddenly seems to be nullified by
the cruelty that appears before your eyes. Something similar is experienced
by everyone, including those who come to Ukraine with some lofty ideas of
cunning diplomatic moves on how to appease the attacker.
(…)
[Regarding the Good Friday incident at the
Vatican, when the Major Archbishop asked the Pope not to have a Ukrainian and
Russian woman carry the cross together for one of the stations] I felt my
duty to be the voice of the Ukrainian people. It was not about any
criticism, but about making people understand that Ukraine and Russia are
completely different, especially after February 24, 2022. It is obvious
that when someone puts his career first, he will be very afraid to say
something contrary, so as not to spoil something for himself. I was talking
about much more serious things: so that due to unhurried steps, the very
concept of reconciliation as such would not be discredited in the hearts and
minds of Ukrainians, and for decades to come. I explained that when it comes to
reconciliation in our case, it does not mean the reconciliation of ideas, some
good intentions, but the reconciliation of people and peoples who are now
deeply wounded, going through the experience of genocide. Just as, for example,
the phenomenon of pedophilia is being combated in the Catholic Church out of
respect for the victims, so it is necessary to do the same here in order to
fight against the ghosts of the war of the third millennium. It is clear that
the organizers intended to show the need for reconciliation through a symbolic
gesture. But it is necessary to start from respect for the victim, for his feelings.
And I want to tell you that my voice was not the only voice: Greek and
Roman Catholics, spiritual and secular, statesmen and diplomats united in
unison. and we were heard. We managed to do a lot. It is obvious that certain
moments that were already announced could not be changed. But I made the
following proposal: at least let's keep quiet, let's not say anything.
If we stand before the mystery of evil, which
is revealed before our eyes, if we are shocked, then let's not teach others,
let's not teach the Ukrainian people how and with whom they should put up with.
And so it happened. Texts that were prepared in advance and already printed
were postponed. This case once again shows that we need to fight for the
truth, to explain it, because it is understood only by someone who has
experienced the same experience as us. Therefore, we cannot take offense at the
world community, that it sometimes does not understand us. After all, it does
not experience what we experience. Sometimes understanding comes only through
some personal experience. That is why we invite everyone to come to Ukraine and
touch the wounds of the war, to experience this terrible reality in which
Ukraine is living.
(…)
For us Ukrainians, it is self-evident that this
is a war between good and evil. It is obvious to us that we stand for good. But this is not so obvious in what
is often called the post-truth world, and it is a world of compromise.
Sometimes, in order to understand whether Ukrainians are not exaggerating or
whether they are telling the truth, foreigners want to listen to the other side
as well. And here comes powerful Moscow propaganda, which has completely
different rules and goals, is simply a destructive force of evil. Therefore, we
need to constantly explain to the world why we defend ourselves. Because, for
example, some "school" theologians began to question whether our
war and self-defense are really legitimate, if we have to pay such a high price
for it, as Ukraine pays? Shouldn't we give up? We understand that there are
parallels between the actions of Russian propaganda and the actions of the
Nazis during the time of Hitler, who also talked about
"reconciliation" before the start of the Second World War. The Nazi
parties that existed in many countries of the world, including Great Britain,
talked about the need to "understand" Hitler, about the need to
"reconcile" with him. But here the very word "peace"
underwent a substantive mutation and meant to surrender, lay down arms, succumb
to evil. In order to realize this, Great Britain and France had to go
through dramatic processes of cleansing their societies, even their
politicians. Therefore, I think that in order for the Western world to be
cleansed of the virus of Russian propaganda, which, unfortunately, is actively
decaying the minds and souls of many (and dramatic things will still happen
here), the task before us is to explain the spiritual dimension of this
struggle. Our task is to explain to the world why a half-truth is a whole
lie, as Jewish wisdom says; Why, listening to Moscow propaganda, you are
listening to the devil who tempts. We know that in the spiritual struggle with
the devil one cannot dialogue. Because when you start to listen to his
"arguments" and enter into a conversation with him, you have already
lost. So, in our case, the laws of spiritual warfare are in full effect. We
talked about hatred and courage, but also many other aspects of the spiritual
struggle of the Christian ascetic are now becoming the rules of the struggle of
Ukraine and Ukrainians against the Russian aggressor.
(…)
Ukrainian society has its diseases, Russian
society has its own. And this war on the part of Russia is an attempt to solve
its internal problems with external aggression. It is similar to how a serial
killer always looks for a victim, because he is driven to new murders by the
internal pressure of the psychological mechanism to which he is a slave. It is
clear that the victim is not to blame, although the killer says that she
provoked him. He will kill until he is caught. Therefore, the current war was
caused by the defects of that society, that country, which is now a collective
murderer in relation to Ukraine. If there was no Ukraine, they would have found
another victim. They have already declared who will be next. And this indicates
that Russia is driven to murder by an internal mechanism embedded in it,
related to defects and diseases that evolved in Russian society after the
collapse of the USSR. The clot of these diseases is the ideology of the
"Russian world", which I have already mentioned. Yes, Ukrainian
society has its flaws. Sometimes we really didn't fully understand that you
can't have illusions about Russia. We have had a post-colonial mindset for many
years. Even the system of corruption at different levels showed this. Because
it was the corruption of the colony, which once collected tribute from society
in order to transfer it to the metropolis, and then the one who found himself
at the top of the social pyramid, felt like a great colonist in the state in
which he gained power. This post-colonial thinking was a big problem, including
for the political system.
(…)
If I were not a priest, I know exactly what I
would do. Back in 2014, I received a summons from the military commissariat as
a military paramedic. I don't know if I would still be alive, but I know for
sure that I would be in the ranks of military medics. And that is why I keep
this summons as a great relic in my prayer book, from which I pray the church
rule every day.
Visiting military hospitals, having the opportunity to bring some kind of gift,
every time I find a common language with the doctors. After all, I served in
the army as a paramedic and could "taste" that element a little. In
general, I am sure that when the opportunity arises, the Lord God shows us
where and in what place we should serve our people in the struggle for freedom
and independence, to save human lives.
24/10/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from sermon
Words about love for enemies sound like a
provocation for us, Ukrainians, because every day we suffer from a Russian
criminal who sows death and destruction on our land. Every day we mourn new
victims of this land. Even the light in our homes is now a luxury because of
the unprecedented terrorism of this attacker, who violates all international
humanitarian rules and customs of warfare. Therefore, we ask: God, how can we
be Christians during war? How can we love our enemies when they methodically,
systematically, brutally kill us? Perhaps, it is precisely in this Gospel about
God's love, which reveals to us mysteries inaccessible to the human mind, that
Christ wants to give us the key to victory over the Russian criminal and attacker.
And the secret of victory is this: evil can be defeated only when we do not
succumb to its logic, its slavery. when we are spiritually.
The ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius said:
if you hate, then you have been defeated. If the hatred with which the enemy is
killing us today settles in our heart, it will make us similar to this enemy,
it will take away our strength to resist him. Because man was created for love,
and hatred steals his spiritual strength, dries up his soul, likens him not to
God, but to a criminal, into whose eyes we look.
Today's Gospel gives us not just good advice,
but strength to overcome. Because when we love not because we will receive
something from someone, but because God loves us, then, according to the
teachers of the Church, we seem to carry in our heart an inexhaustible credit
and the source of our strength – the Holy Spirit himself, poured into us by God
heavenly love and power. This Divine grace not only sanctifies us and helps us
resist any form of evil, but is a constant generator of our resilience in the
fight against it and renews and rejuvenates our strength. The psalmist says:
"He saturates your old age with goodness, and renews your youth like an
eagle".
We see that the war is dragging on. We get tired.
Where do we get the inner resource to persevere? Today, Christ gives us the
answer: stay in God's love! Carry within you the love that God has put in your
heart, and it will restore all your strength, turn your pain into wisdom, make
you resistant to evil.
Do not give in to the intimidation of our
enemy! Let us
not give in to his attempt to enslave our mind, our heart and our will with the
spirit of malice and hatred. Moreover, let's defeat that enemy out of love for
himself, limiting his ability to commit crimes. This is a strange paradox of
defensive war.
Today we ask the Lord God for the inner
spiritual greatness with which He so generously blessed our Ukrainian people
and which is abundantly manifested during the war, in particular in the
treatment of Russian prisoners of war or their dead. We ask God for the
generosity that is needed when it comes to the victims of Russian propaganda.
We ask the Lord God of heavenly power to persevere, to grow in love. We ask
the Lord God that first we know how to be just, even in relation to our enemies,
if we do not yet know how, we do not have the strength to fully live in that
evangelical love. But we ask that the strength not of man, but of God,
complements the efforts of our people in the defense of freedom and life in our
Motherland.
Let the power of God's love overcome sin! Let
the power of God's love defeat evil in the context of this invisible
confrontation and spiritual warfare! May God's mercy make us steadfast,
courageous and invincible! Because only the power of God's love will bring true
and just peace to Ukraine.
23/10/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
My heart aches especially for the orphans, who,
being deprived of parental care, are the most vulnerable, especially amid the
horrors of war. We have received information that 46 pupils of the Kherson
Children's Home are being forcibly deported to Simferopol. We pray for those
orphans. The ancient duty of the bishop of the Christian community is
primarily to care for widows and orphans. Let's pray for those orphans who are
stolen from Ukraine and then deported to an unknown destination
23/10/2022 (Source)
Speech at Pontifical University of St. Thomas
Aquinas
The personal experience of the war we are going
through, indicate that we are not talking about an ordinary war of one
country against another, much less a military operation, but about a real
genocide of the Ukrainian people and terrible crimes against humanity, which
carried out by Russian soldiers. This is an open program for the complete
liquidation of the Ukrainian nation as such, which the famous historian
Timothy Snyder described as one of the most open genocidal documents. This
document clearly calls for the liquidation of the Ukrainian state and the
Ukrainian people.
But for us, it is a real shock to see the
Christian justification of this murderous ideology, to witness the complete
harmony between the Kremlin authorities and the Russian Orthodox Church.
Starting from Patriarch Kirill up to the priests who methodically justify these
crimes, we see how the Christian faith becomes an ideological tool for the
propaganda of Russian Nazism. The justification and call for war on the part of
the Russian Orthodox Church increasingly resembles the doctrine of the Islamic
State of ISIS. Even more, the leaders of this church quote it verbatim,
although they dress in Christian robes. Recently, we even see their priests in
liturgical robes with grenade launchers in their hands shooting on the
battlefield.
If the modern world does not condemn and stop
the genocide of the Ukrainian people, tomorrow we will have even more victims,
as happened in the past with Nazism and communism.
19/10/2022 (Source)
Words during visit to Mikolaiv
Today, being in Mykolaiv means touching the
wounds of this city and Ukraine, which is suffering... But we do not regret
the fact that we are fighting. Because only he who fights for his freedom is
worthy of it. Only he who will not leave the will of his Motherland in anyone's
hands will win.
18/10/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
Yesterday we received some good, good news: 108
Ukrainian women were released from Russian captivity. We thank the Lord God
for these rescued mothers and women, for the fact that they can return home to
their families. Let's wrap these women together today with our attention,
love and prayer, let's warm them with our national warmth. Because the facts
of violence against a woman in Russian captivity, about which they tell, simply
break the heart, make the blood boil in our veins.
(…)
This war will go down in history as one in
which Russia uses violence against the intimate sphere of a person as a weapon
against Ukraine. You can imagine how much this violence against the intimate
sphere of a person hurts the Ukrainian family, the dignity of a man and a
woman, destroys what the Lord God created for love! Let's do everything possible together so that
our men and women love each other, and the Russian occupier never invades the
Ukrainian family with a terrible grimace of violence.
God, You are the God of love, You are the God
of mercy, by the power of Your love, help us to defeat evil and violence in the
midst of this war! God, look with a special eye on the Ukrainian family,
protect this oasis of life and love that You created for human happiness! God,
bless the Ukrainian family! God, bless the Ukrainian soldiers, girls and boys,
who are doing everything today to expel the war and its carriers from our
Motherland! God, bless Ukraine with Your just peace!
18/10/2022 (Source)
Words during vespers
When someone says the word "war" to
me, I see before my eyes a woman in tears - a woman-mother who sees off her son
or daughter to the front, not knowing if she will ever see them again, a mother
in tears who has lost her son, a mother in tears who with her child, she has to
leave her home, her place, because her house was destroyed before her eyes, a
tearful woman who today is storming Europe and other countries of the world to
take care of a temporary shelter for herself and her child while dad is
fighting at the front.
18/10/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
The great calamity of the war broke up
Ukrainian families.
We have already mentioned that the war scattered family members to different
corners of Ukraine and the world. Communication between relatives is reduced to
a call on the phone or via the Internet, and often this connection is lost
altogether due to the stay of the occupation. But the family, as a union of
unity between a man and a woman, needs to live in this unity! Separated hearts
are so eager to be together again! Actually, the family has a very deep
spiritual meaning, because the unity in the Holy Spirit between a man and a
woman is an icon of the unity between Christ and His Church. Apostle Paul
teaches us: just as Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it, husbands
should love their wives in the same way. This conjugal love is deeply
wounded during the war. And that's why the Ukrainian family in new
circumstances is again looking for this completeness, looking for this new
home, temporary or even permanent. Our families face a big painful question –
how to start all over again, how to put down new roots in a new land, if the
enemy has driven you out of your home?
Communicating with our refugees, especially in
the south of Ukraine, in Odesa region, I heard so many stories of such wounded
families. A woman does not stop carrying a man in her heart even when he is
far from her, somewhere at the front, when there is no connection with him. She
carries it in her heart with her marital fidelity and love. Similarly, our
soldiers who defend our Motherland at the front carry their families in their
hearts. This gives them strength and courage to defend life, freedom,
independence of their family and their people.
17/10/2022 (Source)
Words during visit to Odessa
Pope Francis has said more than once that every
big war is connected with a big lie. This hybrid war that Russia is waging
against Ukraine is also a war of disinformation and propaganda, which kills no
less devastatingly than Russian missiles, shells, bombs and bullets. You and I,
as Christians, have the duty to bear witness to the truth, to speak the truth about Ukraine's
pain, so that, as Shevchenko once wrote, "the whole world will hear what
happened in Ukraine, what she died for, what the Cossack glory became all over
the world”
16/10/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
Many families today are separated. Dad is
fighting at the front, and mom and her child are sometimes forced to leave
their home and go to a distant unknown world. We pray for the unification of
those families, for the children to have the right to grow up in a family where
there is a father and a mother together. Where the mother gives all her femininity,
and the father all his masculinity to the children.
Remember in your prayers the families whose
relatives are fighting. Families who have wounded, whose family members are in
captivity or died at the hands of the occupier. These families bear a special
burden of war, restlessness, anxieties and worries. Because God created the
family as an oasis of human life. According to God's plan, the family, as an inseparable, faithful,
fruitful union of love between a man and a woman, is the heart where human life
is born, where it is healed from its wounds and where, according to God's plan,
that life should end here on land
These families are faced with special
questions, looking for answers to the deep truths of the meaning of human life.
Children ask mom and dad: "Where is the Lord God now, when the war is
going on? What is the meaning of our struggle? What is the meaning of our life,
suffering and death?”
The family itself is the basic, fundamental
cell of any society. As the family is strong, there will be a strong nation.
There will be a strong, invincible state.
16/10/2022 (Source)
Excerpt
of a sermon on the feast of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos
This
depth of the Church's prayer, which is revealed to us in the figure of the Most
Pure Virgin Mary, resonates for us in a special way, because we celebrate the
Intercession during the war. Even more, today we celebrate another holiday –
the Day of the Ukrainian Army. Just as this mystical reality of the
intercession of the Immaculate Virgin Mary reveals to us the nature of the
universal prayer of the Church, so the holiday of the Ukrainian army on the day
of the Intercession reveals to us the nature of the Ukrainian army.
Let's
think about it. Today we celebrate a national holiday – the Day of Defender of
the Motherland. Therefore, the essence of the Ukrainian army is defense.
This is not an army of occupiers, conquerors or invaders, which was created to
humiliate other peoples, steal something from them, take away or, as we say,
annex. This is an army of defenders, which consists of those who are not
looking for someone else, but, having learned from the protection of the Most
Pure Virgin Mary, protect and defend their own: their own people, their
Motherland!
This
nature of the Ukrainian army is revealed in a special way in the current war.
Today is the 233rd day of this bloody war. We, as a people, stand. We stood in
times of the worst danger - when Kyiv, like Constantinople, was almost besieged
by the Russian army - thanks to the power of Christian prayer. This prayer supported, inspired the
Ukrainian army and gave it strength. Therefore, victory is won not only by the
power of human wisdom, weapons and human effort, but also by the power of
church unity and prayer, when heaven and earth, angels and people are united.
Today we
especially pray for our defenders and entrust them to the protection of the
Most Pure Virgin Mary. Let our common prayer, which goes beyond the
boundaries of space and time, human limitations, fly to the front, where blood
is being shed, where our army protects our people and the Motherland with their
chests. May the protection of the Most Pure Virgin Mary, the embrace of the
Mother Church reach our girls and boys in the trenches, on combat duty, may
they strengthen the art of those who today watch over the peaceful sky of
Ukraine and prevent Russian missiles, bombs, and drones from bringing death to
our cities and villages. Let this intercessory prayer flow to the places where
we humanly cannot reach – to our prisoners of war, who are in the prisons of
this cruel enemy, to Russian prisons and torture camps. Let the Mother's prayer
of the Mother of God fall over our suffering soldiers there.
How
can we forget this day our wounded soldiers, who carry Ukraine's wounds on
their body and soul?
Let the motherly veil of the Mother of God spread over every hospital bed
today, whether in a hospital or in a hospital, or even at home, where our
soldiers are recovering and healing their wounds.
On
this day, we want to wrap our soldiers' relatives and loved ones with attention
and prayer, especially those who are experiencing a deep wound of loss, who
live in anxiety for their children who are fighting, waiting for their call,
their text message as the greatest joy in life. Today, our suffering nation has turned into a
warrior nation, which by its very nature learns from the protection of the Most
Pure Virgin Mary to be courageous and steadfast in prayer and courageous and
steadfast in the defense of its Motherland.
15/10/2022
(Source)
Excerpts from daily video address
On the day of the Intercession of the Mother of
God, we especially pray for our protectors. Today, the entire nation joined the
ranks of the Ukrainian army. Yesterday's teachers and sportsmen, yesterday's
culture and art workers, engineers, technologists today joined the ranks of defenders.
On this day, we especially want to surround the Ukrainian army with love,
prayer, and attention. We pray for it, we entrust it to the protection of
the Most Pure Virgin Mary.
14/10/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from daily video address
We call on the entire international community,
heads of state, Churches and religious communities, public organizations and
intellectuals of the world to join our voice and strongly condemn this type of
terrorist actions. If you remain silent today, you will be killed tomorrow,
just as they are killing us today. Let's say our resolute "no" to the
state that resorts to such actions to achieve any goals.
(…)
The enemy wanted to intimidate us. He tried to
destroy the critical infrastructure of our towns and villages, including
electricity supply. But Ukrainians stopped being afraid a long time ago. This
type of attack unites our people even more. Ukrainians are even more united in
their desire to persevere to the end in this battle. Today, an air alert
was announced again from the very morning throughout Ukraine. It is possible
that even now the enemy will repeat a similar crime.
On behalf of all Heads of Churches and
religious organizations united in the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches, I
consider it my duty to loudly and decisively condemn this act of terrorism,
which the Russian Federation committed and is committing against the Ukrainian
people. Such actions of the Russians are a direct violation of international
humanitarian law, the rules and customs of warfare and cannot be qualified in
any other way as war crimes.
(…)
Thank you! Thanks to your work, we won this
night and this morning. I sincerely thank all the citizens of Ukraine who, at
the call of our energy workers, reduced electricity consumption by more than 26
percent yesterday and thus provided an opportunity to restore the destroyed energy
infrastructure of our cities. I bow down in gratitude to our anti-aircraft
forces of Ukraine, which shot down almost half of the Russian missiles
yesterday and thus prevented the murderous hand of the aggressor from
destroying many of our cities and villages.
Today, this morning, under the wail of the
anti-aircraft siren, we thank the Lord God that we are alive. Thank you for our
defenders, girls and boys, our servicemen, rescuers, all those who save lives
in Ukraine.
11/10/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from daily video address
All the saints of the Ukrainian people, holy
martyrs, confessors of our Church, pastors who suffered at the hands of the
communist regime, you are today our strength, our help. Intercede, pray before
God's throne today for our long-suffering people! We thank the Lord God for
those heroes, giants of our national and church history. We continue their holy
work, which we must accomplish today, in particular in the fight against the
Russian aggressor.
In the social, popular dimension, it is very
important for us to understand that we continue the great cause of the fighters
for the freedom and independence of Ukraine, as if embodying it in modern
historical circumstances. But, as Christians, we believe in another sacrament,
which is a characteristic feature of Christ's Church. And this sign, this
reality is called "communion of saints". The Church of Christ as a
community, as the body of the resurrected Saviour, is a community of mutual
help and mutual strengthening. We call it "communion of saints". The
saints in heaven pray for us here on earth. Even more, they strengthen us with
their feats, their strength, their courage. And we, the Church traveling here
on earth, thanks to the unity with the Church glorified in heaven, can defeat
evil. We can perform our spiritual feats.
10/10/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from daily video address
With our self-discipline, orderly rhythm of
life, physical activity and proper care for all dimensions of the human being,
including the physical, we prepare ourselves for a long, enduring, but
victorious battle.
(…)
Today is the Lord's Day, Holy Sunday, and we,
believing people, rush to our temples - to stand before God's face, listen to
His word, partake of the Holy Sacraments of the Body and Blood of our Saviour
and draw spiritual, mental, and physical strength from Him in order to endure
this war of attrition, to endure against the evil that is killing dozens,
thousands of Ukrainian citizens before our eyes.
9/10/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from daily video address
Let us pray for those who were denied a decent
burial by the enemy, for whom church bells were not rung, prayers were not
sung.
Today, we see that every new liberated city of
Ukraine reveals the terrible facts of torture, abuse, and murders committed by
the Russian occupiers on Ukrainian soil. And these days, the newly liberated
city of Liman shows new victims. A large mass grave was opened again, in which
three small children were already found. May our prayer for their eternal rest go to
the Lord God today.
8/10/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from daily video address
In the Russian torture chamber in the Kharkiv
region, prisoners scratched icons of the Virgin and Jesus Christ on the wall,
which represented the living God and His Most Holy Mother to them. Those icons,
which for us, Christians of the Eastern rite, are the mystery of the presence
of eternity in the pre-temporal, the place, the moment of meeting a person with
God. These icons are a deep call, a symbol that tells us: He who prays,
endures. He who prays will stand. And next to them are the badges with which the
prisoners counted the days of their imprisonment.
Prayer for us, Christians, is the moment when
we hold the hand of our God, when the Lord takes me, my life in His hands and
leads Him. He is the source of renewal of our strength. Therefore, prayer
during captivity, suffering, personal grief, war is a source of renewal,
restoration of our strength and the secret of our resilience.
6/10/2022 (Source)
Comment on the annexation of four Ukrainian
provinces by Russia
We have witnessed an unprecedented event in the
history of modern humanity – shameless theft at the state level. The Lord
God commanded man: do not steal! When theft becomes the policy of some state,
and even more, it is presented as a great victory, then this state and its
policy, according to the words of Saint Pope John Paul II, become the structure
of sin in the world.
(…)
Obviously, the Pope understands that for
Ukraine the seriousness of these peace proposals means the search for
mechanisms to return the sovereignty of our state to the borders defined in
1991. It is also important to note that the Apostolic Capital has never
recognized attempts to occupy the Ukrainian Crimea by Russia in the past, and diplomacy, as a tool for
achieving peace in the world, which the Holy Father calls for, is always based
on respect and strict adherence to the norms of international law.
5/10/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from daily video address
In that situation, the truth is a weapon that
the enemy does not have and that we have in abundance. It makes us stronger.
You have to keep in touch with this truth, like a pilot keeps an airplane on
course, and constantly check with it.
That is why we repeat again and again that God
is with us, truth is with us, victory is with us. We are on our land and we are
fighting for our freedom, for our free future. As our Kobzar said, in one's
house there is one's own truth, strength, and will. Let us not be disappointed
and discouraged when someone does not understand us in our struggle. When we
win, everyone will understand.
5/10/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from daily video address
One of the foundations of our stability is the
belief that Ukraine's victory is inevitable. It is as inevitable as the dawn. And we bring this common national
goal closer with the daily steps of our hope. That's why it's so important not
to stand still when the earth is spinning so fast.
Ninety percent of all injuries that our
soldiers have, are injuries as a result of artillery fire. And only a tenth of
them are bullet wounds. A terrible war, which affects far with its murderous
hand, even beyond the front line, destroying peaceful life in cities and
villages in the East and South of our Motherland.
4/10/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from daily video address
When you have the opportunity to visit our
wounded soldiers, you are simply amazed at the strength of spirit they carry.
In their eyes, we see the will of our people to defend freedom on their land.
3/10/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from daily video address
Today, there are no rear areas in Ukraine. Each
of us must stand up for the defense of everything that we love, that we call
native – for the defense of Ukraine. And when we truly love, then we will
persevere, we will find the strength not to stop.
2/10/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from daily video address
We realize today that to win is not only to
face the challenges of today, but also to overcome the threats of tomorrow. To
win is not only to de-occupy illegally occupied and stolen lands in Ukraine.
No! To win means to create a space of dignity for a person on the Ukrainian,
God-given land.
1/10/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from a sermon
Sometimes it seems to us that in the moment of
the greatest darkness, the greatest suffering, pain and grief, God is not
there. Under bombs, in bomb shelters, people asked: where is God when we are
being killed? Where is He? Christ says today: "I am killed with you, I am
there, where it is most difficult for you, even more – your wounds become My
wounds." When the apostle Paul was beaten, insulted, stoned for the name
of the Lord, he said: "I bear the wounds of Jesus on my body" (Gal.
6, 17).
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ! Today, together
with our bishops and metropolitans, we came to the city of Ternopil, the youth
capital of Ukraine, to embrace and bless Ukrainian youth, as well as to bow to
them. Thank you, girls and boys from different parishes, communities,
organizations, even cities of Ukraine, who gathered here, and we have the
opportunity to see you and pray for you. Why should there be such nationwide
respect and thanks to Ukrainian youth today? Because it was on her shoulders
that the burden of this war fell. We say that Ukraine is and will be. But we
must understand that Ukraine is the way Ukrainian youth want it to be. Ukraine
will be as it will be built by the Ukrainian youth.
Observing that reaction, that spontaneous
retreat of youth from different cities and villages of Ukraine during the war,
we can say that the defense of our Motherland, the struggle for the will,
freedom, dignity, and independence of our state became a national youth
movement. Because these are our boys and girls, who are 20-25 years old today,
abundantly sprinkling our Ukrainian God-given land with their blood. These are
our girls and boys who did not take up arms and joined the all-Ukrainian
volunteer movement. And, I think, there is not a single young person who today,
according to his life task, vocation, did not defend the Motherland. Therefore,
I feel it is my duty on behalf of your Mother Church to express my heartfelt
thanks to you.
Our Ukrainian youth are strong, wise, they seek
God. Now I want to testify to you with confidence that the Lord God is with
you. Because if the Ukrainian youth is now crucified on this cross of the
national movement for freedom, then know that our Savior is crucified with you
and with you. You raise him in your arms as the Son of God and know that He is
the One who is – close to you. And that is why we say that from the power of
the honest and life-giving Cross, the sign of victory, comes the power and
victory of Ukraine.
1/10/2022 (Source)
Excerpts of speech at ceremony in Babyn Yar
On such a day, in such a place, at such a
moment, one wants not to speak, but to remain silent. Be silent and listen. To
listen to what the Ukrainian land will tell us, what the land of Babyny Yar is
talking about today, when we remember the 81st anniversary of the great tragedy
that happened here. What is this place talking about today, what are these
trees making noise about? Today, this is what the words engraved on the
memorial tell us: "The voice of your brother's blood cries out to
Me." I invite all of you to be silent and listen to the voice of blood
that calls out from this earth to the Creator, the voice of the blood of our
brothers and sisters of the Jewish people – we must let this voice into our
hearts today and embrace all those who were innocently killed.
Today, the voice of blood from the Ukrainian
land rises to the heavens: the voice of the blood of those innocently killed by
the Russian occupier - children, women, old men, the voice of the blood of the
sons and daughters of the Ukrainian people, who today protect Ukraine from the
new misanthropic, essentially Nazi, ideologies that continue to kill. And
speaking, then only to God, listening to this voice of the Ukrainian land and
the voice of the blood of our innocently murdered brothers, fathers, and
sisters.
God of spirits and all flesh, You overcame
death and destroyed the devil, and gave life to Your world. You, Lord, rest the
souls of Your innocently murdered servants in a bright place, in a blooming
place, in a calm place, from where all pain, sadness and sighing have fled. And
all sins committed by them in word or deed or thought, as a good and man-loving
God, forgive. Because there is no man who would live and not sin. You are the
only one without sin. Your truth is eternal truth. And Your word is the truth.
For You are the resurrection, the life and the repose of Your departed
servants, Christ our God, and to You we send glory, with Your beginningless
Father, and with Your Most Holy, and good, and life-creating Spirit, now, and
always, and forever and ever. Amen. Eternal memory to them!
29/09/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
Being yourself, being a person means having the
opportunity and the right to do good. This type of freedom-loving and
consciousness of calling to this freedom of the Ukrainian people has always
been something terrible for any tyrants, invaders who came to the Ukrainian
land. At one time, my great predecessor, Blessed Lubomyr, said the
following phrase that "dictators are less afraid of hunger riots in their
countries than free people, because the hungry can be bought, and the free can
only be killed."
(…)
The whole world is surprised – Ukraine is in
an unequal battle for the 8th month. Where does that power come from? Where
does that inviolability come from? During this war, communicating with our
soldiers, with those who were in Russian captivity, in Russian torture camps,
communicating with our refugees, immigrants, with our monks and nuns, I somehow
felt that there are certain principles and certain foundations of this
stability. Perhaps we still can't understand everything until the end. But
there is something that really gives us strength to stand. A fulcrum to lean
on.
We feel something that distinguishes the Ukrainian
character from the peoples of other countries. And here we are not talking
about any one ethnic group - we are talking about all residents of Ukraine. It
is that we all have an innate sense and desire to be free. This is the consciousness that we are
children of God, and not slaves of human illusions. And we understand that this
is also our Christian vocation, the path to real, true, complete freedom. This
is not about some kind of anarchy, the desire to do whatever one wants. This is
a deep national understanding that freedom is the ability and right to do good.
To be free for a person is to be a person. When someone steals a person's
freedom, he steals his humanity, and thus destroys his humanity.
Many of those who were in Russian captivity, in
Russian torture chambers, somehow felt that even they, being with their hands
tied and eyes closed, were freer, lived in a higher level of freedom than their
executioners. And that is why the Russian occupier hates a free Ukrainian
person, because this occupier is a slave. A slave to the human illusions of
their dictators. He understands this in the depths of his heart.
No one can take away a person's freedom.
Freedom, personal freedom, a person can only give himself. He can renounce her,
he can run away from her. Run away from responsibility without courage. The
Ukrainian people demonstrated that we have the courage to be free.
In those days, I remembered the phrase of a nun
with whom we had known for many years, since the days of Soviet persecution,
when we considered the free world in the west behind the Iron Curtain to be a
free world. And when she heard that today some of the world politicians or
various figures of the free world are so greedy for Russian money, and the
price of Russian energy carriers can sometimes be more valuable than freedom,
that nun said: "It seems the same is true among the rich in the West there
are more hungry people who are bought than free people who are ready to
appreciate and defend freedom”.
God, You gave us our freedom as a calling to
the fullness of the ability to do good. Help us fulfill this calling. God, help
us to have the courage to be free. God, help Ukraine today to stand in this
unequal battle. God, bless our Ukrainian army. God, grant our Ukraine freedom
and Your blessed heavenly peace.
28/09/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
Today, the Savior himself is crucified in
the body of the Ukrainian people and from his pierced side reveals to us
the source of life, the source of the Sacraments of Christ's Church, the source
of eternal life. Today, Ukraine honors the sign, the symbol of victory over
evil, the devil and his servants, all those who bring death today - honors the
honest and life-giving Cross of the Lord and moves forward with its power.
27/09/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
The glory that now emanates from the honest and
life-giving Cross in Kyiv to the whole of Ukraine is something that we have not
yet fully understood, but which touches us to the core. Because today
Ukraine understands that the Lord's Cross is its sign of victory over the
enemy. The enemy is waging a colonial war against us. And today we say from
Kyiv that this is probably the last colonial war in Europe in the history of
mankind. They want to erase us from the face of the earth, deny our right to
exist as a people, just as the Romans once wanted to erase the very mention
of Jerusalem.
But it is the power of the honest and life-giving
Cross that will be the victory of Ukraine, the moment when the humiliated will
become exalted, when the Lord will dethrone the powerful and lift up the
humble.
27/09/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
Those words about the Lord's Cross, about God's
love, which warms and saves, resurrects and gives hope, are life-giving for
Ukraine in the conditions of war.
Today, the whole world is wondering where we,
our people, get the strength that allows us to resist the aggressor, who grinds
his teeth against Ukraine and no longer knows what to do with us. Where do
Ukrainians have the strength to resist? We give an answer to this question:
Ukrainians love and feel that God loves them. Ukrainians are strong because
they love their land, Motherland, their people, their children, women and
elders.
We are strong in our love, which we draw from
the eternal source of Divine love, which is given to us through the honest and
life-giving Cross.
That is why it is so important for us in the conditions of war to understand
that the Cross can be both the greatest humiliation and pain, and the moment of
exaltation and glorification.
The Cross of the Lord, on which we are
crucified today as a nation, is the key to our glory and victory! This
crucifixion of ours is God's word through Ukraine to the world and modern man
about the victorious and saving power of God's love!
26/09/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
Ukrainian troops are liberating the north and
south of our Motherland, but every centimetre of Ukrainian land is sprinkled with
the blood of our defenders.
[Regarding freeing of Azov regiment POWs] We
thank God for saving their lives. Now we have to surround them with attention,
prayer and love in order to heal the wounds they bear on their souls and bodies
after the brutality of the Russian occupier.
22/09/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
This year we celebrate the Nativity of the
Mother of God during the war. We see that this time is the space of death, in
the face of which we all stare every day. We make every effort to resist it, we
wage war against sin and death. This is a tireless and invisible battle – that's what the teachers of
our Church say.
What do we need to be fruitful in this
struggle; so that, overcoming the kingdom of death, which the occupier brings
to our land, we expand the space of life; so that the sterility of our nature
in the conditions of war is resolved? We need the power of Divine grace, the
fruitful power of the Holy Spirit, which is given to us through prayer and the
intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, who today, perhaps for the second time
in the history of human hearts, is born among us.
Therefore, celebrating this holiday, let us run
to the Virgin Mary, who crushed the head of the ancient serpent that tempted
our ancestors in paradise, who defeated death and who was free from sin from
the very conception in the barren womb of righteous Anna. The birth of the
Mother of God from Anna's frozen womb is a prophecy of the Resurrection of
Christ, His exit in a glorified body from the sealed tomb, in the body that
Mary gave Him.
Let's rejoice in this holiday, because for us
it is a celebration of the birth of our hope in the conditions of war! This is a celebration of the birth
of a new action, a new power, a new reality for all of us! We should not just
know about this holiday, but celebrate it, that is, let this event, which we
remember today, become a part of our lives, solve the fruitlessness of personal
efforts.
21/09/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
Now, when we reflect on these events, rescue
operations are ongoing in the city of Bakhmut in Donetsk region, where the
enemy destroyed a high-rise building and many people were trapped under the
rubble. Unceasing work is going on to save human life. What we see on the
liberated territory of Kharkiv Region causes us great pain. Work on the
exhumation of Russian victims near the city of Izyum continues. Terrible
scenes of abuse, torture, torture, and mass murders are revealed. More and
more alarming news from the occupied territories reaches us. The Russians
intensify repression against the civilian population, carry out violent
mobilization, catch men around the clock to force them to kill their brothers
and sisters.
20/09/2022 (Source)
Words to Commissioner for Human Rights of
Verkhovna Rada
I carefully watched how you visited the
de-occupied territories of Kharkiv region, in particular I listened to your
speeches in the city of Izyum, where you were during the exhumation of our
innocently murdered brothers and sisters. We were all moved by the "Our
Father" prayer scratched on the wall in the Russian torture chamber. We
can only imagine what those people endured, regardless of which Church they
went to, which language they spoke. These are our brothers and sisters, and our
hearts truly ache for them.
20/09/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
We are often asked: do
you, in Ukraine, have hope? And we say: yes, we have it, because God gives it
to us, not man. We are a people of faith and in faith we receive hope. So we
can go on, bravely, patiently endure our difficulties. And this hope moves us
to victory over the Russian aggressor, to victory not only in war, but also
over war, to victory, the crown of which will be peace in our Motherland.
(…)
Today, believing Europe
kneels before the Holy Mysteries of the Body and Blood of our Savior and prays
for Ukraine. Today is a day of vigil and prayer before the Most Holy Mysteries
for peace in Ukraine. Christians living according to the Gregorian calendar
today celebrate the Exaltation of the honest and life-giving Cross. Today,
Europe, the believing world, sees a crucified Ukraine precisely in the
crucified Savior. The Holy Father Francis, whom we are accompanying in prayer
to Kazakhstan, invites believing Christians on this day to see the wounds of
the crucified Savior precisely in the wounds of Ukraine.
We feel the power of
your prayer, which is the source of our hope that together we
will defeat evil
14/9/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
Terrible, terrible war
crimes against humanity are also being discovered. About 200 war crimes are
recorded every day. These are mass murders of the civilian population, torture,
looting and all that really qualifies as a war crime.
It breaks our hearts when
we look at what the Russian occupier leaves behind on Ukrainian soil. Today,
this is what can be registered: more than 900 health care facilities, more than
200 churches and religious buildings have been destroyed.
(…)
When we look today at what the enemy leaves behind - burned and
destroyed cities and villages, burnt fields of wheat, plundered forests, mined
chernozems, polluted ponds, rivers and water sources from which it is no longer
possible to drink, then we understand that war is not only a crime against
human life, but also against God's creation.
13/09/2022 (Source)
Words during a radio
interview
A new world will emerge
through Ukraine, where evil will be defeated. Ukraine is the point from which a
new world will emerge. A reboot of the world is in the air, and world
politicians are already repeating this thesis in their own way - Europe will be
renewed through Ukraine. But - is the world possible without evil,
which is a part of it? For Ukraine today, this evil is personified, it
is Russia, but in the world there are other totalitarian regimes, other
manifestations of evil.
(…)
What is happening in
Ukraine today already has global consequences. It is not only about certain
military, economic, geopolitical or other consequences, but about very deep
moral foundations of human life as such. Because when we talk about good and
evil, we are talking about moral principles without which a person cannot exist.
What is happening in Ukraine today? Ukrainians have shown the whole world
that there is something and there is someone worth giving even one's life for.
That is, there are some objective truths - or values - that can be the
meaning of life. And if that is taken away from you, life loses its meaning.
Yes, there is good and
there is evil. Perhaps it is so obvious to us in Ukraine today that we do not
fully feel the context in which the rest of the world still lives. The world
today lives in a post-truth context. That is why Russian propaganda so easily
captures people's minds and hearts - "what's the difference?" If
there is no objective truth, it means that there is no objective good and
objective evil. And our behavior, our categorical "no" to Russian
aggression is, as it were, a Copernican revolution for the modern world, when
we, with our desperate position of disagreement with evil and untruth, proclaim
to the whole world that there is good in the world!
There is an objective
truth. Maybe someone does not accept it, maybe someone is afraid of it. But
there is something worth giving your life for. This was once called
"higher values" in traditional philosophy – there is something that
cannot be assessed only by the categories of consumer society. And if so, then
it is possible to build such a life, such a personal and social space, where
there would be more good and less evil. We see today that evil is not some
abstract truth, evil really kills. When someone lives in the grip of evil, he
becomes dangerous - for himself, for his neighbor, for society and for the
world. On the other hand, we are today de facto provoking the world to have the
courage to say it with our moral strength and position of "no to
evil!" Because post-truth confuses the concepts of good and evil, and
modern man is disoriented, he does not know where to go.
Will we wait for a
world in which there will be no evil? For Christians, it is also a matter of
faith. We say: we await the resurrection of the dead and the life of the age to
come. We build our earthly life as the image and likeness of the Kingdom of
Heaven. Christians are those who spread the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth.
When we live in the truth, we live, trying to do good and avoid evil every day,
then we build that space, that world, where there is less evil.
Therefore, I believe, that
what is happening in Ukraine today is a certain moral revolution - primarily
for the Ukrainians themselves. Today we are beginning to understand who should
not have been elected to power. We begin to understand how our society had to
be built in a different way, how we had to resist certain patterns of colonial
or post-colonial society. Because this war that Russia is waging against
Ukraine is a typical colonial war. That is, we begin to see. And I would
really like for us not to lose this painful experience of war as a certain new
opportunity to learn, perhaps even from our own mistakes. And that's why
today we have to think about what Ukraine will be like when we win. I have no
doubt that there will be victory. But already today we have to think about the
society we want to have when we expel the occupier. We have to build that
society.
13/09/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
Modern man has many temptations to behave with
the one whom the Lord sends, as these murderous vinedressers behaved. How
often we see today in the life of individual states and even at the level of
international relations, that the power of law is replaced by the right of the
strong. What does someone who thinks he is strong do? He kills and destroys the
weak, because he thinks that he can appropriate for himself what he should give
to the needy and defenceless. However, having appropriated something, one
loses everything. Christ says what will happen to those vinedressers: "He
will destroy the furious, but he will rent the vineyard to other vinedressers
who will give him fruit in due time" (Mt. 21, 40-41).
Humiliating the weak in personal, spiritual or
even public life in order to assert ourselves, we do the same as those
murderous vinedressers. We appropriate God's property, the right to judge, distinguish
or say who should live and who should die. It's as if we ourselves become
arbiters who remove God from this world and say: now I will decide what is good
and what is evil. However, later we lose everything we had until now.
This word of God about violence in man's
attitude towards God, I think, resonates in a special way in the ears of modern
Ukrainians. Today we thank the Lord God for the fact that our God-blessed army
is liberating Ukrainian lands step by step. Perhaps we were all moved by the
footage of people with tears in their eyes coming out and hugging our soldiers,
saying, "We've been praying for half a year for this day to come." In
such circumstances, we see how this word of God is carried out in the history
of our family. The one who wanted to deprive us of everything now risks losing
everything. The invading enemy, in his colonialist urge, wants to kill Ukraine
and appropriate our heritage. Trying to destroy us, he once again kills the
very Son of God – the Savior.
Instead, we should persevere in good, not be
like those murderous vinedressers. For us, the cornerstone is Christ! If He
becomes the foundation of our life, the basis of the construction and
protection of our independent state, then the words will come true for us: "The
stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone... This has come
from the Lord and is amazing in our eyes" (Mt. 21, 42).
We say today: Lord, come to our vineyard, to
our people, make us wise so that we see You in the needy person whom You send to
us today. In this dramatic time of the harvest, of the calamity of war, make us
able to bring you the fruits of our life's vineyard. Give us a dignified
reception of You, who comes to us in the person of one who does not have a
home, because it was destroyed by the enemy, in the person of my relative or
relative, or perhaps a migrant and a completely unfamiliar person, to whom I
must transfer the fruits of labour in Your vineyard.
God, come to us! Let us put You, like wise
builders, as the cornerstone of our personal, social and state life. And then
everything that happens next will be Your business, Your business. Because it
is You who fiercely destroys the fierce, takes the vineyard from the usurpers
and gives it to those who will bear fruit in due time. It is You who lift up
the humble and rejected, and let the rich go empty-handed! (cf. Lk. 1, 52–53).
Then, together with You, we will be strange to the whole world. Because it will
happen from the Lord and it will be amazing in our eyes. Amen.
11/09/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
The main news of the past day is the rapid
de-occupation of the cities and villages of the Kharkiv region in the context
of the brilliant counteroffensive of the Ukrainian army. Important large cities
were liberated: Kupyansk, Izyum and many others. However we all understand that
every release, every tear of joy of our people, which appears with the approach
of the Ukrainian army, is sprinkled with the blood of our liberating
soldiers... And on
this Sunday, we pay tribute in prayer to those of our girls and boys who
especially these days, at the cost of their own lives, they liberate the
Ukrainian land from the occupier... Today, the Ukrainian flag is becoming a
symbol of peace and freedom, for which we pray to God every day.
11/09/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
This war continues to inflict deep wounds on
our people and cause enormous humanitarian consequences. Neither the Ukrainians
nor the international community have yet realized their size. However, even
today, specialists note that 57 percent of Ukrainians are traumatized by the
war. Many have
so-called post-traumatic stress disorder. This cannot help but affect the mood
of our society, all those processes that then affect relations between people.
(…)
Today we hear at such a high level that more
than 2.5 million citizens have already been deported from the occupied
territories of the south and east of Ukraine. Ukrainians are taken to the Far
East, to Siberia. Among them are 38,000 children, most of whom were deprived of
parental care, that is, deported without their parents. This is a big wound, a
big pain for the Ukrainian people. Therefore, today we should especially pray
for those who passed through the filtration concentration camps, and were
therefore forced to leave their hometown or village at gunpoint.
08/09/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
According to the reports we receive from the
Ukrainian authorities, since the beginning of the war, 3,500 rockets have been
fired over Ukraine. This is an absolute record in the history of modern wars.
More than 7,000 civilians died and 5,500 were injured. This is only according
to official data, in reality these numbers are much higher. Almost a third of
the population of Ukraine became either refugees or forcibly displaced persons.
Only in the past day, 14 Russian missiles were fired at the cities and villages
of Ukraine, and 15 airstrikes were carried out. Kharkiv and Mykolaiv, Ochakiv
and Voznesensk shuddered yesterday. The world has no right to get used to
this war. This is an open wound of modern humanity. Let's pray together for
modern humanity to be able to overcome this war!
05/09/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
We are especially grateful to the Armed Forces
of Ukraine for the fact that we are alive, that Ukraine is standing and that
Ukraine is trying step by step to liberate its land from the bloodthirsty
Russian occupier.
(…)
We see that the occupier is coming to steal. In particular, the evidence of the
behaviour of the occupiers in the south of our Motherland in recent weeks is
simply shocking. Enemies come and expel Ukrainians from their houses, and
settle their families there.
04/09/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
How many truly believing people do we have
today who are ready to give everything in order to, first of all, be human,
then to be a free people on their land. Because it is not enough to have
freedom, one must also be free, to be able to dispose of that freedom
correctly. Perhaps the enemy who set foot on Ukrainian soil lacked exactly
this, such grace and strength, because he only calculated what Ukraine had, but
did not understand who Ukrainians are. Therefore, we can say that with God's
help there is and will be a believing Ukraine!
04/09/2022 (Source)
Thoughts of His Beatitude Sviatoslav about healing the wounds of the war in Ukraine
(…)
6. Don't let anyone get used to war!
Sometimes we see that information about the war in Ukraine starts to bore some people. Technically speaking, the war in Ukraine ceases to be news on the front pages of newspapers and magazines, particularly in Western Europe or North America. Our task is to keep the wave going. Raise conscience. Maybe sometimes we have to be like the annoying mosquito that keeps us awake. Because when we come to terms with the fact that there is a war and that the Russians are killing civilians in Ukraine, it will become another tragedy that we have no right to allow. It would be an information disaster for modern humanity. And that is why our task is to awaken people's hearts with the word of truth.
29/08/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of sermon on the feast of the Assumption
What happened in Kyiv six months ago was difficult to predict and describe in words. And the fact that our capital has stood up, we feel today as the fruit of a special intercession prayer of the Most Pure Virgin Mary. In Kyiv, there is a thousand-year-old certainty and spiritual tradition: as long as Oranta - the Immovable Wall - stands in Saint Sophia, the enemy will not be able to overcome the city and it will stand. I thank the Mother of God for saving our souls from death!
It is difficult to understand and express, but the Russian troops stopped twenty kilometers from the Patriarchal Cathedral. The front line really separated life from death. We heard explosions, even learned to distinguish the types of weapons used. Then, after the liberation of the now world-famous settlements: Irpenya, Buchi, Borodyanka, Gostomel, we saw mountains of corpses on their streets that no one had cleaned. We stood on the edge of the mass grave and watched the young people with their hands tied, thrown on top of each other. At that moment, we realized how cowardly and despicable the enemy is, who loots and takes everything he can, starting with small things, clothes and ending with household items. We saw the cowardice of traitors who drew up firing lists, handed over their neighbors to torture and death, counting on the "seat in power" of the occupiers or other privileges. We saw the cowardice of the adjusters of enemy fire, who called down the fire of enemy rockets on the heads of the inhabitants of their own cities and villages for Jewish silver coins.
However, in those circumstances, we saw that, as a nation, we are winning and will win thanks to the generosity of Ukrainians. We saw the spiritual greatness of our soldiers, who generously gave everything at the cost of their own lives to save Ukraine. We saw the magnanimity and selflessness of doctors who performed extremely complex operations under the bombs. We saw the generosity and heroism of the rescuers who risked their lives to pull their brothers and sisters out from under the rubble of their broken homes. There, like nowhere else, you understand that the Ukrainian people will win because we are bigger in soul than our enemy, morally and spiritually higher than him. To win, it is not enough to have good and modern weapons, you also need to have an inner, spiritual advantage.
That is why we have gathered here today, in this holy place, to give thanks that after half a year of war we are alive, we can be together, pray live for the victory of Ukraine and understand that the spiritual greatness of our people is rooted in God's generosity.
I was impressed by the generosity of the Ukrainians in the first months of the war, when the Russians did not want to take the bodies of their dead soldiers. Then our people created a special network that enabled fathers and mothers on the other side of the border to find their murdered children. However, no one wanted to accept the latter.
Today, our people in Kherson say that the Russians have turned this city into Buchenwald. The stench is felt over the city every day, because the occupiers in mobile crematoria day and night burn the bodies of "theirs", those whose names the invading country itself erases from history and sends not only to death, but also to eternal condemnation, shame and non-existence.
28/08/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
The next principle of war prevention is a strong condemnation of the involvement in armed conflicts of children and adolescents who are recruited, regardless of their age. Unfortunately, this is happening in the occupied territories of Ukraine, which today are under the boot of the Russian aggressor. Children who are forced to fight or who make such decisions on their own, often without realizing the consequences, are deprived of education, upbringing and taught to kill... This is a terrible crime.
The Church also strongly condemns terrorism. It cannot be justified in any way, because it carries a complete contempt for human life, which is always an end and not a means to an end, even if it is justified from a political point of view. And to declare oneself a terrorist in the name of God is profanation and blasphemy, contempt of God himself. Therefore, there is a right to defend oneself against terrorism. And today our Motherland is forced to defend itself against terrorism on various fronts.
25/08/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
The enemy thought that in three days they would march in Kyiv with an unholy parade, but we are celebrating the Independence Day of Ukraine.
24/08/2022 (Source)
Prayer on Independence Day
God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, on this day we stand together before Your face and thank You for the gift of freedom, for the gift of independence, for the gift of restoring the Ukrainian State. We ask You today: save, O God, Your people and bless Your inheritance, bless our people, our government, our army. Hear the cry, the cry of Your people of Ukraine. Give victory to the Ukrainian army over the unjust Russian occupier and aggressor. Bless our volunteers, doctors. Bless all those who save the human life given by You. Today we beg You for our brothers and sisters in the occupied territories, in the war zone. We beseech You for displaced persons and refugees, for all those to whom the war has inflicted deep wounds.
Lord, You are our Savior, the only physician of our souls and bodies, save us today! In Your fortress, Ukraine is and will be Your invincible State!
Today, under Your protection, Mother of God, we give our Motherland. Cover it with your honest omophorion. Mother of God, Oranto of Kyiv, pray for Your people! Amen.
24/08/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
We see that in Ukraine, out of ten attacks by Russian weapons, only one hit is on military targets, and all the others aim to destroy and kill the civilian population. This only emphasizes the immorality of Russian aggression against Ukraine. Attempts to destroy entire national, religious or linguistic groups of people are a crime against God and all humanity. Those guilty of this must be brought to justice. However, we see that the truth always wins. The power of good and protection of peace is always stronger than the power of weapons and diabolical plans of an unjust attacker.
22/08/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
Who are those who come to kill us, who torture our children, women and old men? These are people from those regions of Russia, where the criminal authorities stole the opportunity for integral and fair development, personal, of their family, people, even the part of the country where they live. The only way the Russian authorities offer them to survive, support their families, and find a means of livelihood is to go and kill. This type of recruiters, unfortunately, spread throughout Russia, even through the network of Orthodox churches, encouraging them with rewards. And the worst thing is that they give permission to kill with impunity and get rich by looting. And since these people were robbed of the opportunity to live and develop, they go to kill Ukrainians.
(…)
No one and nothing can justify the start of war in the modern world. She is always immoral. This is a tragic moment that can always be avoided. There is no excuse for those who use war as a tool to solve socio-political or international problems. Therefore, the conscience of every honest person calls him and the world to condemn the war. War can never be justified by means, methods, or goals. That is why it is so painful to hear that someone today, even among religious figures, justifies her.
There are about 20 different wars going on in the world today. But in Ukraine it is something special and more dangerous, because it was started by a country with atomic weapons and threatens not only our country, but also the whole world. The war in Ukraine is a crime against humanity, a defeat for humanity, and hence the danger of involving the whole of humanity in a military adventure. Therefore, we must all do everything in order to stop the unjust aggressor, who condemns his own people to poverty and kills Ukrainians on their own territory.
God, grant peace to modern humanity! God, destroy the plans of the aggressor, stop his murderous hand with Your divine power! God, support all the efforts that humanity is making today to nip in the bud the devil's plans to sow war in the bosom of modern humanity. God, bless Ukraine with Your just heavenly peace!
21/08/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from sermon
Today, together with Peter, James and John,
contemplating the transfigured Savior, we ask Him: shine your face over our
Motherland, because we want it to be good for us to be here in Ukraine; that
Ukrainians do not have to leave their homes under Russian bombs or fleeing
occupation by Russian tanks; so that they do not have to leave the Motherland,
escaping from dangers. God, from Mount Taurus, show us this Easter perspective
for the future of our people! We want to see our hope for victory in Your face
and light.
20/08/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
Violence is a sign of powerlessness. We can clearly see this in the relationships between people in society. Similarly, in the international arena, when some crazy dictator has no other arguments, no other opportunity to defend his position, because he knows that he does not have the truth and does not carry justice, then his last argument becomes war and violence. That is why it is so important for all of us to affirm justice and love, which will bring peace to our hearts, families, and society and give peace to the long-suffering modern humanity.
20/08/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
Unfortunately, we see how today the war in Ukraine has become a challenge for international law. The Russian aggressor does not respect anyone: neither his own citizens, nor the rights of Ukraine, nor his state, cultural, and spiritual sovereignty. He despises international law and institutions. Therefore, what is currently happening in Ukraine is a matter for all humanity, because it undermines the very foundations, the foundations of international law.
18/08/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
I am addressing you, mothers, with a special request: take care of the Christian and patriotic upbringing of your children! Learn the Ukrainian language, teach your children the true history of Ukraine — the history of suffering and struggle of our people. Take care of the Christian upbringing of your children. After all, if you do not give them real moral guidelines in life, then all the material things that you acquire for them, they will quickly spend.
Today we surround you with attention and love and ask you to be active citizens of Ukraine and responsible for the future of your children and our Motherland. Look for work! Get involved in the active life of local communities and be sure that we will all help you in this. Because decent work, in accordance with your talents, profession, is one of the ways of showing your Motherland's respect for you, your skill, dignity, gift of motherhood. Together with you, we pray for your husbands, who may be far away today, but are so in need of our memory, attention, prayers, and support.
12/08/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of daily video address
During war, we can feel a certain devaluation of human life. Sometimes our conscience is dulled when we hear about dozens killed and hundreds wounded. But every person killed is a tragedy. This is the failure of humanity. This is the problem of all those who today talk about law, law, and international relations. Therefore, the ability to respect human life, the dignity of every person, respect their rights regardless of ethnic, national origin, religious or political beliefs is the cornerstone of the construction of any fair, dignified person in the country. May the Lord God help us to build a state worthy of us, where everyone can develop their talents and live a dignified life on this God-given land.
(…)
Dear Mothers, I express to you on behalf of our entire Church, the Ukrainian people, words of deep sympathy and assurance in prayer. We are with you in this painful moment. We honor the high price your child paid for the freedom and independence of our Motherland. Thank you, Mother, for understanding the value of your son or daughter's sacrifice. We want to wrap you in the warmth of love and pastoral care in order to help you survive the pain of a terrible and irreparable loss. The mothers of our heroes gather in different communities to mutually support each other, and our Church creates appropriate spaces for such mutual assistance.
10/08/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of a sermon
We have been experiencing this event about the multiplication of loaves in a strange way in Ukraine for almost six months. We lack everything to stand up to an unjust aggressor. But Christ is present among us, as then in a desert place among his disciples and apostles. Christ who takes care of his people, who is patient, Christ who has mercy on people and says: "They do not need to go away: you give them something to eat" (Mt. 14, 16). And we see that when we are in solidarity, when we share what we have, when above all we give even the last thing we have into God's hands, then nothing is lacking for anyone.
Today we ask: Lord, You see the thirsty and hungry in Ukraine. You see those who suffer from war. You see that sometimes confused people feel like sheep without a shepherd. God, be between us! We place everything in Your hands: our resources, human, material, all others, ourselves and each other. Be among us as the One who breaks bread and feeds us! If necessary, even break our lives in order to multiply them and make your presence life-giving here, among us, in the body of our people. Let Your life-giving power, which multiplies everything, pulsate among us and be the secret of our tirelessness, endurance and victory. The Gospel says: "They all ate until they were satisfied and gathered the morsels that remained, twelve baskets full" (Mt. 14, 20). Lord, let it happen on Ukrainian land, let it be an icon of the feast of Ukraine's victory over the enemy, who today wants to rob us of everything and condemns us to a cold and hungry death. God, be with us today!
08/08/2022 (Source)
Thoughts on patriotism
1. The Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church is not a state, but a state-creating one. What is the difference?
Statehood is a certain type of relationship between people, certain values, rules that become laws. And so it is the Christian faith that is the source of the thousand-year-old experience of state-building. And never vice versa! It cannot be said that the state is the source of the Church, that the state in one way or another creates various church institutions and structures. If we are talking about the state Church and the state-creating Church, then these are two completely different realities. The State-creating Church is the source of statehood. This is clearly visible from the history of our Church. Because it was precisely because of the existence of the Ukrainian Church that Ukrainian statehood was reborn and arose, and the desire of the Ukrainian people to have their own state was manifested. And the state Church is a cog in the state machine. And when we see that some Churches were tempted to become a cog in the state machine, then they alienated themselves from their people, became not the voice of God for the people, but the voice of this or that secular power. Our Church has never been a cog in some state machine, never a state Church, but has always been a people's, and therefore state-creating.
2. How does the Church cooperate with the state?
The Greek Catholic Church advocates the secularity of the state and partnership relations between the state and church and religious organizations. Everyone should be comfortable in such a state: Christians, Muslims, or perhaps those who currently do not participate in the life of any religious community. No belief or religion can be forced upon anyone. Because this is violence against his conscience. In order to understand this, centuries have passed. The church had to realize its role in society. The secularity of the state means that none of the Churches or religions can claim the role of the state. Therefore, especially in the conditions of a multi-religious state, which is Ukraine, I think that this is a very correct way of organizing our people in their state-building activities. But state secularism does not mean opposing state structures to church or religious organizations. After all, we have many common tasks, we must work together for the common good and the good of this nation.
The Church never forces anything, never imposes anything on anyone, but is a mother and a teacher who speaks to the heart. And in this way we work for the common good.
3. What happens if the state privileges one Church over others?
This means that it made a bet on a certain Church and thus, de facto, interprets it as a state one. And according to Ukrainian legislation, the state authorities must treat all Churches and religious organizations absolutely equally. Whether they are small or large, powerful or weak, they have the right to exist and be treated equally. We all have equal rights. By the way, this is one of the foundations on which the life and activity of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations is formed: "We are all different, but we are all equal." When the state behaves like this with the religious environment, then there is no danger of nationalization of such a structure. There is another danger: when some Church offers itself to the state as a tool to achieve a goal, particularly a political one. This is very visible during elections. When some Church begins to support one political power and when that political power comes to power, then the representatives of a certain Church remind about it. This is also a dangerous sign when the crown and the mitre merge.
4. What is patriotism?
There are different types of patriotism. We talk about Christian as love for one's Motherland. Today, we don't always realize what that means. We use the word "love" so often that it loses its meaning. You have to learn to love. And love should always be active. And, it is obvious that love is the essence of what we are talking about as patriotism. Love creates heroes, and hate creates criminals. We clearly stated this in our message to this year's Synod of Bishops of the UGCC. A patriot is not necessarily the one who shoots, but necessarily the one who loves. The Church teaches its faithful to love. The Christian community is a school of love that explains that love does not mean taking what I like, but giving myself to someone in need. Give as much as I can. Even all of himself. True patriotism will never be seasoned with antagonism or hatred. Even to enemies. Christian patriotism must be distinguished from other types of so-called love for the Motherland, which, in fact, is national egoism. A chauvinist will also say that he is standing up for his country. But he wants to achieve the greatness of his state by humiliating others. Sometimes we say that protecting your own is a universal human rule. Even a heathen understands that it is necessary to protect one's home and property when a thief comes. What is Christian here? A Christian understands that it is not hatred and opposition to others that makes us able to fulfil our Christian task of protecting the Motherland, but the ability to give oneself. And this must be learned. Today, we very often say that there are sofa patriots who are ready to love Ukraine, but only on their sofa with a warm cup of coffee. And this is obviously a caricature of patriotism.
5. Not sofa patriots...
I am proud of my people. I am proud of Ukrainian patriots who are ready to defend their country without the slightest drop of hatred. They say: "We don't need someone else's, and we won't give away ours." We do not encroach on other people's property, but we love our own and are even ready to share ours." And, it is obvious that today until the end our enemy does not understand that he is not fighting with the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but with the people. Today, Ukraine is defended not only by the President and the Commander-in-Chief, not only by state structures, but by millions of Ukrainians. Someone is on the front line, someone is working on the Ukrainian front. They risk encountering explosive devices or being targeted by a missile. You have to be a hero to sow in the fields of Ukraine, and now to reap what you have sown.
You have to be a hero to give birth to children in wartime. Father and mother, who give life, are patriots! They understand that fatherhood and motherhood also have a patriotic dimension. When someone runs away from those burdens, does not give a future to the Ukrainian people, he has lost something somewhere.
Let's remember our volunteers, who, without any hope of compensation or words of thanks, at the behest of their own conscience, work day and night to help refugees, to clothe those who lack clothes, to evacuate those who are in danger of death, to provide the Ukrainian army with all that that it needs.
There is a whole mechanism of existence of Ukrainian society. However, the soul of this body that wields is love and Christian patriotism.
08/08/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
Svyatopolk, who was called
"wretched", killed his brothers in the struggle for the Kyiv throne. The
Russian president publicly ridiculed the feat of these first Kyiv martyrs. And
today, unfortunately, it is Russia that is once again committing the sin of the
wretched Svyatopolk
(…)
I watch with emotion how many of our boys
attack the military commissariats and are offended when they are not taken into
the army, they feel guilty for being in the rear instead of at the front.
Thanks to all of you, patriots of Ukraine! Be where the Lord God has called
you! And bring Ukraine's victory over the enemy closer every day
06/08/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
In just one day, Russia launched eight cruise
missiles at Ukraine for a total of $100,000,000. We see how it becomes more and
more difficult for the occupiers to explain to themselves and their own people
why this senseless war is being waged. We see how much money the aggressor
invests in destruction and death. Instead of developing
their patriotism by investing in the well-being and better life of Russians,
they cause great trouble, harm, and destruction to everyone: both to Russians
in Russia and to the Ukrainian people.
04/08/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
The world must condemn what happened yesterday
to the Ukrainian prisoners of war as a special manifestation of
inadmissibility, savagery and cruelty. Yesterday we saw footage of the
terrible torture of a Ukrainian soldier, and later the news arrived that more
than 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed in the town of Olenivka in
Donbas. With what cynicism it was done! With what insidiousness, and therefore
an attempt to frighten the world and demonstrate these crimes, all this was
done! In the name of God, we condemn these atrocities, these crimes against
humanity.
I appeal to each of you to condemn the crimes
of the Russians! If we, as people, do not distance ourselves today and say a
sharp "no" to atrocities and torture, then tomorrow such behaviour,
unfortunately, may spread to the whole world.
30/07/2022 (Source)
From a television interview
In no case do I agree when someone talks about
the danger of patriotism. Even more, we must teach our faithful to be patriots.
Because how else can we hope that Ukrainians will respect the achievements of
human civilization, the genius of the universal human spirit, if they do not
love their own?!
(…)
That is, a patriot is not one who shoots,
but one who loves. This should always come first. And the Church teaches
its faithful to love. The Christian community is a school of love that explains
that love is not about what I like. Love means giving yourself to someone in
need. To give as much as I can, even all of myself.
(…)
Whoever does not have this sincere love for his
Christian land, for his mother, for his children, for his home, he will never
be happy anywhere, even on the whole infinite earth. This is the essence of
Christian patriotism.
(…)
You have to be a hero to sow and reap what you
sow today in the fields of Ukraine. You have to be a hero to give birth to
children in wartime. That is, the father and mother who give a new life are
patriots who understand that the true vocation to fatherhood and motherhood
also has a patriotic dimension. When someone runs away from those burdens, does
not give a future to the Ukrainian people, then somewhere along the way
something got lost.
29/07/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
Today, let's rediscover the value of Ukrainian
statehood for our national existence. Our State is for us a
matter of life or death. And we know that life will win. The
state will be protected and strengthened. And life on the God-given earth
will blossom and develop.
28/07/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from interview with Il Foglio
Ukraine has been a victim of Russian aggression
since 2014, but since February 24, we, Ukrainians, have understood that this is
not just a war between one country against another, and even less a simple
"military operation".
Visiting Ukrainian cities that were occupied by
the Russian army and then liberated, I saw the tragedy of mass graves – mass
burials of civilians, I heard the testimonies of victims of rape by Russian
soldiers, we were shocked by the terrible picture of executed people, left
lying on the streets of our cities. Unfortunately, these are not isolated
cases, but systematic actions of Putin's army against innocent
Ukrainians. Mass graves were found in Bucha, Mariupol, Makarov, and
perhaps others will be found; there were many cases of torture of
civilians, including children; so far, about 300 minors have died at the
hands of the Russian military. Just think that near the ancient city of
Chernihiv, in the ancient Orthodox church, which is considered a historical
heritage, the Russian army arranged a torture chamber! Residents of the
villages of Yagidne and Lukashivka were tortured inside the church.
Today, it is becoming more and more obvious, at
least for us in Ukraine, that Russia's war against Ukraine has a clear
ideological structure, which is called the ideology of the "Russian
world".
I would like to turn to the report of Timothy
Snyder, a well-known researcher of the Shoah in the territory of the former
Soviet Union. It was he who immediately reacted to the publication on the
Russian website "Ria Novosti" of a document explaining the motives
and orders given to Russian soldiers to carry out their mission in
Ukraine. The comment entitled "What Russia should do with
Ukraine" was written by Timofiy Sergeitsev, who explains what exactly
Moscow means by denazification – one of the goals of the war in Ukraine
declared by Putin. I invite the European community to carefully read
this text in order to understand what the ideology of the "Russian
world" consists of.
Timothy Snyder called it Russia 's genocide handbook . He
writes: "This Russian manual is one of the most frankly genocidal
documents I have ever seen."
In addition, I would like to note that many
famous theologians of the Orthodox Churches of the world have condemned the
ideology of the "Russian world" as a heresy of ethnophyletic
religious fundamentalism, which has a totalitarian nature. Many prominent politicians
identify it as a form of radical nationalism that seeks to spread throughout
the world. The ideology of the "Russian world" denies the right
of the Ukrainian people to exist, as the ideology of Nazi Germany once denied
the Jewish people. In this way, a new authoritarian ideology is proposed,
which was born in Russia, but thanks to massive propaganda, it will find its
followers in the West, surprisingly.
I can only testify that the occupiers are
committing war crimes by carefully following every letter of these
instructions. All this is accompanied by unprecedented cruelty towards the
civilian population.
The history of the Ukrainian people is a part
of European history, we are a European people, which in recent history has once
again confirmed its choice in favour of the principles and ideals of the
European community. Unfortunately, today in Russia we are witnessing a
synthesis of Soviet and imperial mentalities. And Ukraine today is a
victim of this perverse reconstruction of the borders of "great
Russia".
In Russia, they always want to present
Ukrainian society as being under the influence of the immoral West. This
is how intolerance towards everything "not ours" is born, provoking
and justifying violence to destroy all the "infected". Currently, the image of this
"collective West" is being projected onto Ukraine, which seems to
have to be fought. To revive the memory of the historical enemy to be
fought, the word "Nazism" is used, which has lost its original
meaning and today is usually applied to everything "Western" that is
present in the identity of the people. That is why a Ukrainian is called a
heretic Nazi.
It is becoming more and more obvious that
Russia has entered into a cultural conflict not only with Ukraine, but also
with everything that we define as Western civilization. The process of
zombification of the Russian population by the Kremlin regime gave rise to a
very dangerous anthropological type of society. Imagine: mass graves in
Ukraine become a reason for the joy of many people in Russia; no sympathy,
no thought about the causes of this absurd war. Unfortunately, even at the
highest level of the Russian Orthodox Church... Moreover, we hear the Christian
justification of the Russian war against Ukraine and the glorification of war
crimes and the ideology of violence.
(…)
In this case, as a Church, we must also declare
"zero tolerance" for the criminal. I believe that we should stop
talking about the conflict, we should talk about war crimes in Ukraine
instead. We must stop trying to understand or protect the interests of the
aggressor or to be mediators between the interests of the aggressor and the
victim, therefore the reality and the truth, the objective truth of the events
taking place in Ukraine. Zero tolerance for violence! If the
interests of a state lead to war and condemn to death a people with a
population of more than 40 million, then this is no longer an interest, but a
crime. No
reason can justify or explain this aggression in modern civilized
society.
A crime against humanity is taking place in
Ukraine: there is a cruel criminal and there is an innocent
victim. Therefore, it is also important to find the right terms to
describe everything that is happening in Ukraine. After all, even the word
"war" in its traditional sense is no longer able to describe this
tragedy. If anyone doubts, I invite you to come to Ukraine and see it with
your own eyes.
(…)
Faith in the resurrection and love for freedom
have always been the strength of our people, which protected them from despair,
encouraged them to stand up and move forward. There is another folk
saying: "They wanted to bury us forever, but it turned out that we
are the seeds that give new life." Perhaps even now our people are
fighting, standing up after so many waves of genocide precisely because the
Lord resurrects us.
(…)
War is not a game. It seems to me that
sometimes computer games are associated with the word "war" in the
West. Unfortunately, those who plan wars have never experienced what war
really is. After all, observing the realities of the war in Ukraine, we
are faced with total destruction. Entire cities and villages became
ghosts. And mass graves, which have no end. The question arises: is
it possible to survive in such conditions? Does the world want to survive
or fight? And one more thing: we know that one day of war costs Russia
four hundred million dollars. Think about it, just one day. Who, by
what diabolical logic, invests in death? What if we could use this money
to build, save human lives, and create a better future in Russia
itself? If these funds were to be invested in improving the living
conditions of millions of citizens of this country? Instead of spending
them so easily on killings... This means that war is always a
crime, always madness, clouding of the mind. The more violent it
becomes, the more obvious it becomes. The war in Ukraine is a crime
against humanity.
(…)
We have all changed. Perhaps not everyone
has yet understood that the world that existed until February 24 of this year
is no more. Not Russia, not Ukraine, not Europe, not other
countries. In one "click" we changed forever. And if relations between
people change, then, obviously, relations between man and society, man and any
community will change, and relations between Churches will also change. If
we talk about the relations between the Churches in Ukraine, I must say that
they have really improved, because we have united like never before in the name
of protecting human life. We see that all differences, even some private
selfish interests (which are sometimes cherished even by the Church) have now
receded into the background, the existential question is now in the first place
- how to survive together with our people. That's why we cooperate. Perhaps
the ecumenical, doctrinal level, reflection will come later, which will be
born from existential experience, but when it comes to organizing, for example,
a green corridor to evacuate and save the lives of people who are in immediate
danger of death, then everyone unites: Catholics, Orthodox, Protestants,
Muslims, Jews. We all cooperate to save ourselves and to save others.
27/07/2022 (Source)
Daily vídeo address
Mykolaiv suffered a massive rocket attack that
night. And yesterday we were shaken by an unprecedented disaster in Kharkiv,
in particular, the picture of a father kneeling on the street of the city,
holding the hand of his lifeless 13-year-old son, and praying. Many
people asked themselves: God, why? How much more?
21/07/2022 (Source)
Excerpt
from sermon
Free
Ukraine, is torment for all those who want to enslave their people first of
all, to put shackles on them. If Ukraine is free, then other nations of the
former Soviet Union must be free as well.
This is
a spiritual struggle, an invisible struggle between good and evil. But this
phrase is not a good metaphor. We see that God is calling us to freedom. And he
gives it to us as he gave freedom to the Church and the people when He broke
the prison of the nations – the Soviet Union and all those who were in slavery,
in the shackles of that communist ideology, he called us to a free life worthy
of human dignity, he called us to freedom.
(…)
Ukrainians
said: we will never be slaves again, because we are responding to the call to
freedom of our Saviour. We want to be free people.
(…)
We
cannot be half human, nor can we be half free, because freedom is rooted in
human nature. We see that wherever Russian weapons reach, blood is shed,
innocent people are killed there. Therefore, this war turns into a complete war
crime. But Ukrainians will never go back to live in graves.
(…)
Today we
have come to the prayer room to pray for the victory of Ukraine, for the
victory that will be the liberation of our land, the liberation of every person
from the power of the possession of an evil spirit. We sacrifice everything so
that our people will never return to slavery.
17/07/2022
(Source)
Daily
video address
It is
difficult to call what is happening in Ukraine a war. These are, naturally,
continuous war crimes that do not stop either day or night.
But we
are now here, in Zarvanytsia, and we will pray. Our prayer is for the victory
of Ukraine, for our Ukrainian army, for our Ukrainian government. We will ask
the Mother of God for the gift of just and true peace for the Ukrainian land,
so that the thief will leave our house, so that the killings will stop, so that
blood will no longer be sprinkled on the black soil of the Ukrainian land, our
Motherland,
17/07/2022
(Source)
Daily
video address
We see
how the pride of one dictator, in whose hands there are many means of
destroying human life, can be a destructive force that tempts and leads the
entire nation to sinful paths. This pride is the cause of murder, war,
destruction and death of man.
16/07/2022
(Source)
Daily
video address
We
know that more than seven million Ukrainians have already
left Ukraine. And this process of demographic exsanguination of our Motherland,
unfortunately, continues. But Ukraine stands. Ukraine is fighting. Ukraine is
praying. Ukraine learns to win and wins!
(…)
The
enemy is not at war with any state structures and not only with the Armed
Forces of Ukraine. He has clear genocidal intentions and is fighting the
Ukrainian people, putting the lives of Ukraine's 40 million population at
stake.
14/07/2022
(Source)
Daily
video address
We see
that some agree with the voice of Pope Francis, and some disagree, but everyone
hears and notices him. Let us pray that among us, Christians of the new age, he
will be the first to convert and, after his personal conversion, confirm the
faith of his fellow believers. We pray that he will come to Ukraine as soon as
possible to stand on the side of the suffering Ukrainian people.
12/07/2022
(Source)
Address to Ukrainian refugees in Poland
We ask our saints: you, the sons and daughters of this people, pray
today for our Church, for our people, who are bleeding.
Pray for the Ukrainian State, which today shelters Europe with its
breast from the war that is destroying Ukraine.
Pray that evil does not spread, that Ukraine itself, with its holiness,
strength, ability to sacrifice even life in faith for the sake of God's
truth and the salvation of man,
will be a shield that will cover the whole world from the apocalyptic
beast that opens its mouth on modern man. All the saints of the Ukrainian people, pray to God for us
sinners.
09/07/2022 (Source)
Opening sermon at the synod of Bishops in Przemyśl
Because
we, as the Church, found ourselves on the front line of the
information war. At one time, Pope Francis remarked that every great war is connected
with a great lie. Therefore, the voice of our Church, which testifies to
the truth, by the power of the prophet John, is today called to carry
out a prophetic mission in the desert of the modern world. That is why
it is so important for us to experience this Synod, to feel the
fraternal unity of our global Church, which unites all world Ukrainians
in Ukraine and in the settlements!
Because it is our Church that becomes a powerful voice to the world
public, which once did not hear well and did not know who Ukrainians
are, what they fight for, live and die for. Perhaps it is precisely
our Church that should say that in today's cruel circumstances of
military calamity.
07/07/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of Sermon on the feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help
Christ says: "And when your eye is evil, your whole body will be in
darkness" (Mt. 6, 23). Our Kobzar says about such an evil and lustful
eye: "He is peering over the edge of the world with his restless eye to
see if there is a country to conquer and take home with him" (Poem
"Dream").
It is the eye of the occupier who comes to our land today and looks
at all of us only from the point of view of what can be taken from us,
enslaving and robbing us of all that we are. This is what it means to
serve mammon. This god takes away man's freedom, instead instils in him fear of the
coming day and, like a tempter, says: take today, because tomorrow may
not be.
03/07/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
We have already mentioned more than once that
this war against Ukraine has a hybrid nature, that is, it is waged
not only through weapons, bombs, missiles, artillery, tanks on the
battlefield, but also through disinformation, lies, which the enemy
spreads to the whole world. And we, as Christians, have to fulfil our duty here: not to listen to
the voice of the tempter, not to enter into a dialogue with him, but
instead to testify to the truth.
(…)
Pope Francis says that a great war is always connected with a great
lie, and the first victim of war is always the truth. Therefore, no
matter where we live, in Ukraine or in other countries of the world,
no matter what we do, no matter what mission we perform, let us always
listen to the voice of truth, the truth that sounds through the testimony of eyewitnesses, through
the voice of the Church. Let's listen to God's truth, which speaks to us
through the word of the Holy Scriptures, and with God's word, like a
double-edged sword, we will defeat the attacks and temptations of the
devil.
02/07/2022 (Source)
Interview with Open Church
During the war, all masks were torn off, all traitors were
unmasked. The whole depth of the heart of every good
person was revealed.
Then it was really possible to see who loves Ukraine, whether it is
only good slogans, good words, only political ambitions or true love for
our Motherland, which we live by every day.
We not only believe in God's mercy, but are also its bearers.
Therefore,
if someone calls himself a Christian, but during the war he closes
his heart to people in need, he is not moved by the footage of broken
homes, wounded people, millions of refugees, then his Christianity is
superficial, inauthentic.
01/07/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
We see that Russian society is being tempted, that young men are
being recruited to go and kill people in Ukraine. The war in Ukraine
is not just justified, particularly for religious reasons, but
presented as a good opportunity to earn something, even to steal
something and bring it home.
(…)
We ask, Lord, help us with Your word, Your power to defeat the devil
and his temptations! Help us to overcome the suggestions of the enemy,
with which He wants to frighten, paralyze the will of all those who
defend the dignity of man, his right to life and existence! God, bless
the defenders of Ukraine, its children, all those who resist evil!
01/07/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from daily video message
The enemy mercilessly fires on all parts of Ukraine, where it can reach
with its weapons. They are shelling towns and villages, including border
towns, in Kharkiv, Sumy and Chernihiv regions. The so-called missile
terrorism continues.
The Russians are ruthlessly destroying agricultural, urban, and state
infrastructure with rocket fire. In particular, a huge grain warehouse
in Dnipropetrovsk region was destroyed yesterday. Everything that can
save Ukraine, especially in winter, must be destroyed. At the same time, the Russians are brutally cracking down on anyone
who wants to defend the Motherland
30/06/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from daily video message
But through the fruit of the Holy Spirit, which is faith we see that
the Lord God not only sees Ukraine and has it in his original plan,
but has prepared for us a special mission in the modern world, in the
modern Church, in relation to man in the third millennium.
Yesterday, Ukraine experienced perhaps the largest missile strike in
its history by Russia. Russian cruise missiles flew to Kyiv, Chernihiv,
Cherkasy, Odesa and Mykolayiv regions. The city of Kharkiv and Sumy
region came under fire ... But Ukraine is fighting and thanking God and
the Armed Forces of Ukraine that we have survived to this morning and
can see the light of day.
27/06/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from sermon
I think it is obvious to all of us today that
He sees Ukraine in his providence not only as we see it now,
especially on this dramatic Kyiv morning – sick, wounded and crying.
He sees Ukraine and us in it as we are bound to become – he sees in
its victory over evil and an unjust attacker - a prosperous and free
European state!
It is obvious to all of us today that
war is a denial of God's plan and God's wisdom. War is the greatest
crime against God. War is the greatest madness, the greatest stupidity
a person can commit. We feel that Ukraine's enemies are those who do
not allow it to fulfil its sacred vocation. That is why their insane
plans, which rebel against God's plan and vocation for our people, are
doomed to shameful failure.
Celebrating today the Day of the Laity in our Church, we ask: God, call
us to follow us from the hell on earth in which we are today! We know
that where You are, there is peace and security. We know that only those
who fulfil their life vocation feel happy. Teach us to fulfil our family
and professional duties in a Christian way, to fulfil our civic duty to
protect and build the Motherland!
27/06/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from sermon
Consecrating this church, we see that in this event,
in these sacraments that took place before our eyes, there is a great
sign of hope for the Ukrainian people. For when the enemy kills, takes
away life, in this temple God himself comes to revive, sanctify and
give eternal life
as it happened in Nazareth, at the moment of the Good News, when a new
life began, Divine and human, by power and action. Of the Holy Spirit in
the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Today,
when the enemy on our land is destroying everything, destroying, when
he is waging a war of "scorched earth", we are building. You have to
have a lot of faith to build temples during the war.
We need to have a look into the future, which breaks through the clouds
that have thickened over us and shows a ray of hope for the revival of
Ukraine after the war.
23/06/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of sermon on All Saints Sunday
Today we celebrate International Father's Day and Medical Day. I would
like to take this opportunity to sincerely congratulate parents who
instill in their children a desire for holiness and Christian and human
perfection. We especially pray for those dads who, with weapons in their hands
and the cost of their own lives, protect Ukraine from the Russian
occupier, giving their children a true example of true love. Thanks also to our doctors who save lives in the dramatic
circumstances of the war. May all the saints accompany you in the
conscientious performance of your professional duties, and may the Lord
himself guide you with his hand and complement your medical art and your
talent with the power of the grace of the Holy Spirit!
19/06/2022 (Source)
Words during visit to Poltava
By his love for us, the Lord God quenches human malice and sin. He
transmits the same power to Christians. And when we forgive our
offender, we defeat him. By forgiving, we defeat the evil that the offender has done to us. If
we respond with evil to evil, then it only increases. And man himself will never be able to overcome evil as such. It's not
in our power.
Even today, when we see the enemy raping, killing, destroying, let our
enemy not defeat himself on the battlefield of our hearts. If we can
destroy the evil that the enemy carries in our hearts, we will defeat
him. Because victory requires winners who are morally superior to our
attackers.
17/06/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from daily video message
This gift [of the Holy Spirit] is extremely necessary for those who
have a special responsibility, perform important service in the Church,
the state and society. In my opinion, the mind as a gift of the Holy
Spirit is very much needed by those who are trying to understand the
causes and consequences of this full-scale Russian aggression. Because
we see that today the whole world is trying to deceive, to pretend that
what is desired is real. We see and know, experiencing the war on our own skin, that Russia's
aggression against Ukraine is not provoked by anything. Anyone who
thinks that some external cause has provoked military aggression in
Russia is either a prisoner of Russian propaganda or is simply
deliberately deceiving the world.
Unfortunately, that part of the post-Soviet space that is today in the
territory of the Russian Federation has its deep flaws and diseases
since Soviet times. This post-Soviet revanchism, which today has emerged in the new face of
extreme Russian nationalism, in the form of the ideology of the
Russian measure, has clearly acquired genocidal features. And Ukraine
is his first victim.
That is why it is so important to understand the causes and consequences of this war. Unfortunately, the causes of
this war lie in Russia itself, inside it. The Russian aggressor is trying to solve its internal problems with the
help of external aggression. He projects his illnesses on others and
blames the whole world for them.
Today we pray for the gift of the Holy Spirit for politicians, diplomats,
church and religious figures, so that the Lord God gives them the ability to see the causes and
consequences of things, the depth of reality and the ability to
distinguish truth from falsehood and falsehood.
15/06/2022 (Source)
Today we have to celebrate Pentecost in the circumstances of war. We
know that the war has "nullified" all human relations. We all became
different. We are afraid of the unknown future, because we do not know
where our mad enemy will direct its lethal missiles tomorrow. Many parents have really serious difficulties in overcoming
their children's anxiety.
We need the Comforter so much in these military circumstances!
Therefore, today we will kneel and call on the Holy Spirit as the only
Comforter in unhappy circumstances and tell Him today: come and dwell
in us!
During the war, we all feel that we have become a wounded people, some physically, some psychologically and even spiritually… Today
we are not fully aware of the wounds that Ukraine receives every day.
Where will we get the medicine, the balm that will heal the wounds,
will give us the strength to rebuild what the enemy shamelessly
destroys every day? Therefore, we call on the Holy Spirit, whom the
Son of Heavenly Father sends us today, and say to Him, "Come and dwell
in us!" – because we know that He alone is the balm that can heal all
our pains and wounds.
We ask today: “Holy Spirit, come, renew us, give us strength, teach us to be
bearers of truth! You are the Spirit of truth, so give us the
strength to bear witness to the truth about You and Ukraine in its
pain! Give us the strength to tell the truth, so that, in the words of the great Kobzar, "the whole world will
hear what was going on in Ukraine, why it died, why the Cossack glory
spread all over the world!" (To Osnovyanenko, 1839) ".
May the Holy Spirit make us all spiritual disciples of our Saviour.
May it descend into our hearts, write in it God's law of the truth of
life, melt our petrification. May every place we live be enlivened and
sanctified. May all that we touch with our thoughts, dreams, hands and
deeds be revived. May the Holy Spirit descend on Ukraine today, tomorrow our tears
and renew the face of the Ukrainian land. Amen.
14/06/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
It is becoming clear that the war that Russia has started against Ukraine is colonial in
nature. They are once again trying to turn Ukraine into a colony,
almost in the heart of Europe. This colonial war is accompanied by
murders, rapes, robberies and, very sadly, Russia exports and sells
on the international market everything that can be looted in
Ukraine.
Today I appeal to the world community, to the conscience of people
around the world: do not buy loot in Ukraine! Because otherwise you become
accomplices in the crimes committed by the occupiers when they came
to Ukrainian soil.
09/06/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
Ukraine is working, a sowing campaign has taken place. Our people are
making every effort to feed Ukrainian bread to the sons and daughters
of Ukraine, as well as to all those in need in the world. However, we
already see that due to the Russian blockade of Ukrainian ports, it is
impossible to export Ukrainian grain. The global food crisis is
already approaching and it is already beginning to worry the leaders
of various states.
We express our gratitude to Pope Francis for such a moving call not
to use food grains as a weapon, because today the most vulnerable
people suffer from it, not only in Ukraine but all over the world.
(…)
On this day, we want to pray for the Ukrainian government and all
those in the world to whom the peoples and society have entrusted the
leadership of states. Because we see that the worst sin of the
government is war. When the government provokes wars, it shows its unbelief, rebels
against the very plan of God for man, who is always peace.
Authorities who do not care about the justice of life between
people, their citizens and peoples make human life as such
impossible. If the authorities commit crimes that are not initially
visible, it leads to internal corruption of the state. We are
talking about the sin of corruption, which erodes any institutions,
even international ones.
07/06/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
We also pray for our enemies, that they do not dry up their souls
with crimes against the Ukrainian people. We pray for the grace of the Holy Spirit for all people.
(…)
Today we see that in Ukraine some are bearing fruit, and others are
coming to show themselves as dry branches on this grape, although they
call themselves Christians. It is a great scandal for the whole world
that in Ukraine some Christians who are trying to appropriate the
tradition of the Kyiv Church come from Moscow to kill other Christians
in the Kyiv lands.
06/06/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of interview on the Sunday of the Fathers of the First Council of Nicaea
Jesus prays to the Father: "Now I come to you, and I say this when I
am in the world, that they may have my joy in them" (Jn
17:13). Today, when Ukraine is crying, it is very difficult for us to talk
about joy, because we are witnessing something completely different.
We are constantly experiencing the pain and grief of loss. We lose
our own and our own, sometimes even ourselves… However, in order for you to understand the fullness of joy that
Jesus Christ speaks in his Hierarch's Prayer, I will tell you the
story of a believing woman, a refugee from Donbass, told to me by my
father from Kropyvnytskyi. This lady said that when she gets to
another city, she first of all seeks her Church, because she knows
that there are her own and she will not perish among her own. She was
very happy when she found her family, her community, her Church. Of
course, they helped her with everything they could.
(…)
True joy is finding your own. That woman lost everything: her home,
relatives, the world in which she still lived. But she was happy,
because she understood that she would gradually be able to find
everything among her own. And this joy that Jesus Christ is talking
about today is due to the fact that she managed to find her God in a
foreign city.
In these circumstances, it is very important for us to understand who is our own and who is someone else's. Where is the opportunity to know the true living God, where are those who know Him? It is important to reveal the community of Christ's Church in the life of our people. Because many foreigners come who pretend to be their own. They say: we are your brothers, your government and your fatherland ... Even in the church field they pretend to be their Church, but they behave like strangers who steal, kill, rape, burn even holy temples, steal everything from grain to things that are found in our homes.
06/06/2022 (Source)
Daily Video Message
Ukrainians have been defending their land for a hundred
days. For a hundred days, Ukrainians have been holding back the Russian
invasion, which exceeds with all resources what we can oppose. At
the same time, we are experiencing a hundred days of great
manifestation of God's presence among us.
03/06/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from Sermon on the Feast of the Ascension
What does it mean to win? This is much more than deoccupying the
territories that the enemy has taken away from us today. This is much
more than restoring the integrity of our state. Our mission is to defeat the spirit of war and all those who serve
it, who are enemies of God's plan for Ukraine, our Church and our
people. We say today that the war in Ukraine is a struggle between
good and evil. Perhaps this is our historical mission – to once again close Europe to the chest from the Asian
invader, as it was here in Kyiv, during the reign of Khan Batu and
other hordes who came to our land to take our lives and wipe the Kyiv
state from the face of the earth. To pray for victory means to pray for the fulfilment of the
historical mission of our people in the family of the peoples of
Europe.
Today we pray that each of us may fulfil our life's mission in a
Christian way. Because the Lord God gives us a task that no one will
do for us. If we run away from it, do not want to fulfil it, there
will be emptiness. Each of us in our place today prays, defends the
Motherland and is a witness to faith in God and in His saved plan for
our people. That is why we pray and say on the graves of our fallen
heroes that heroes do not die. It is the Lord God who revives them,
makes them partakers of his Paschal sacrament. He is the key to their
life and resurrection even after death.
Today we ask: Lord, clothe us with power from on high! Thy Holy
Spirit descended on us, as You did for Your apostles. For it is not by
human power, but by God's power that victory over evil comes and God's
plan is fulfilled. Come upon us, Holy Spirit, so that we may defeat the enemy,
celebrate Your victory over evil! Grant us Your peace for our
Motherland! And when the Lord sends us today everywhere, as the
apostles and early Christians once did, from Kiev, the new
Jerusalem, to all continents to the ends of the earth, let us make all your
people disciples there and lead them to Baptism in them. ' I am the
Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit!
03/06/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from an interview with Ukrinform
Q. A large number of your faithful were very offended by the Pope.
Offended by the Way of the Cross, the common cross of a Russian and a
Ukrainian, offended by his intentions to see Kirill, because,
obviously, it makes no sense. Don't you think that this behaviour of
the Holy Father has greatly affected the authority of the Vatican?
A. In the period you mention, I was in two realities. On the one
hand, I personally communicated with the Holy Father, and on the other
hand, I tried to read, listen to everything that was said and written
about him, how his thoughts or intentions were broadcast through the
media to the general public. And there is a big difference between one
reality and another.
The Holy Father personally as a person, as a Christian, as the Head
of the Church, is very sympathetic to Ukraine. Not only does he
understand what is going on, but he is even ready for certain
unconventional, unrelated protocols of actions and gestures in order
to stop the war. And if someone said that Pope Francis was pro-Moscow,
it would offend him personally, because sometimes such thoughts are heard about him. Like, we don't
understand you, such gestures or statements for Ukrainians look like
direct or indirect support of the aggressor.
The Holy Father is very hurt to personally perceive this type of
interpretation of his words or gestures. On the other hand, we feel
that the war in Ukraine is being waged in very different forms and on
different fronts, the information war is part of Russian aggression
and, in my opinion, the Holy See was involved by Russia in the
information war, perhaps even to the end. without realizing it, he may
not have been ready for it until the end. Here are some examples. Precisely in order to protest against
Russian aggression, literally on the second or third day the Pope personally went to the Russian ambassador, this gesture
was very unconventional, but who was the first to announce this
visit? Moscow. And, obviously, informing about it, they put their
content into this message and interpreted it in their own way. The
fact is that the Pope went to protest against the war in Ukraine,
- Was it a meeting with the ambassador to protest?
- Yes. But since there was no timely communication from the Holy See,
we were the first to learn about this gesture through the Russian
media, and it was manipulated in favour of Russia.
The second example. The Holy Father, looking for various ways to express his protest,
disagreement with Russian aggression, had a televised conversation
with Patriarch Kirill, where he clearly told him that we should be
pastors, we cannot be altar boys of power. But who was the first to
report this conversation? Patriarch Kirill. And the very fact of the
conversation was interpreted as support for the Moscow Patriarchate,
which is an absolute lie.
And the third example, for me quite eloquent. We have all heard that the Pope is ready to go to Moscow. But only
the first part of the phrase was conveyed, and the next phrase was
as follows: because he is ready to do anything to stop Russian
aggression. Instead, only the first part of the phrase was
published, and the other was silenced.
Indeed, we feel that there are some failures on the part of the Holy See on the information front, that it directly lacks a spokesperson who, in case of any doubts or misunderstandings, including various media manipulations, could refute Moscow's lies. But I think that step by step the whole truth shines in all its fullness, and this untruth will disappear like our fortune tellers, like dew in the sun.
01/06/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from the Sermon during the 16th pilgrimage to
Vyshorod
[Mary’s] eyes are now weeping over the sons and daughters of Ukraine, as in the sad year of 1155, because today we are being killed, destroyed and burned, a war is
being waged against us, which is called the "war of the scorched
earth." Maria cries over those who are forced to leave their homes,
their land, and once again goes with those whom the Russian invader
forcibly takes to Russia. We know that there are already over a
million prisoners who were forcibly removed from Ukrainian soil and
then forced to kill Ukrainian citizens with weapons in their hands,
carrying out the so-called mobilization in the occupied lands.
Today our Mother, who sees the truth and whose eyes weep with
Ukrainian mothers, sons and daughters of Ukraine, is with us. Sometimes it is so important for us in life to have someone who
understands us. When we are in pain, we look for such a person. The
son is looking for a mother, the daughter is looking for a father, the
husband is looking for his wife, the wife misses her husband, who is
defending Ukraine. How we need someone who would understand us without
words, someone who does not need to explain anything, who looks deeper
than the human eye sees! When the world does not want to understand, see and hear the pain
and cries of Ukraine, we really need the presence of the Mother of
God among us! And here, in Vyshhorod, we feel that the Blessed Virgin Mary
sees, knows and understands everything.
By a strange craft, the northern Kyiv region is today a place where
many people from all over the world see. Having visited here, on the banks of the Dnieper, foreign
presidents, prime ministers and church dignitaries – who heard about
the war in Ukraine but were blinded by Moscow propaganda – could see
mass graves and burned towns and villages, mountains of broken
Russian equipment and hear horrible testimonies of the atrocities of
the occupiers. They say that completely different people come back
from here, those who saw them - they come back sighted!
It is important that through this pilgrimage we return home to other
people, that we live by our faith, be children of light, and never
again become slaves to the darkness of sin. Let us return with hope,
with faith, with the feeling that the Lord God is with us in our pains
and sorrows and that He will lead us to victory! Let us return to
persevere and say to the world, as the first apostles once said: “What
we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked
at, and what our hands have touched, to you is eternal life, that your
joy may be full ”(1 Jn 1: 1-4). This is the meaning of the Easter
sermon of the Church.
Today we ask the Blessed Virgin Mary, the first sighted, the first,
who was not subject to original sin, to help modern humanity to see.
We ask you to help everyone see the crimes of the Russian enemy and at
the same time the heroism, strength and steadfastness of our people,
and to help us see the victory of Ukraine.
31/05/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from daily video message
Those crimes that are being committed in Ukraine today are worthy of
unanimous condemnation. Therefore, anyone who tries to justify, support or praise the actions of Russian
criminals at the international, economic or even ecclesiastical level
is in danger of being guilty of this very sin we are pondering today
(…)
God, we entrust to your hands the cities and villages of the
Ukrainian Donbass. In Your hands we entrust the life and health of the defenders of
Ukraine. In Your hands we entrust the lives of all those who found
themselves in the occupied territories and no longer hope to receive
help from anyone. God bless Ukraine!
28/05/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
[In reference to a speech in which Patriarch Kirill, of Moscow,
exalted Russian fighters in Ukraine as heroes of orthodoxy] The speaker did not clearly indicate what examples he meant, but
today - when we hear the cries and groans of crippled souls in
Ukraine, the voice of the blood of innocent murdered women, children
and men calling from earth to God - from the heart of ordinary
people a cry breaks out: God, save and preserve all people from such
an Orthodox culture!
24/05/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from the sermon on the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman
When I visited this community less than two months ago, while Kyiv
was experiencing the most difficult moments of the siege by the
Russian army, it was nice to see that life and prayer were not
interrupted here. I remember how Father Igor and I went down to the
crypts of this cathedral and prayed at the tomb of Prince Askold,
hearing the sounds of cannonade around Kyiv. We felt a sip of the
living water spoken of today in the Gospels.
On the same day, I visited the mayor of Kyiv. We talked about the
role and place of Christ's Church even during the Russian siege of the
capital. And he told me: “Today, more than bread and clothes, we need
God's word, which inspires, strengthens, eliminates fear, gives
strength to God-lovers, quenches our thirst for eternity. Who has
access to this living water is invincible."
Therefore, today, remembering our ancient 1140-year and recent
30-year history, we look to our future and pray for the victory of
Ukraine, which will finally bring peace to our long-suffering people.
We ask our Saviour: give us all a sip of this living water so that we
will not be thirsty forever, teach us here in Kyiv to worship our
Heavenly Father in Spirit and Truth!
People all over the world admire the courage and faith of Ukrainians.
I was asked: do you have any hope in Ukraine? I said we have, because
we are Christians. And today, from this source of the Kyiv Mountains, we can and
must quench the thirst for God of modern man in different parts of the
world. Together with Prince Askold and our Heroes we pray: God, great,
one, save Ukraine for us!
23/05/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
Yesterday we heard from the President of Ukraine that, unfortunately,
50 to 100 Ukrainian servicemen die at the front every day, and the
number of civilians killed is ten times higher. So, every day Ukraine receives a new heavenly hundred.
(…)
Today, Ukrainians, like no one else, see that war is a terrible crime, and
by committing it, a person loses God's image and human dignity.
23/05/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
The first on the list of other people's sins is to command to sin, to
incite to sin. We see that during the war the enemy gives many
criminal orders. He who commands another to kill, to rape, becomes a
murderer and a rapist. He who sends an army to kill people in another
country becomes personally responsible for the evil he has ordered
others to do.
21/05/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
We feel more and more that Ukraine is able to withstand this difficult,
uneven battle. We feel that the Lord God is blessing our army because we are praying for
it. He supports those who know how to love the Motherland and their loved
ones.
18/05/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from of speech to the participants of the National Conference on Health in Italy
I was in the occupied cities and saw what the Russian soldiers left behind:
now they are destroyed ghost towns, the bodies of innocent people were
scattered in the streets, we prayed at mass graves where hundreds of people
lay with their hands tied and shot heads. Among them are small children,
women, the elderly. I never thought I would see such a thing.
(…)
I am constantly in touch with our priests and bishops, who remain
faithful. Our Church, together with our Roman Catholic brothers, is a real field
hospital in these regions. We are doing everything possible to send food and drinking water
there.
(…)
One must have faith and trust completely in God, who comes to the rescue
through the solidarity of many people. I want to thank the Italian Church
for accepting many refugees. Help them learn your beautiful language, and
they will help you discover the richness of the faith of our people. We want
to share with you not only our pain, but also the richness of our hope.
16/05/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from sermon on Fourth Sunday after Easter
When I saw the mass graves in which the Russians dumped hundreds of
murdered people, the army that is advancing on us and many times
outnumbers the Ukrainian army, when we understand that Ukraine began to
fight, as David once did with Goliath, in the first and during the most
difficult moments of the war, we said to ourselves: “We have no one”.
Nobody believed that Ukraine would survive. Even our so-called Western
partners predicted that Kyiv would be taken in three days. But in three
days Christ rose from the dead. And in those days when we felt that all
of us had left, at one point Kyiv turned into a dead city. A lot of
people left. Embassies of foreign countries were evacuated, shops were
closed, even food could not be found.
Then we cried out to heaven, “We have no one, God! We need Your mercy!”
As a result, our capital turned into a great baptismal font, as in the
time of Prince Volodymyr Kyiv, where our people received new life, where
they were baptized into the death and resurrection of Christ. And at the
beginning of this war, our Kyiv became the center of resistance. The
Lord was with us.
May the merciful Lord bless all those who are waiting for God's mercy.
Because this is a story about each of us. We are all sinners who, being in
the sea of our own sin, our own weaknesses, cannot heal ourselves. We
need a person who would bring us God. Everyone who does mercy to another
person becomes a messenger of God. Every time we show mercy to the victims
of war, refugees, displaced persons, those who have lost relatives,
housing, property, and a person who feels God's mercy on himself, he says:
"God himself sent this man, God has not forgotten me".
May the feeling of God's closeness in the most difficult circumstances
of the war be for us the strength, hope, key and secret of our victory -
the victory of Ukraine.
15/05/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of daily video message
We see that the war in Ukraine has a clear ideological component. In
addition to the cities and villages of Ukraine, the enemy is destroying
the souls, not only of Ukrainians, but of people all over the world,
seducing them with lies, calling what is happening in Ukraine some
negative statements or words associated with evil in the past.
15/05/2022 (Source)
Address of the Synod of Bishops of the UGCC in Ukraine
Today we are experiencing with unspeakable pain in our hearts the
suffering of the native Ukrainian people caused by the unprovoked and
unjustified full-scale armed aggression of the Russian Federation against
Ukraine. We, the bishops of the Synod of Bishops of the UGCC in Ukraine,
in our apostolic ministry remain faithful to the words of the Gospel Truth
and to our vocation to be witnesses of hope in times of tribulation and
trials.
To fulfil a certain task on earth, the Lord gives man various gifts,
talents and opportunities, but also provides a separate mission and
mission to the chosen peoples. Just as God once chose the Israelites to
enlighten all nations, so He constantly, and even today, entrusts special
calling to different nations.
We often asked ourselves: why, Lord, did you give us the gift of
freedom, restore our independence 30 years ago, raise our Church from
the underground? And today we see, experience and begin to understand
the great mission of the Ukrainian people - descendants of Kievan Rus,
heirs of Kievan baptism, courageous rulers and defenders of the
Fatherland, followers of our martyrs Boris and Gleb, wise women,
educators and prayers - followers of Princess Olga. And this vocation in
God's providence is that in times of great turmoil and the threat of
destruction not only of Ukraine but also of many other nations, the
revived Kievan Rus rebelled and stopped the evil will of the aggressor,
albeit at a high price. The price we continue to pay today on the altar
for the liberation of our and other nations to stop the insatiable
dragon,
The vocation of our Church is to remain always with our people in order
to fulfil the mission that the Lord has prepared for us, becoming a nation of martyrs-heroes who give their lives, protecting
not only our relatives but all European nations and their freedom. The mission of our Church is to become like the Blessed Virgin
Mary, who, standing under the cross of her Son, stared at His wounds with
unspeakable sorrow in her soul and at the same time hope in her eyes. And
her hope was not in vain: on the third day Jesus rose again.
We express our sincere gratitude first of all to the Defenders of
Ukraine. Your feat has already become an example for the whole world. Your
sacrificial loyalty to your people and devotion to defending our state in
the face of the challenges of a brutal and inhumane war testify to the
depth of your love. The defender is a warrior with love in his heart: for his native
people, for his land, for his parents and children, for all those who
today need protection from the hellish force of cruelty and brutality of
the Russian aggressor. Legal protection of life is both a human right
and a duty. The innocent blood of our brothers and sisters in Bucha,
Mariupol, Irpen, Kharkiv, Chernihiv and hundreds of other Ukrainian
communities requires us to have the strength and courage to become
defenders not only of life but also of humanity itself.
Our Savior taught, "No one has greater love than he who lays down his
life for his friends" (Jn 15:13). The sincerity of your love today gives
our people hope for the revival of Ukraine, for the protection of their
freedom and dignity. Only by the power of love will we be able to achieve the final victory
of good over evil, truth over lies, human dignity over human meanness.
Our victory also requires our common faith that when we courageously and
honestly seek the Truth, defend the good, fight for justice, God is with
us! We tirelessly entrust you to his care in our fervent prayers and
supplications.
Today we address our military pastors with special words of gratitude,
fraternal support and recognition for faithful service. From the first
days of Russian aggression and throughout the following years, the
military chaplains of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church did not hesitate
to sincerely respond to God's invitation to be "close" to men and women in
military uniforms, sharing the difficulties of military service and the
challenges of everyday life. During the years of armed Russian aggression,
our chaplains have been tireless witnesses of hope, standing faithfully
side by side with Ukrainian soldiers in battle trenches, military
hospitals, rehabilitation centers, providing necessary support to their
families, preserving the memory of fallen defenders and taking care of
their families.
The full-scale invasion of the Russian army into the territory of Ukraine
coincided with the implementation of the provisions of the Law of Ukraine
"On the Military Chaplaincy Service" adopted by the Verkhovna Rada. The
law creates opportunities for effective professional organization of
pastoral ministry among the Ukrainian army. At the same time, he demands
that our pastors be of the highest level of initiation in the event of
enlistment. Taking into account the challenges and needs of today, we
appeal to the clergy of our Church in freedom of spirit and generosity of
heart not to deny the Ukrainian soldier the tangible presence of God,
which is evident in the prayer and sacrificial service of the military
chaplain. May the words of our great pastor, Metropolitan Andrei,
addressed to Ukrainian soldiers in times of trials and fierce struggle,
will be your words today to our defenders: “You who are killed every day in battle, remember to keep your heart
clean from sin, be ready to stand before the Throne of God and give up
the work of a lifetime. Fulfil your responsibilities bravely! Victory is
certain, but it is a sacred right!”
In particular, we appeal to our seminarians, encouraging them to pray and
to spiritually recognize their vocation to serve the deep inner needs of
the Ukrainian soldier in accordance with the rich and long tradition of
our Church. This ministry requires special courage, which only mature
Christian love is capable of, as a gift from our Heavenly Father, which
allows us to understand "what hope He calls us to" (Ephesians 1:18).
Families of servicemen and families of fallen defenders are waiting for a
special testimony of hope today from the military pastor. The pain of
separation, the uncertainty of the coming day, the feeling of loneliness
and helplessness in the face of irreparable loss may take a long time for
final healing. The military chaplain's mission remains to show personal
responsibility - to "be close" to those most hurt by the war. Supporting
the wounded and praying for the captives can help many Ukrainian families
today to escape the destructive power of suffering and through their own
pain, uniting with the crucified Christ and lovingly "bearing one
another's burdens", finding the way to resurrection (Gal. 6: 2).
As pastors of the Church of Christ, we feel obliged to appeal to the
Russian military, soldiers and officers who have dared to take up arms
against the Ukrainian people, killing innocents, leaving children
orphaned, depriving many people of their homes and hope for the future.
The blood of innocent Ukrainian children will testify against you in the
Lord's judgment. Before it's too late, find the courage to lay down your
arms and not carry out criminal orders. Do not allow murderous
propaganda to obscure your mind and incite unjustified cruelty: "Ye
shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (Jn 8:32).
Repent and ask God for forgiveness for your crimes against humanity, so
that He may grant you forgiveness of sins and hope for eternal life.
In the face of terrible trials for the entire Ukrainian people, we invite
our military pastors to sincerely serve those on whom the fate of our
common future now depends. Dear fathers, military chaplains, your
prayerful presence in the ranks of the Ukrainian army should become a
source of spiritual consolation and a guarantee of tireless fraternal
support. Your vocation is to show hope in the twilight of human suffering,
to be faithful followers of God, who became man, to elevate man to
participate in God's life. But we keep each one of you in our fraternal
prayers and "remember the work of your faith without ceasing, the labor of
your love, and the patience of your hope in our Lord Jesus Christ" (1
Thess. 1: 3).
The blessing of the Lord be upon you!
13/05/2022 (Source)
Excerpts of video message on the Feast of Saint George
A martyr is a witness to the Resurrection. Dying, submitting to torture
and death, a martyr shows the world that the death we experience here has
already been defeated and dismissed by Christ's Resurrection, as new life
follows it... The martyr defeats his tormentors in a unique way. Those who
crucified Christ thought that they would bury His word, His teaching, and
His power forever. However, Christ overcame death by His death and
defeated the tormentors.
He who kills a martyr thinks he is defeating the one he killed. Yet the opposite happens, because the martyr is the winner, he defeats his tormentor. And today, praising St George, we speak about two features of his victory. The first is that he exposed the wickedness of his tormentors, and the second is that he sacrificed himself. These two factors are fundamental in his victory. That's why we call him a victorious Trophy-Bearer.
Today we feel that the Great Martyr St George is fighting for Ukraine – he is on our side. Today, on Ukrainian land, with his spear, he is piercing and destroying this ancient snake that is trying to harm Ukraine. And so, the victory will be St George’s, for us.
07/05/2022 (Source)
Excerpts of speech to Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity
We know from the Russian president's statement that this war has two main
tasks: demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine. Demilitarization
means the final destruction of the Ukrainian state and its military
potential in order to achieve the next task - the so-called
denazification. And this clearly proves that Russia's main task is to destroy the Ukrainian people.
(…)
[Russian military action in Ukraine] can be called a textbook on genocide, according to which our people must be destroyed.
(…)
What happened in Ukraine is a terrible humanitarian catastrophe, as a result
of which 10 million Ukrainians were forced to leave their homes and 5
million to leave the country, and in the occupied and later liberated towns
and villages we saw such tragic phenomena as mass graves. Today these places are places of common prayer of Orthodox, Catholics,
Protestants, Jews, Muslims.
During the 70 days of the war, almost 100 churches, monasteries and
religious buildings were destroyed. In this tragedy, religious communities
have united as never before. Our All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and
Religious Organizations represents 95 percent of the religious community in
Ukraine. During the war we issued 17 different appeals. On the
night before the Russian attack, we appealed to the Russian president not to
start a war. We, the representatives of Churches and religious
organizations, have offered our mediation: if politicians and diplomats have
not been able to avert war, we have offered ourselves as mediators of
peace.
We also appealed to the religious leaders of Belarus to make every effort to
avoid the participation of Belarusian troops in the war against
Ukraine. It is worth emphasizing that the representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow
Patriarchate took an active part in the processing of these appeals and
their transmission to Russian addressees. Due to many scandalous facts,
this Church today feels marginalized and pushed out of the life of the
Ukrainian people, although most of the destroyed churches belong to this
denomination.
(…)
The first Sunday after the start of the war, Patriarch Kirill said that this
war was metaphysical in nature and a war of values, and therefore not only
justified, but had the task of defending Orthodoxy. The analysis of
such a justification for the war shows us a great danger not only for the
Russian Orthodox Church, but for Christianity as a whole, Unfortunately, the Russian Orthodox Church has become hostage to Putin's
state doctrine, which was strongly condemned by authoritative Orthodox
theologians a month ago.
(…)
The war in Ukraine poses two important challenges: first, we need to rethink
the Church's social teaching on war and peace. The second task is to
study the relationship between the Church and the state. We see a clear
need to develop new and correct terminology to describe current challenges
in these areas, and to have the courage at the ecumenical level to respond
correctly to these dangers.
06/05/2022 (Source)
Excerpts of Easter Sunday Sermon
(…)
Christ is risen!
Above the valley of tears, which today is our Ukrainian land, the cry
of victory is heard from heaven: Christ is risen! Above the burned
houses, cities and villages, heaven announces to us through its angel:
Christ is risen! Above the burning Donbass and the south of Ukraine,
where the war is going on and the positions of our soldiers are
burning, the sky announces to Ukraine and the world: Christ is
risen!
(…)
The Son of God wanted to suffer in order to touch the tears, sorrows
of man and give him joy. He wanted to lie in the tomb to give life to
all those who had long since rested there and were waiting for
Him. Easter is a celebration of the victory of life. After all, we see:
everything that invades Ukraine has already been defeated, because
Christ is risen!
Today marks the second month of Russia's bloody war against Ukraine.
During that time, a new cry of victory was born. When we want to share
the joy of stopping our enemy, we say, “Good afternoon! We are from
Ukraine!". And today we want to declare to the whole world: “Christ is
risen! We are from Ukraine!".
The very fact that we are celebrating Easter in Kyiv, in the
Patriarchal Cathedral, is a miracle of God that we could not have
hoped for sixty days ago. We see how the Resurrection of Christ
becomes the strength, hope, joy of those who defend Ukraine, fight and
pray for its victory.
(…)
The enemy-attacker thought that on the third day he would celebrate
his wicked parade of victory in Kyiv, but on the third day Christ was
resurrected. The attacker thought that he would capture Ukraine in
three days, capture what he saw, but now he is defeated by what he
missed. He overlooked the people's strength, people's resistance, the
people's will to live God's God-given freedom on God's land. That is
why we say today: Christ is risen! We are from Ukraine!
We know that this morning the wounded Odesa mourned and that our
enemy on these Easter holidays on the weapons of murder – bombs,
rockets, shells – wrote sarcastically: "Christ is risen!". And we
write these words on Easter eggs, on Easter bread, which we put in a
basket and consecrate. And we will tell everyone, including our enemy:
Christ is risen! We are from Ukraine!
As we celebrate this Passover, we ask Him to be resurrected, our
Saviour, to turn our tears of sorrow into tears of joy. Resurrect Ukraine, give us victory, give us the opportunity to
joyfully celebrate and live not only on Easter, but every day. And
today our Saviour comes to take us by the hand and bring us out of
the hell into which our enemy wants to drive us.
I read with emotion a prayer that a soldier wrote on his helmet: God,
if I am killed on the battlefield, take me to heaven, because I have
already been to hell. We say: Lord, You who bring all the dead out of
hell by the hand, You who came from the dead to give life to all, take
us by the hand and bring us into the Easter joy that descends to each
of us from heaven today.
I want to congratulate you, our army, with the triumphant cry "Christ
is risen!", because thanks to you, our dear military brothers and
sisters, we celebrate Easter in Kyiv and other cities and villages of
Ukraine. Thanks to you, your life, today we can enjoy the freedom in
Ukraine and fight for it. May the Lord God help you to complete the
high mission of protection of the Motherland, which is handed over to
your hearts and hands by your people.
Words of Easter joy and greetings are addressed to those who do not
have the opportunity to celebrate in the temple, who have nowhere to
bring their Easter baskets. Words of prayer flow to the Lord God for our faithful in the
occupied Donbass, as well as in Kherson, Berdyansk and Melitopol,
which are under occupation in southern Ukraine.
I pray for the defenders and children of Mariupol. There, in the
dungeons of Azovstal, there are children who have not seen the sun for
a month and a half ... Lord, how You entered the depths of the dungeon
and came out victorious, how You passed through the stone of the
sealed tomb, come to them, take their hand and get out the dungeon
into which they were driven by the enemy of Ukraine.
Congratulations to the wounded servicemen who are currently healing
the wounds of Ukraine that they wear on their bodies. While visiting
them, I did not see a single sad face. They asked: pray that we get
better as soon as possible. May this Passover prayer be a separate,
strongest remedy for their wounds and enable them to return to full
physical and spiritual health as soon as possible.
I say special prayers for those who have been forced to leave their
homes and share the bitter fate of a refugee or even an emigrant.
Today, about ten million Ukrainians do not have the opportunity to sit
down for Easter breakfast. May our support, our prayer, our warmth
flow to them. Wherever we are, let us open our hearts to our brothers
and sisters who are on the road, let us serve them all we can.
24/04/2022 (Source)
Excerpts of Good Friday Sermon
(…)
Hearing this word of God about the suffering of God in man, about the
death of the Son of God in the human body, I think before the eyes of
each of us appear pictures of the Ukrainian Golgotha. We are being killed today, and Christ himself is being killed in us.
In the wounds of Christ we see the wounded, mutilated bodies of the sons
and daughters of Ukraine. In His suffering we see the grief of
corpses, the rivers of blood and the sea of tears that flood our once
flourishing cities and villages. In this funeral procession with the
shroud around our cathedral we see the lifeless bodies of our soldiers,
whom our cities and villages meet on their knees. In this tomb of the
Savior we see the mass graves of Bucha and Borodyanka. We still see
the bodies of Ukraine's daughters and sons being found in Chernihiv, and
the enemy continues to kill Ukrainians in the martyr city of Mariupol.
But today the word of God tells us that Christ's wounds are healing for
us. Therefore, He wanted to be wounded to touch our wounds with His
wounds. He wanted to be unjustly condemned in order to set us free
and break the debt obligations that the devil had written down as our
death sentence. Today, the Son of God lies in the grave next to the
tortured, shot sons and daughters of Ukraine, in order to give life to
those in the graves.
On Easter Friday, we honor the Savior's life-giving death because we know
that by giving the Spirit on the cross into the hands of the Father, we
wanted to give it [the Spirit] to man so that he could find the rest of life
again. Today we heard the words of Christ on the cross: “My God, my God! Why have you forsaken me? (Mark
15:34). He made his cry the cries of hundreds of thousands of people
who have not yet been rescued from the rubble and who have been calling
for the rest, asking for help. However, the occupiers did not allow
to save those people. And we are just discovering their lifeless
bodies today… How horrible their death was!
However, by placing our Christ in the tomb, we know that He will not stay
there long, but will rise on the third day, and with His death comes the
hope of resurrection. We know that He is going to hell today to lead
all the dead by the hand and bring them to Heavenly Father's house, where
there is "neither sickness nor sorrow, but there is life without
end." On this Easter Friday of this tragic year, when Ukraine is going through
its Golgotha, we kiss the wounds of Christ and ask: Lord, save, heal,
revive us! We know that You will rise from the tomb that will be
sealed today, and Your resurrection will be the joy and victory of
Ukraine. This is what You told us in the words to Your disciples at the Last
Supper: “You will weep, weep, and the world will rejoice. You will
grieve, but your sorrow will turn into joy ”(Jn 16:19). We know that
from the moment of Your burial, everything begins to change.
Lord, turn our sorrow into joy by the power of Your passion and Your
Resurrection! Turn the tears of Ukraine into joyful singing that will glorify life in
You! Today, under Your cross, Your Church sings: "Let us worship Your
passions, Christ, and look forward to glorifying Yours on the third day of
the Resurrection." Amen.
22/04/2022 (Source)
Full sermon on Easter Thursday
Good Thursday during the war. These days
we have heard many times how people of all ages, believers and
non-believers, scientists and scholars alike, have asked you, dear
fathers: where is God when bombs fall on us? Where is God when we are
killed? Where is God when our houses are burned, our cities and villages
are destroyed? Where is God when the weakest are mocked? Where is God when
man dies? Each of you has tried to answer these questions by listening to God's
word, looking for some thought and answer in Scripture. I believe that today we have a unique moment to hear what Christ himself
will answer us.
It so happens that when a person suffers, when he is wounded, when his world, his life is
broken, then the deepest secrets of his heart are revealed. When difficult or tragic times or circumstances come, all false images
that a person has invented about himself and believed in are broken. When
a person suffers, the depth of the human being is revealed.
Having taken on the abyss of human patience, Christ enters into his
passions. He himself becomes a suffering man – he becomes the one who was
sold by the nearest disciple for thirty pieces of silver, whom society
rejected and unjustly sentenced to crucifixion. The Saviour Himself wants
to die and lie in the grave. In His crucified, torn body we see, on the one hand, the depth of man's cry
for God, and on the other, the mystery of God himself.
Today we sat down with Jesus Christ for the Last Supper. We have all seen her gestures more than once, we repeated them ourselves.
Let's listen to them again today, let's look at them.
The first gesture of the Eucharistic meal is broken bread, which
symbolizes a broken life, a wounded human body. When we break bread, we see all its entrails: freshness, mold or
staleness. The Savior shows Himself present in the flesh just on the brink
of broken human life. When one asks today where God is, Christ Himself
says that is where there is the most human pain and suffering. Where the
greatest wound is, the Eucharistic bread of His Last Supper is most deeply
broken.
The Divine Master today gives his disciples a cup of his
blood. This bowl is another deep gesture. To drink a common cup is to become
something one, with two one body, life, and it also means to accept
something that you have invented and chosen for yourself. He will pray for
this cup before his passions in the Garden of Gethsemane, saying: "Father,
if you want, give this cup away from Me, but let it be not mine, but yours."
(Luke 22:42). Christ drinks the cup of human suffering, torment and death. This means
that He shows the fullness of the Divine life where man thinks that there
is no God: in the cup of suffering man receives an open space of living
communion with God, access to participation in His divinity. When we ask,
God, where are You, let us hear His voice in the midst of war: I am
here!
We humans need to see, feel His presence. God is where man cries and suffers. That is why today in Ukraine he is
being sold again, crucified, killed and thrown into mass, mass graves,
which became a great tragedy of the war. He is in his broken bread and
with his wounded people.
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Establishment of the Priesthood of
Christ. The possibility of God's presence in the midst of the greatest pain,
wounds, suffering, and humiliation reveals to us the meaning and purpose of
the vocation to the priesthood. Because every priest asks: where am I
called, up or down, right or left? We see that Christ is calling us as
deeply, low and far as this world humiliates, wounds and kills man.
The gesture of washing our feet reveals to us the meaning of the priestly ministry. God leans over a wounded, bewildered man. He himself wants to touch her wounds and heal her with his wounds. Therefore, we participate in the priesthood not of man, but of God himself, who is eternal. The wounds will heal, by the power of the grace of the Holy Spirit the war will end ... God forbid that we all deeply experience the conditions of the answer to the question: what does it mean to be a priest for the Ukrainian people during its Calvary?
I returned from Chernihiv yesterday. I saw
the wounds of this ancient Ukrainian city. He had the opportunity to
embrace our fathers, monks, who bow there over the wounds of their people.
He could embrace those who gather their sheep in the midst of
destruction.
He also visited our heroic Slavutych, which is located twelve
kilometers from the Belarusian border. The ministry of our brother there is a perfect and true image of the
priest of Christ of the third millennium, who showed people God, did not
leave them in difficult times. Asked where God was when the bombs fell,
they felt that if their priest was next to them, so was God.
Therefore, today it was worthy and righteous for me, dear fathers, to
kneel and wash your feet. You have experienced the horrors of war in the bosom of our Kyiv
Archdiocese, starting from here, from the Patriarchal Cathedral and its
crypts, where we warmed, treated and fed hundreds of people who believed
that the Church would save them when the bombs fell. Thank you for that!
It was worthy and righteous for me today to kneel before you, the
fathers who went to serve the Divine Liturgy in the metro. Apparently, in the thousand-year history of Kyiv, this has never happened
before. You shared your experiences with me, in particular, how much
people felt the light of hope, that they are not alone in their grief.
It was dignified and just for me to kneel and wash the feet of those
fathers who washed the feet of their fellows who had to temporarily
leave the burning cities. You opened your home to them when they were on the road empty-handed, you
fed them, received them, washed their feet in the way they needed.
It was worthy and just to wash your feet today, fathers, who have shown
that the Church is with her people, that she not only speaks of good,
but also does it. For it is in your hands that Christ has today healed the wounds of the
people. This holy anointing, which we consecrated here in the Patriarchal
Cathedral, will spread to all the cells of our church body: from Kyiv to
Australia, South and North America and Europe, wherever the war has
scattered our people.
It is through your priestly ministry that the motto of our Patriarchal
Council is being carried out today: "Your Church is always and everywhere
with you." Always and everywhere – whether you are in a safe Western
Europe, or in burning Kharkiv, or in wounded Chernihiv, or in occupied
Kherson. Blessed is the priest who never feels unemployed and whose eternal seal of
the priesthood encourages him to work, pray and sacrifice for his
people.
Congratulations to you, Fathers, on this great holiday, on behalf of all
your Church as its Head. I bow my head before the episcopate, the clergy, the deacons, the
seminarians for the heroic testimony of God's service to the Ukrainian
people, which you are doing in these tragic times.
Blessed are the people who have such priests and feel that the power of
God is revealed to us in its fullness precisely when we need it most, when
we feel most wounded, abandoned and powerless. His strength is manifested in our suffering and helplessness. I think this
is the word of the Holy Eucharist that Christ gives us at the Last Supper
today, this Holy Thursday.
May the Lord God bless you all! Thank you also to your wives, families, because you are not alone under
the bombs. Thank you to all who pray for their priests and bishops.
I ask all our faithful to congratulate their priests on this
day. On Holy Thursday, make them feel that you need, respect, love and support
them. Then we will truly have the courage to enter into these passions with
Christ, not to run away from them.
The Apostle Paul tells us not to be ashamed of Christ
crucified. Why? Because it is in Him that we have our strength and victory. It is He
who will lead us to the Resurrection.
Today we experience passions as the Church and the people. The passions are followed by the feast of Easter, which will be our
victory in the war. May our Lord and Saviour lead us to victory! Amen.
21/04/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
Who knows, maybe this Easter you and I will sing for the last time
"Christ is risen!"... And as if preparing for the Easter holidays for the
last time, let's be vigilant, let's be careful. After all, to hear means to be vigilant to the purity of your
heart. Those who have not yet begun Confession or Communion, hurry to the
Sacraments of God. For blessed is he whom the Lord will find insomniac,
and unworthy is he whom he finds sleepy.
19/04/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from Palm Sunday sermon
Today is a holiday of victory, strength and immortality. We feel this especially in Ukraine during the war. Because war is a
trap of death. How important it is for us not to be accustomed to tears, grief and
death! In the midst of the darkness, the despair of war, today our Lord Jesus Christ triumphantly enters Kyiv, Ukraine, as he
once entered Jerusalem. He will come now, during the Divine Liturgy, to give us the opportunity
to partake of His holiness, power and immortality.
We feel that Ukraine will win not only by human efforts, although they
are also needed. We feel that there is a God in our struggle with us! He
supports us and our enemy is already afraid of us. We saw the harbinger
of victory here, in our Patriarchal Cathedral, in the first days of the
war. When the officers of our territorial defence caught the first
saboteurs, powerful Russian paratroopers, they told me: "We will win,
because we saw fear in their eyes!".
Christ comes to eliminate our fear of the enemy, his various armies and
weapons, and to give us his strength. We see that we stop being afraid. We
feel the foretaste of victory in the Easter procession of Christ himself,
who goes to voluntary suffering, will be sentenced to death, crucified and
buried, but by his own power will overcome death and rise from the grave
on the third day.
It is tragic that many cities in Ukraine are now surrounded by deadly
enemy troops and we cannot go to them to bring our people the
long-awaited life-giving help. Today we especially pray for our
Mariupol. So many efforts have already been made, including
international ones, to open a humanitarian corridor to bring relief,
life and salvation to its heroic defenders. Today we ask: Lord, where we, the people, cannot enter our brothers and
sisters in the occupied territories, where we cannot open the green
humanitarian corridors, enter. Strengthen the heroic defenders of Mariupol with your strength and
victory. Comfort our people in Kherson and in other territories, which
today need Your presence and strength so much.
Today we greet Christ the Conqueror with our green branches and ask: To
fill each of us with Easter joy with your victory over sin and death. We
open our lives to You today. We spread the clothes that cover our plans
and that symbolize only our human confidence in this uncertain time. After
all, we know that You will cover us with Your power, victory and glory.
Today Ukraine greets its tsar, the only one to whom it sings: "Hosanna in
the highest!".
May God's blessing descend on each of us! May the power of God enter the heart of everyone who fights for the
victory of Ukraine! May God's holiness become the way of life and
existence of every Ukrainian, because this holiness will overcome the
evil and sin that the enemy brings to our land! May the power of the
Resurrection, to which we are heading, defeat the deadly enemy who came
to sow death, so that in just a few days we may welcome here, in our
Patriarchal Cathedral, the Resurrection of Christ, the Risen Christ, who
will finally show all victory over life and death. Amen.
17/04/2022 (Source)
Easter greetings to Catholics who follow the Gregorian calendar
To be a Christian means to believe in the Risen One. To be a Christian
means to be a partaker of His Resurrection, to be a bearer of His joy and
light. Today Ukraine is sad, but it celebrates Easter. Many people from all over the world ask me: do you have hope there in
Ukraine? I say: Obviously so, because we believe in the Resurrection.
Congratulations to all of you on this great holiday of hope! Christ
overcame death by death and gave life to those in the tombs. This
victory of the Risen One is and will be the victory of Ukraine. Happy holidays to you, God's blessing to your families, to our beloved
Motherland! Christ is Risen!”
17/04/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
I want to thank all the journalists who are coming to Ukraine these days
to show the world the cruel, difficult truth about the crimes of Russians
on our land. Many of them were killed and wounded. May God pay a hundredfold to
all media workers who help modern man to know the truth and then follow
it.
Today I especially want to thank all the witnesses of Russian crimes who
have the courage to testify and speak about it.
God bless Ukraine! Bless the prophets of our time who speak to the
conscience of modern man and reveal to him the eternal truth about God
present among us. God, bless Ukraine, which lives and dies for God's truth
today!
15/04/2022 (Source)
On Ukrainian Radio, speaking about reconciliation
Today, during the active phase of this unjust war, especially when we
are all waiting for another offensive by Russian troops on Ukraine, such
things are impossible in principle. After all, to put up with it, you need to be alive. When the active
phase of such a deadly war continues, it is untimely to talk about
it. They must first stop killing us – only then can we talk about the next
step.
And the next step, obviously, should be to convict the offender and
establish justice. All crimes against humanity committed in Ukraine must
be condemned by an international tribunal. Today we qualify them as
genocide. Therefore, until the criminal is exposed and his crime is condemned, it is
untimely to talk about some next step.
When the Russian aggressor is convicted, the next step may be the
beginning of a process of reconciliation. And it will be a long process.
Because the process of reconciliation means healing wounds. And without
sensitivity to the victim of this unjust aggression, we have no right,
on the Christian side, to speak of reconciliation.
15/04/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
Today we see how stolen property from Ukrainians is traded in Russia and
Belarus. I want to remind everyone that the one who buys what is stolen or
looted is an accomplice to the crime. The stolen thing becomes coal in
the hands of the one who holds it, and burns those hands. Such a people,
such people are thieves, will never have God's blessing and will die in
poverty.
We saw how the occupiers around Kyiv, in Chernihiv region, prepared
people for famine, did not give them the opportunity to work, forbade them
to go to the fields that were mined, and just cynically killed livestock.
We have seen the war crimes of looting, blatant robbery, when all property
was taken from killed and wounded Ukrainians, when a person's life was
less valuable in the eyes of the occupiers than what they could steal from
this person.
We ask the Lord God to bless Ukraine with prosperity and wealth, to give
us the strength to rebuild everything destroyed, to give us the strength
to feed the children of our people, to give us the strength to work on our
land, which is ready to give us generous fruit. With our strength,
vitality, respect for other people's property, we want to win our victory
as well.
God bless Ukraine. Bless all those who know how to respect others and
have their own. God bless our army, which protects the life and well-being
of Ukraine. God bless Ukraine as the breadbasket of Europe, as the
spiritual treasure of the whole world
14/04/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
We are now exposing the heinous crimes of sexual violence as a weapon
against civilians, innocent people. Hundreds of cases of rape of women,
men and children ... Yesterday our President told about a case of rape
of a baby. We ask ourselves: God, how can we remain human in the midst
of that hell?
During the war, we see that sexuality is not used for love, but for
war. Who would have imagined that sexuality could be turned into a weapon of
humiliation of another, weaker person and an instrument of violence. We understand that only by God's power we can prevent distortion of
our human way of communication and life.
God bless our men and women. Bless our spouses. Bless those who, even during the war, cultivate marital love, fidelity,
inseparability of married life. Bless all those who are not afraid to have children even during the
war. Lord, save all those who turn the gift of your sexuality into an
instrument of war and sexual violence. God, save Ukraine from sin, from
hatred towards those who despise us. Give us the strength to love. God,
bless our army, bless our heroic Ukrainian people.
13/04/2022 (Source)
On the proposal of having a Russian and a Ukrainian woman carry the
cross together, on the 12th Station of the Way of the
Cross in Rome
I consider such an idea untimely, ambiguous and such that it does not
take into account the context of Russia's military aggression against
Ukraine. For the Greek Catholics of Ukraine, the texts and gestures of
the XIII station of this Way of the Cross are incomprehensible and even
offensive, especially in the context of the expected second, even
bloodier attack of Russian troops on our cities and villages. I know
that our Roman Catholic brothers share these thoughts and
experiences.
12/04/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
Speaking with people here in the Kyiv region, one can feel that many people, many men in even territorial defence, are afraid that victory over the enemy will come without their participation, and after the liberation of the Kyiv region and the Chernihiv region, they are begging, begging to go where there are battles.
In our military enlistment offices there are queues of people wishing to
defend their homeland. The people stood up to defend their homeland.
11/04/2022 (Source)
Statements during interview with Espresso TV
Looking at the atrocities they committed in Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy and how
they treated churches. Moscow Patriarchate in this area,
we cannot call them Christians.
(…)
I do not want to judge or evaluate anyone, but if the actions testify to
a person's faith, then we do not recognize the Christian position by the
actions of the occupiers.
(…)
For us,
the real truce will be the victory of Ukraine, when we get rid of the
occupier. We pray and think about it, we live and serve for it. I believe that
such a victory and such a peace, a just peace, will come,
11/04/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
During that prayer I asked myself, I asked God, ‘God, what does it mean to love You and love one’s neighbour?’ Standing at this mass grave, seeing the lifeless arms of our murdered brothers and sisters, I realized an important thing. To love one's neighbour means to be bound together with them - to feel that we are human, belonging to the same human race. And there, where he or she lies resting in the mass grave, I can rest there as well. We have a common vocation, a common fate. As brothers and sisters in Christ, we belong to the same human race.
But let us love God, who is the source of life, not death. We ask our
loving God that we may truly feel our oneness with our brothers and
sisters, even to learn to love our enemies. And to love the enemy means to stop
his murderous hand, to take away his weapons, not to give him the
opportunity to kill. Let us ask, that in the circumstances of hatred and
murder, we know how to love God and our neighbour, and remain human.
08/04/2022 (Source)
Words spoken during visit to Irpin, Bucha and Hostomel
It’s very difficult to even speak. Their blood cries out from this place,
from this earth, to heaven. And a Christian heart, a good ear, must hear that blood’s cry. Why has this
happened? For what? It’s clear that these are young people, whose lives
were taken. We came here to pray for their eternal peace.
07/04/2022
Sermon on Feast of Annunciation
War is bad news, the worst thing that can happen to a person, to a
country, to a nation, to the whole world.
Is it possible to celebrate the Annunciation, surrounded by bad news
about the war? If so, what does that mean for us? At this time, when the enemy has trod on our land and made us cry, God
is saying "rejoice"! Is that possible?
Rejoice, - not because you already have a human solution to resolving grief, but because God himself is embodied in your history, even in your grief and in your weeping. Today in Ukraine, God weeps with us in order to take away our weeping, and to share with us his ultimate eternal joy.
(…)
We saw how the enemy army began pressing on to Kyiv, and it is as if
nature itself had begun to fight against them. The Ukrainian land
itself, the rivers of Ukraine, and even the radiation in the Chornobyl
zone... The power of Most-High is strangely manifest in the struggle of
Ukraine, which is fighting against evil
07/04/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
Yesterday we learned that Russia brought mobile crematorium trucks – together with its artillery, missiles and heavy weapons – to Mariupol, where throughout the day and night, they burn the innocent
civilians killed.
Only during World War II in Majdanek, Auschwitz, and other famous Nazi
concentration camps, has Europe witnessed this type of crematorium near
civilian cities. The smoke of crematoria again rises to heaven from the
Ukrainian land.
07/04/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
Today in Ukraine, the sin of Cain is being committed. The innocent blood of Abel is crying out from the Ukrainian land to the heavens. Today the Lord is crying out to our murderers, to the Cains of the third millennium, saying: “What have you done? The blood of your brother is crying out to me from the earth.”
I call upon the whole world to hear the voice of blood crying out from the
Ukrainian lands to the heavens, the voice of the blood of those innocently
killed civilians, women, children, and elderly.
We believe that the Lord God will receive these innocent victims as a
sacrifice of redemption for our sins and so that there might be peace in
our homeland. These tens of thousands of innocently killed people will one
day stand at the Last Judgement as witnesses and accusers of our
murderers.
02/04/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
We see that the struggle of Ukraine, the struggle of the Ukrainian people against the Russian aggressor, has all the hallmarks of a spiritual struggle. Every great war is accompanied by a great lie. And it is done in the same way to capture, imprison, occupy our minds and our hearts, and to paralyze our will.
Spiritual struggle is characterized by the fact that the devil, first of
all, tries to instil in us his thoughts in various ways, his propaganda,
his intimidation. Then, the next stage, a person begins to dialogue with
that sinful proposition, with that sinful suggestion. And from this begins
the struggle within our minds, our hearts, the street battles within the
human person with the evil that is trying to capture us. And then, if we
continue to succumb, then comes the consent of our will to evil, and comes
the internal, sinful occupation, enslavement, passion, sin.
In order to win this internal struggle, first of all, one must realize
that one cannot have a dialogue with sin, with the devil. It must be
rejected and conquered, as Pope Francis recently proclaimed in Sunday’s
catechesis. In order to resist hostile ideology, in order to expel the devil, first
of all from our minds, hearts, then from our homes and from our land, we
must first be aware of the lie. And so we must resist, with all our
strength and will. And then will come the eradication, liberation, then
there will come freedom.
Today, in particular, in the days of Lent, I call on all to wage an
internal spiritual struggle with the devil and his servants. If you feel
that certain news that you read or see on television is news that tries to
captivate your mind, will, or feelings, trying to become the inner
occupier of your person, know that this propaganda is a suggestion of
evil. And then let us resist. It is so important to realize that we can
overcome, not by our own strength, but by the power and grace of the Holy
Spirit.
01/04/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from video-conference with the Pontifical Oriental Institute
In Russian-controlled territories, our compatriots have their passports
confiscated, issued temporary documents, and sent to Sakhalin Island in
Russia's Far East, as far as Japan's coast, without the right to leave
for the next two years. This reminds us of the deportations of Josef
Stalin.
(…)
Russian bombs are constantly being planted in this city. In one month of the war, 1,300 missiles were shot at Ukraine (30 were
dropped on Syria in 11 years of the war), and 200,000 Russian soldiers entered Ukraine.
31/03/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
More and more we begin to feel the immediate consequences of this war. A
war that leads to mass murder. We see how the enemy ruthlessly destroys
our cities and villages, executes peaceful civilians, has regard neither
for the spiritual nor the cultural heritage of the Ukrainian people.
We are just beginning to see more profoundly the consequences of this
war. War always brings destruction. Whole cities and villages have turned
into ghost towns. Where there was once a flourishing intellectual,
spiritual, and civic life, today there are fires and blustering wind. War
always brings hunger, impoverishment of the people. You and I must be
ready to overcome these consequences in one way or another.
(…)
Everyone is looking for reasons: How is it so? Where does the strength of
Ukrainians come from? Why do they give their lives so courageously?
We can say this today: Ukraine is defending the truth, fighting for the truth. She fights for
the fact that human life has its dignity, it is priceless. And just to
destroy it or make it a tool, a hostage in the politics of certain
political criminals is unacceptable.
30/03/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
Do not be afraid to do good! Do not let the devil intimidate you, lead you astray from the path of
Christian and universal righteousness! Today, Russia is threatening all those who want to do good to Ukraine.
Do not be afraid! Do not be afraid to do good! Do not be afraid to be in
solidarity with those who are suffering! Since good has its power and always wins. Let us combat the fear of
the devil and it will leave us.
(…)
However, Ukraine is standing. Ukraine is struggling. Even more, the
Ukrainian army is liberating our cities and villages, and our people amaze the whole world with their courage and ability to
fight. We really feel that this war is a patriotic war, although
senseless and undesirable one. But we are protecting and defending our people and Homeland
29/03/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
Everyone who respects God's commandment "Thou shalt not steal" yet sees
the Russian occupier looting today, robbing ordinary people, taking away
the last things and dooming people to starvation, must side with
Ukraine. Everyone who respects God's commandment "Thou shalt not covet thy
neighbour's wife" and sees this occupier humiliating and raping the women
of Ukraine in the eyes of their children cannot stay neutral but must side
with Ukraine.
(…)
Make your choice! Take the side of an innocent victim of the unjust aggression, not
someone who has conceived of imposing their rules on Ukraine and the
whole world and is threatening with the Third World War!
28/03/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
We used to talk so much about unity – about church unity, national unity, even political unity – about unity, as if it were some kind of dream. And today, this dream has become a reality. We see how the country is united in the goal of defeating the enemy that is pounding Ukrainian soil. We see that everyone feels the mandate of his own conscience, to stand, endure, and be victorious.
When we say ‘our country’, we mean all of the inhabitants of Ukraine,
regardless of their national, ethnic, church, or religious affiliation,
or even if they live within the borders of Ukraine, or beyond them. We feel that victory is a joint effort. And in this
national unity we sense a foretaste of victory
27/3/2022 (Source)
Sermon during prayer service
(...)
Ukraine's victory is the victory of good over evil, the power of God over
the cruelty and lust of the invader. Victory is already beginning,
and we can feel it, experience it, even during this prayer.
A special tradition of such prayer is preserved in Kyiv. Apparently,
everyone knows the ancient princely belief about the Kyiv Oranta, which is
also called the Indestructible Wall. Our Lady of Oranta is an ancient
mosaic of the 11th century, which depicts the Blessed Virgin Mary in full
length with her hands raised in prayer. It is an icon of the prayer
of intercession. As long as the Kyiv Oranta stands, as long as the
Immovable Wall is between us, God is in the middle of his city, as it is
written in the apse of St. Sophia Cathedral, as long as the city stands,
the people and Ukraine stand.
We feel that the Blessed Virgin Mary stands today in prayer over Kyiv and
the mountains of Kyiv, and it is in this prayer that we join
her. Before Her eyes, which have been looking at us from eternity,
various events in history have taken place. We know that during the
destruction of Kyiv during the invasion of Khan Batu, the whole city was
destroyed, but Oranta in Hagia Sophia remained as a living unconquered
root, the core from which everything is reborn. She saw the invasion
of the city of Moscow princes, communist invaders Vorobyov and many
others, but always incessantly raised his hands in prayer over his
people.
By joining the Immovable Wall in this prayer, we prepare for a special
event to be held on Friday. According to the petitions of the Blessed
Virgin Mary, which she proclaimed in the early twentieth century in
Fatima, Pope Francis together with the bishops of the Catholic Church
around the world will dedicate Ukraine and Russia to the Immaculate Heart
of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Mother of God asked to pray for the conversion of Russia, because
otherwise the evil that will come out of it will destroy other
countries. Earlier it was said that we should not talk about the
Fatima revelation, so as not to offend Russia, but now the Holy Father
wanted to pay attention to this request of the Virgin for consecration
to defeat the evil that comes to our lands from that part of the world
and Europe.
Dedication of Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary is something we
know. At one time, Prince Yaroslav the Wise, having built the
Cathedral of St. Sophia and created a mosaic of the Immovable Wall,
dedicated his city, his people and his State to the protection of the
Blessed Virgin Mary. And when the war in eastern Ukraine began, on
April 6, 2014, we restored this dedication of our people and State to the
protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the enemy was stopped by the
power of God's truth and His light. We believe that this dedication of Ukraine and Russia to the Immaculate
Heart of Mary, carried out in the unity of all bishops of the Ecumenical
Church under the leadership of the successor of the Apostle Peter, will
be the highlight of victory over evil, the devil and his servants.
May this evil be defeated in the north, south, west and east of
Ukraine. We know that the Immaculate Heart of Mary is a symbol of Her holy
and pure will, which she showed when she said "yes" to the Archangel
Gabriel. " Let it be to me according to your word " (Luke
1:38). At that moment, the Blessed Virgin Mary crushed the head of the devil,
an apocalyptic beast that is raging again, attacking Ukraine from
Russia.
May this dedication be the moment when the head of this serpent, by the
power of prayer of the Mother of God herself, the Immovable Wall of Kyiv,
will be raised again in Ukraine! We believe in this and we pray for
it. We say: "Holy Mother of God, save us!"
24/03/2022 (Source)
Words spoken during consecration of Ukraine to Mary
Each of you will tell your children, grandchildren and
great-grandchildren that it was a moment of victory; the moment, when
we put the destiny of Ukraine into the hands of the Blessed Virgin
Mary
(…)
Russia was entrusted to the Immaculate Heart of Mary because the Mother of God asked for this act to be made, since from that land evil would spread throughout the world and destroy nations, bring suffering to people. We are praying for our enemies so that the Lord stops their murderous hand. And here, in Zarvanytsia, in communion with the Holy Father, we entrusted our Ukraine to the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Her Immaculate Heart, because we know that today She, the Mother of God, is with Ukraine, with our suffering people. Today, our destiny is in safe mother’s hands
25/3/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
The Ukrainian fight, the war in Ukraine, poses deep moral questions before the world, which say that one can never call evil good, and good evil. Therefore, we say that today the war of Russia against Ukraine has a great spiritual dimension. It is a great opposition of the newest manifestation of good – the God's truth, and evil – the devil and his angels.
(…)
It is never possible to reach an agreement, to cooperate with this evil that is coming out of Russia today. And that is why we must pray for its conversion, for the eradication of that evil, so that it, as the Mother of Fatima said, does not destroy other states, does not become the cause of another world war. As Christians, we have a duty to pray for our enemies
25/3/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
Today, I especially want to address Ukraine and the world, all statesmen of the world’s nations, to the leaders of religious communities, churches, denominations. The greatest pain of Ukraine is the city of Mariupol.
Remember, a few weeks ago we said that we were struck by these mass
graves of civilians, which we saw for the first time since World War II
and Stalin’s repressions. So, today I want to tell you that the city of Mariupol is covered with the
lifeless bodies of hundreds, thousands of people who have no one to bury
them.
So today I want to raise my voice in the name of this heroic, dying city:
Let us save it! Let us defend life! Today, this city needs humanitarian
corridors. It needs even the international community to help break through
the siege and bring humanitarian goods, which we have, to those who are
slowly dying of hunger today.
Last week, these people survived on snow that was melting and could
thereby have drinking water. Today there is no more snow in Mariupol. Let us save this City of Mary! Let us do everything to save this
city, which really is today a place of clash of good and evil, a place
where the fate of Ukraine, Europe, and the world is decided.
24/3/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
Today I would like to express my special thanks for a very unique event
that took place on Monday, literally the day before yesterday, in
Jerusalem. At the initiative of the international Elijah Interfaith Institute, an
international, interfaith, inter-church prayer for peace and victory of
Ukraine in this war took place in front of the Cathedral of the Russian
Orthodox Church in Jerusalem. The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, His Beatitude Pizzaballa, personally
took part in this prayer. Representatives of the Melchite Greek Catholic
Church, various Protestant, Anglican, and other communities,
intellectuals, leaders, religious figures of the Jewish community, Islamic
thinkers, and religious leaders took part. I would like to thank you very
much for the fact that this prayer took place and a corresponding
declaration for an end to the war in Ukraine was signed.
(…)
Let us pray together. Let us pray before the cathedrals of the Russian Orthodox Church
throughout the world for peace in Ukraine. We shall see that the Lord God will hear our prayers and this war will
be won. May the Lord God bless all of us.
23/3/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
In the temporarily occupied territories real crimes against humanity are being committed. We receive daily news about humanitarian catastrophes, murders, looting, rape. But even there, in the south of Ukraine, peaceful people are protesting against the occupying power – people are protesting against rapists and murderers. People show that Kherson and other occupied cities are Ukraine. They want to live in an independent Ukrainian free state.
21/03/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from the Sermon on the Second Sunday of Lent
This word about God's mercy, about God's movement towards man,
sounds especially in our ears during the war. Because war is a
time of cruelty. This is a time when charity seems
empty. During the war, the word about hatred and anger is more
understandable, that the enemy must be destroyed in order for him to
leave our land. Indeed, when the enemy comes to kill us, there
is no other way to stop him than to act with the same military force
to repel the murderous hand of the assailant. But in this great tribulation, when God's mercy seems to be a
distant or naive Christian belief, we now feel the full force of God's
word, which "breaks" into the space of hatred and death, sown with
sin.
Today we ask: God, have mercy on Ukraine! On the one hand, we are now asking
the world to close the skies over us with deadly Russian missiles
and bombs, but on the other hand, we, as Christians, must ask God to
open the skies over Ukraine for God's mercy.
In order to win, you need to believe – we realize that. Because
faith gives strength. We must believe in God, who is able to
overcome our paralysis, which does not allow our body, in particular
state or national, to act effectively and resist external
aggression.
We need the closeness and mercy of the Lord God. God's mercy
heals, and war is always wounds, mutilation, and suffering. That
is why this Sunday the Church proclaims the good news that God is
coming to us even as we experience pain, rift, and death. He sees
our suffering and has mercy on us.
Today, every Ukrainian must accept God's mercy. Because we are
now in danger of death. We do not know what will happen to us in
a minute, what a deadly face of war we will see, even after leaving
this temple. That is why it is so important, according to the
traditional teaching of the Church, that we live in God's grace, be
reconciled to God, have no grave sin on our conscience, and be ready
to die at any moment. We must hurry to confession.
(…)
May God's mercy be the strength of Ukraine. May God's mercy,
which unites us with God, give us the inner living, healthy strength
to overcome. May God's mercy heal the wounds of Ukraine
inflicted on us today by the enemy. Let these words: "I say to you: Arise, take up your bed and go
to your home" (Mark 2:11) – be the words of God that will give us the
victory of Ukraine: take yours, get up and be at home, in your
homeland, God to you, this Ukrainian land!
20/03/2022
Daily video message
Do not close up to the pain of Ukraine! Because one day the Lord God will tell you: I was wounded in Ukraine, and you
turned your face away from me.
19/03/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
Today it is 17 March 2022 here and we are experiencing already the
twenty-second day of war. We are beginning the fourth week of this great
horrible and unjust aggression against Ukraine. But every morning I am
able to tell you that Ukraine is standing, Ukraine is fighting. As our
national anthem states, “Ukraine’s glory and freedom has not perished!
Still upon us, O Ukrainians, fate shall smile!” But when we speak of our homeland, our Ukraine, which is standing, which is
fighting, I see before my eyes the image of a woman.
A woman as a symbol of Ukraine. A woman who bears the unbearable burden
of war, who amid the grief of death keeps vigil over life.
A woman who builds and defends the future. Every day when we talk to people who come to our parishes, especially
in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa, we see first of all women.
Women who care for the elderly and feed their children. When we care for
our people who are hiding in bomb shelters, we see first of all women. The
woman is today the symbol of the strength and courage of Ukraine. Perhaps
it seems odd: courage and woman. It used to be that courage was always
associated with a man, but here we see the female strength that gives
Ukraine hope.
Today we especially give thanks and pray for our girls, our women in the
Armed Forces of Ukraine who today with arms in hand defend their homeland.
Today we especially empathize, we especially think about and pray for the
women who are victims of this war in occupied territories. In our villages in the Kyiv region, women are becoming the first
victims of the occupation, victims of violence, victims of humiliation,
victims of rape. A image has circulated throughout the world of the
so-called “Kyivan Madonna,” a young woman who is breastfeeding her
newborn child on the steps of a bomb-shelter in Kyiv. But we behold today the face of women who are forced to flee her
homeland with her children and travel abroad. Today we hear about more
than three million refugees. Until this time Europe, especially Italy, has
seen women who travelled for work.
The Holy Father called them heroines who once more brought the Christian
faith and Christian values to Italy families. Today Europe has seen
mothers who hold their children by the hand, rescuing them from war, but
their parents turn back to defend their land with arms. Who can fully
comprehend the pain of a woman, a mother, who mourns the death of her son
killed in war? Or a woman who has lost her husband, brother, or
sister?
But most of all we are amazed by women who stand in prayer before God.
Women who are like the Kyiv Oranta, the Unshakeable Wall, who day and
night with upraised arms prays for her city, prays for her country.
Today the woman is the symbol of hope for Ukraine, a symbol of
fearlessness, a symbol of victory of life over death, a symbol of the fact
that Ukraine will stand even through such inhumane circumstances.
Today we pray to the Immaculate Virgin Mary, preparing for this
consecration of Ukraine and Russia and her Immaculate Heart, which Pope
Francis announced. We would like to dedicate women and the women of
Ukraine to the protection of the Immaculate Theotokos.
17/03/2022 (Source)
Comment on the announcement of the consecration of Russia and Ukraine to Our Lady
The Ukrainian people have long been waiting for this spiritual event.
Since the beginning of the Russian aggression in 2014, Ukrainian Catholics
have asked to carry out this act as a necessary condition to prevent the
outbreak of war and all the dangers coming from Russia.
(…)
With the beginning of a full-scale war, our faithful from around the
world have asked to fulfil the words of the Blessed Virgin in
Fatima.
(…)
We are grateful to the Holy Father for responding first of all to Mary's
call at the proclamation of Fatima on July 13, 1917, and to her children's
request to defend Ukraine and stop the mistakes of Russia, which promotes
war and persecution of the Church. Today we are witnessing the fulfilment of the words of the Mother of
God, who said: The righteous will be persecuted, the Holy Father will
suffer, many nations will be destroyed.
16/3/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
God is with us. Today he is on the side of Ukraine and all those who suffer
innocently. The Lord is always on the side of the victim of unjust
aggression. Therefore, believing in such a God, I believe in the victory of
Ukraine
(…)
The Church teaches that we have the right to defend our homeland.
Moreover, it is a natural right and a sacred duty. We are not talking
about the right to kill, but about the duty to defend ourselves. The
defence must be proportional to how the attacker attacks us
15/3/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
In such circumstances, there can be no neutral position. Because he who is silent, who does not
condemn this war, becomes an accomplice in the crime, the aggression of
killing peaceful people of Ukraine, so thank you to all those who together with Ukraine are fighting for the
right to peaceful existence
14/03/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from interview with Radio NV
I am impressed by the position of the Russian Orthodox Church, its
structures in Europe, which assess the war in a completely different
way. In particular, I was impressed by the
position of the representatives of the Munich hierarchy, who condemned
Russia's aggression against Ukraine and appealed to their faithful Russians
to accept refugees from Ukraine. They are organizing a fundraiser for
our refugees to help us
We see that the truth is being manipulated by Russia itself, the Church
is being used for its military propaganda. I think this is unacceptable. But the whole free world, Catholic,
Orthodox and Protestant, strongly opposes this position. I know that dozens of letters have been written to Kirill demanding
an immediate end to the war.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Moscow Patriarchate supports our
statehood, we see clear messages given by His Beatitude Onuphrius.
13/03/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from the sermon for the first Sunday of Lent
Get out of your comfort zone and defend your land, do everything you
can where you are, so that the truth may prevail. If you are a warrior – defend the country, if you are a teacher – teach
children, if you are an entrepreneur – do everything to make your business
work, give profit to the state and work to the people. If you are a
doctor, treat the wounded. If you are a spiritual person, pray for
your Motherland, for your Ukraine.
Today, the Ukrainian people are asking where God is when the enemy kills
Ukrainian children? Where is God when Russian bombs and rockets fall on our heads every
night? Where is God when the enemy bombed even the Svyatogorsk Lavra in
Donetsk region? Where are you, God? I think this is a deep cry of
prayer of the Ukrainian people to our God and Creator.
Christ suffers today in the body of Ukraine, suffers as the Head of
that Body, the Church of Christ.
13/03/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
War is always a failure for humanity. War is always a moment of shame, a moment in which man's dignity is humiliated.
When we strive for peace, everything is possible. When war breaks out, we
can lose everything. In Ukraine, today, we are seeing great contempt for
human dignity. With war, man loses his humanity, especially he who starts
war, he who starts war diminishes himself in his humanity. He who kills his
neighbour, before all else, destroys the humanity within himself,
destroys his own dignity.
As Christians what can we do to counter this contempt for humanity during
the war in Ukraine? Firstly, we must do the works of mercy, we must do all
we can to show respect for human dignity.
Today we pray for the Ukrainian army, which defends and reaffirms this
dignity. We pray for the civilian population of Ukraine, for our refugees,
for those who find themselves in cold cities, and sieged towns without
water, food or heating, we remember them and we want to help
them.
Today we fight for humanitarian corridors and for a way to save people
respecting their dignity, regardless of what language they speak, what nation they belong to,
what Church they are part of. Today in Ukraine there is a war for human dignity.
We know that to bury the dead is one of the works of mercy. We are now faced with the fact that the Russian aggressor who has
transgressed upon Ukrainian soil does not respect the bodies of its own
dead. He does not want to pay the due respects to his dead in Ukraine.
And our own volunteers, our good people, want to return the bodies of
the Russians who have been killed, but nobody will take them back to
bury them with dignity.
Today, in Ukraine, we see mountains of bodies, rivers of blood and a sea
of tears. Our heart aches to see thousands of people buried without a
prayer, without Christian respect, in mass common graves, with no
identification. Only in Mariupol, according to official numbers, close to
1.500 civilians have died during these days and been buried in mass
graves. How important it is for us today to show respect for the bodies of
our dead, be they military or civilian. Our people kneel before the bodies
of our dead soldiers when they are returned to their cities, towns and
families.
Today I ask all our priests all across Ukraine, to celebrate Divine
Liturgies and pray for the souls of the dead, as a sign of our respect for
those who have died on Ukrainian soil as a result of this horrible and
inhumane war.
12/03/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
Ukraine is healing the wounds of war, rescuing and embracing her children who are suffering. It really seems that this war is becoming a war primarily against the civilian peaceful population. Even according to official statistics, in these days there have been more deaths among civilians – women and children – than among the military. We mourn the children of Ukraine who have become innocent victims of this war.
We amaze the whole world with our strength which gives us the possibility
to believe in victory. The great majority of people in Ukraine believe
that Ukraine will be victorious.
Our soldiers constantly ask us: Pray for us. I want to pass on this
request of the Ukrainian army, in whose hands lies the fate of Ukraine, to
all of you who hear me. Pray! Pray for our Ukrainian army, which today is defending peace in Ukraine,
Europe and the world.
Today I wish to sincerely thank all those who, at the international and
inter-religious level, are doing everything to stop the war. I thank the
Orthodox brethren, particularly in Germany and Western Europe, the Russian
Orthodox Church abroad, which is trying to serve refugees and which is
appealing to the church hierarchy in Russia for the need to end the war
immediately. I thank the WCC which is doing everything to stop this war. I
thank the Catholics and Protestants of France who with a particular
appeal, are doing everything to stop the bloodshed in our land.
11/03/2022 (Source)
Ecumenical prayer for peace in Lviv
O God, Father almighty, Lord, Only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ and You, O
Holy Spirit—one Divinity and one Power! Before Your eyes today we present the sorrow and pain of Ukraine.
Mountains of corpses, rivers of blood, and seas of tears. We prayer for
all those who gave up their lives for the homeland, for our army, for the
sons and daughters of Ukraine, who shield lives with their own bodies in
the face of the enemy. We pray for all those innocently killed peaceful people of Ukraine:
women, children, the elderly. We pray for the victims of Mariupol who are being buried in massive
common graves without Christian burial and honour. Receive our prayers for their eternal repose!
10/03/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
Today, my conscience, the conscience of every Christian, forces us to
take a voice to say a sharp word “no” to the whole world, to protest
against the mass murder of people in Ukraine. In particular, in the last
minutes we saw mass killings in the besieged city of Mariupol.
Yesterday we saw horrific footage of the bombings of the maternity
hospital, as well as mass graves, mass graves, in which there are
hundreds of lifeless bodies. And today we must tell the whole world "no"
to the massacres in Ukraine.
We are telling the whole world today: stop the mass killings!
10/03/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
Today, that miracle over the Dnieper is created by our Ukrainian army, stopping the invasion of the northern neighbour, who stepped on our land, bringing destruction and death, trying to destroy the freedom-loving Ukrainian people (…) We are working a miracle for the people, who are showing their love of freedom to the whole world. And it amazes the whole world.
[To the international community] Do everything you can to stop this madness! Because today, before our
eyes, Ukraine is being crucified. There is no night when bombs do not fall on the heads of civilians.
Let's stop the war together! Let us together be instruments, instruments
of God's peace in our time!
08/3/2022 (Source)
He [Pope Francis] clearly said that this was not an operation, but a war. The war, first of all, is against civilians, civilians [For Pope Francis’ words, see below]
(…)
Today we ask the world community to close the skies over Ukraine, because Russian cruise missiles kill the most people in our lands
07/3/2022 (Source)
From the sermon on Forgiveness Sunday
(…)
Today in Ukraine there is a war for the hearts and minds of the
people – a struggle that affects all humanity, all people and
encourages everyone to make their choice. The internal battlefield is crucial.
If in the mystery of the evangelist and which the Father sees, evil
prevails, man will be the source of war around him in the outside world,
will provoke the new battlefields, where entire nations will perish
... Then that battlefield with its disgusting face and devastation will
break out by force and cause great suffering to people. As evil prevails inside a person, in his heart, he will become the
cause, the source of evil around him and will not be able to resist it
in the outside world.
At the end of this Gospel passage, we hear that when it comes to
victory, it is not the outer world but the inner world that comes
first. What does it take to win this war? What does it take to destroy the
enemy, to defeat evil?
The Lord gives us a special "secret" weapon. He says the secret of victory is forgiveness. This may surprise us: what is it like to think about forgiveness
during the war? From a human point of view, in times of war we should talk about
hatred – hatred of those who attack us. However, if on the inner battlefield, which is our heart, we act
under the influence of hatred, then we are already defeated by
evil. That is why today's Gospel speaks not so much of man's
forgiveness as of the key to victory over the devil, which is first and
foremost forgiveness that comes from God.
(…)
Today we say: God, forgive my sins. May
Your victory dwell in my heart. And God's victory is always the victory of good over evil, truth over
untruth, peace over war. Entering the time of repentance, we begin to learn to overcome.
It is so important for us to know the secret of victory and to have a
power over which our enemy is powerless.
Therefore we ask: Lord, as You have forgiven us, so we want to
forgive all those who have forgiven us. This is the position of the winner. Today it is very important to defeat the enemy on the inner
battlefield. Then we will overcome it, defending our cities and
villages, our Motherland.
To defeat the enemy who came to our land, you must first be
spiritually and morally superior, stronger than him, in any case not
to imitate his behavior, position, language and insults! By affirming the victory of good over
evil, we become warriors of light and defenders of peace, and thus gain
that true treasure of the eternal and just. That is why Christ says:
"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Mt
6:21).
Today, this most important treasure that we, as a nation, need is the
treasure of the victory of good over evil. That must be our greatest wealth, which will be in our hearts - the
Truth of God, in which is His all-conquering power.
We also ask: Lord, give us the weapons with which we can defeat the
devil and all his angels. Give us the weapon with which we can win not only the war, but also the
war itself and all those who cause it and brought it to the land of
Ukraine.
Today we especially pray for our army, for those who really
defeated the enemy on the battlefield of their own hearts, because
it is out of love for the Motherland that they overcome those who
attack us with greater, from a human point of view, strength.
"Gather up your treasures in heaven" (Mt 6:20) is a great call to all
of us. Because war is always destruction. War is always a waste of resources.
Evil, hatred and sin dry up and exhaust the soul, bleed and weaken a
person. Instead, God's forgiveness, received and transmitted, mercy and
love for God and neighbor revive and renew the mental and physical
strength of man, give him the ability to endure the struggle to the end
and gain an advantage over the enemy. Therefore, in the field of spiritual struggle, one cannot lose or
scatter, but on the contrary – to obtain and collect such treasure,
which "neither moths nor worms destroy and where thieves do not break
through walls or steal" (Mt 6:20).
Today Christ asks us to gather... When we overcome evil, we overcome destruction, we gather real,
eternal treasures, over which Russian tanks and cruise missiles are
powerless. Our Taras Shevchenko tells us about these treasures, who at one time
emphasized the importance of telling the world about "what was going
on in Ukraine, why did it die, what Cossack glory became for all over
the world !?" (Before Osnovyanenko, 1839, St. Petersburg.) These are the treasures of our ancestors, which are still our common
national treasure and inspire us to victory.
God, give us the victory of Ukraine! Give us victory over the enemy! Give peace to our
Motherland. And most importantly – give us victory over sin and death in our
hearts, so that with You and in You was our treasure. Amen.
06/03/2022 (Source. Edited for clarity)
Daily video message
We pray for the enemies who came to our land to kill. We pray that the
Lord God will stop their murderous hand. God bless Ukraine! God, save your children! God, forgive
our sins and grant Ukraine victory!
06/3/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
To you, dear children, daughters and sons of our people, I say: we are
waiting for you back home, when there will be a peaceful sky over
Ukraine. Your mother Church will accompany you, help you where the hardships of
war will take you.
(…)
I want to thank and bless the Ukrainian army, our soldiers, girls and
boys who defend peace in Ukraine, thanks to whom today, on the ninth day
of the war, we are still alive, thanks to which Ukraine wins, Ukraine
stands, Ukraine fights.
(…)
Today we feel that Archangel Michael is fighting for Ukraine with the whole heavenly
army. We are praying today: Archangel Michael and all the heavenly army, all the heavenly forces
fight for Ukraine, overthrow the devil who attacks us, kills us, brings destruction and death.”
4/3/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
Together we are a nation that builds and defends peace in Ukraine and
the world, at the price of our own blood.
Truly the words of Christ are being fulfilled. “No one has greater love
than this: that someone would lay down his life for his
friends.” We see that not hatred, but love conquers. Love gives birth to
heroes, but hatred to criminals.
That is why I encourage all of us: let us learn to love in this tragic
time. Let us not be taken captive by hatred. Let us not use the language
of hatred. The one who hates the enemy is already overcome by him. We
will conquer with the power of love, for our homeland, for God, and for
our neighbour.
Let us pray not only for peace in Ukraine, but let us pray for our enemies, for their conversion, for the
conversion of Russia, as Our Lady of Fatima requested of us.
01/3/2022 (Source)
Beloved and God protected Ukrainian people!
Once again, our homeland is in danger!
The treacherous enemy, despite his own obligations and assurances,
breaking the basic norms of international law, as an unjust aggressor
set foot on Ukrainian soil, bringing with him death and
devastation.
Our Ukraine, which the world rightly called "bloody lands",
which so many times was sprinkled with the blood of martyrs and fighters
for the freedom and independence of its people, calls us today to stand up for our homeland, our dignity before God
and humanity, our right to exist and the right to choose our future.
It is our inherent right and a sacred duty for everyone to protect
their land and their people, their state and everything that is most
dear to us: their family, their language and culture, their history and
their spiritual world! We are peaceful people who love children of all nations with Christian
love, regardless of origin or beliefs, national or religious
affiliation. We do not encroach on someone else`s property and do not
threaten anyone, but we do not have the right to give our own to anyone!
At this historic moment, the voice of our conscience calls us all as one
to stand up for the free, united and independent Ukrainian state!
The history of the last century teaches us that all those who started global wars were the ones who lost them, and the idolaters of war brought only destruction and decline to
their own states and peoples. We believe that the Lord God is with us at this historic moment! He, in Whose hands lies the fate of the whole world and every person,
in particular, is always on the side of the victim of unfair aggression,
on the side of the suffering and enslaved. It is he who declares his Holy
Name in the history of every nation, catches and throws down the powerful
of this world by their own pride, the conquerors by the illusion of their
omnipotence, the proud and bold by their own self-confidence. It is he who
grants victory over evil and death. The victory of Ukraine will be a victory of God`s power over the
baseness and insolence of man! This was always the case, so it is now and so it be!
Our Holy Martyr Church has always been with her people, it remains here
for them and stands by! This Church, which has already known death and resurrection, as the Body
of the Risen Christ over whom death has no power, was bestowed by the Lord
to his people in the baptismal waters of the Dnieper. Since then, the
history of our people and their Church, the history of their liberation
struggle, the history of the embodiment of God`s word and the
manifestation of his spirit of truth in our culture have been intertwined
forever. And at this dramatic moment, our Church, as our Mother and
Teacher, remains with its children to protect them and serve them in the
name of God! God is our hope and from Him will be our victory!
Today we solemnly proclaim: "We will lay down our souls and bodies for our freedom!” Today, with one heart and mouth, we pray: "Great and one God, save Ukraine for us!’
Holy Righteous, Martyrs and Confessors of the Ukrainian land, pray and
intercede for us before God!
The blessing of the Lord may be upon you!
Message to Defense Minister Shoigu
I cordially congratulate you, the command and
all the personnel of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation on the Defender
of the Fatherland Day.
This holiday unites all those who courageously
defend the freedom and independence of the country, who, not sparing their own
lives and setting an example of true patriotism and active love for their
neighbours, ensure the security and sovereignty of the Motherland. In the
current difficult time, our soldiers, imitating the glorious deeds of their
ancestors, selflessly and heroically carry out military service on the
southwestern borders of Russia and protect the civilian population of Donbass.
The clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church strive to spiritually support our
soldiers and officers who perform their military duty in the fields of the
Northern Military District, and share with them the hardships of military labours.
23/02/2023 (Source)
Message to Chairman Mishustin
Today, in a difficult time of trials for
Russia, our fellow citizens, both fighting courageously on the fields of a
special military operation and supporting them in the rear, show solidarity and
active love for the Fatherland and neighbors. I am convinced that the
exploits of the modern defenders of the Motherland, already inscribed in the
history of our country, will also inspire young people to creative work.
23/02/2023 (Source)
Message on occasion of 80th
anniversary of the battle of Stalingrad
I cordially congratulate you and your
comrades-in-arms on the day of military glory - the 80th anniversary of the
defeat of the Nazi troops by the Soviet troops in the Battle of Stalingrad.
The feat of fathers and grandfathers, who
showed unparalleled heroism, valor and self-sacrifice during the defense of
Stalingrad, inspires our courageous soldiers today, performing responsible
combat missions on the fields of a special military operation and defending the
sovereignty, independence and security of our country.
I am convinced that the joint work of the
Russian Orthodox Church and the state authorities, aimed, among other things,
at preserving the historical memory of the people, will continue to contribute
to the patriotic and moral education of the younger generation, the
establishment of the norms of traditional morality in the life of society.
I wish you and all the personnel of the Armed
Forces of the Russian Federation good health, good spirits, courage and God's
generous help in serving the Fatherland.
02/02/2023 (Source)
Words on the 14th anniversary of his
enthronement
I thank God for the fact that church-state
relations in the Russian state are developing in this way today, and God grant
that it will continue to do so in the future. I thank Vladimir Vladimirovich
Putin, the President of our country, for his kind words of welcome, and also
for the fact that he supports this way of interaction between Church and State.
To put it bluntly, this is the first time in the long history of the Russian
Orthodox Church. Because even in the Orthodox Empire the Church was not simply influenced
by the State, but had to listen carefully to what the State had to say. Often
it was necessary to deviate from its pastoral principles, following
instructions from on high, which may be why the great tragedy of the
persecution of the Church occurred, after the change of the state system in
Russia.
Once again I would like to say that today the
Russian Orthodox Church exists under unique conditions. Indeed, harmony in the
relations between the secular and the church, with full preservation of
autonomy, non-interference and at the same time a general awareness of the
importance of the interaction of all forces – society, the state, the Church –
in order for our country to continue on that truly independent of the
centres of world power, which it is courageously pursuing. And we must not
think that if some of the powers that be are displeased with this, if someone
criticizes the Church and the state, then all this can or should somehow affect
our true spiritual sovereignty, and, as far as the state is concerned, also our
political sovereignty. The privilege, given from above, of being free is indeed
a great blessing, and God grant that such church-state relations may develop
not only in the Russian Federation, but also throughout the whole area of
canonical responsibility of the Russian Orthodox Church.
(…)
May the blessing of God abide over our entire
Russian Orthodox Church, over the countries and peoples that make up the
historical area of Holy Rus', over our Russian state. May the blessing of
God rest on the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Vladimirovich
Putin, who courageously defends the true sovereignty of our country, and on all
those who today defend an independent, free course dictated by our true
spiritual, cultural and historical interests.
01/02/2023 (Source)
Speech at the XI Christmas Parliamentary
Meetings in the State Duma
For almost a year our country has been in a
state of armed conflict, fratricidal confrontation, provoked by external forces
interested in the enmity of the Russian and Ukrainian peoples, in the destruction of their common
historical memory and deprivation of their common future.
The Church has never divided and does not divide
its flock into “strangers” and “friends”, does not oppose people to each other,
knowing that in the eyes of God every person has value. Staying with its
people, the Russian Orthodox Church, like a loving mother, tries to help
everyone who is affected by the hardships of wartime, who suffers and needs,
who lost their homes and was left without support.
The Lord Jesus Christ warns us in the Gospel
that wars will accompany the earthly existence of mankind and we will hear
about wars and war rumors (Matthew 24:6). Apparently, it will be so
until the end of human history; such is the sad reality of a world
afflicted with sin, the multiplication of which will inevitably lead, including
to wars. But people, understanding with their minds that the world is full
of wars and unresolved conflicts, often think that they will not affect them,
that they are somewhere out there, far away. And many believed that the
confrontation in the Donbass, which began back in 2014, and the suffering of
the civilian population are in some kind of parallel dimension, because they do
not prevent those who are watching from the side from enjoying all the benefits
of their usual life. This state is now called a hybrid war, when it is not
entirely clear where the war is going on, what kind of war it is, why it burns,
kills, disfigures some, while others live as if nothing is happening.
The Church's reaction to the war has been
formed over the centuries and remains unchanged: we respond with a prayer
for peace, which is now offered up in all churches. This prayer
unites millions of believers, including those on different sides of the
confrontation. Faith without works is dead (James 2:26), the
word of God teaches us, and the faithful children of the Church confirm it with
an active love for their neighbors – through the labors of thousands and
thousands of volunteers, donors, doctors, sisters of mercy, who have been
working all these months, helping the wounded and victims of the military
actions. This ministry has long gone beyond the boundaries of the church
fence and beyond state borders. I would like to express my gratitude to
the volunteers: all of you, my dear ones, are real heroes. And I
especially thank those volunteers who, really not sparing their lives, go to
the most difficult points of the conflict, which caused numerous victims.
The peaceful position of the Church is to call
upon all parties to the conflict to treat the prisoners of war humanely, if
nothing else, to facilitate their return to their homeland, to help people
evacuate from dangerous places of residence. Of course, the most important
thing is the end of all hostilities, reconciliation and the restoration of
fraternal relations between the peoples involved in the conflict. But as long
as the conflict continues, we must at least show mercy to those who are really
suffering, to those who are becoming disabled, to the families who are losing
their breadwinners.
Through its pastoral care of military men, the Church constantly points out
that the task of the Christian soldier is to fulfill his duty on the
battlefield honestly and selflessly, while maintaining his spiritual dignity.
Fighting the enemy for the Christian must not turn into hatred of the
individual. The Motherland requires defense, and among the soldiers there
are a very large number of Orthodox men - so it was, so it is and probably so
it will always be. Therefore it is very important to be guided by the right
moral and spiritual guidelines. The fight against the enemy must not turn
into hatred of the individual and be accompanied by incredible cruelty, as we
know from the treatment of our prisoners of war on the other side of the line
of operations. Many of our interlocutors in the inter-Christian and
inter-religious dialogue share the peacebuilding stance of our Church, and I am
grateful to all those who support our Church today.
I cannot but say about the situation of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Deep sorrow and righteous indignation are
caused by the attempts of the current Kyiv authorities and their patrons abroad
to use the Ukrainian Orthodox Church as a tool for inciting Russian-Ukrainian
enmity. An active role in these destructive processes, unfortunately, is
played by the Phanar, that is, Constantinopolitan figures, who staged the church
schism.
I am absolutely convinced that reconciliation
in the future is impossible without a Ukrainian Orthodox Church independent of
the political situation. That is why it causes such hatred among the
current architects of world conflicts, who are not interested in our peoples
living in prosperity and peace.
At present, the Ukrainian Church is being
subjected to unprecedented persecution by the state authorities. These
persecutions are comparable in their scope and cynicism only to the persecution
of faith in the 20th century in our country. Searches are carried out
everywhere in dioceses, monasteries and parishes, on far-fetched pretexts,
criminal cases are initiated against the clergy, against believers, who are
also discredited in the media; the most important Orthodox shrines for our
peoples are being taken away and desecrated.
With each passing day, calls to completely ban
the activities of the canonical Orthodox Church are heard stronger and
stronger. All this can be regarded as part of a global external order for
the destruction of canonical Orthodoxy within a single country - Ukraine. At the same time, all
references to the violation of the norms of international law regarding the
protection of the rights of believers are simply ignored, as if international
law does not exist at all. Many human rights organizations prefer not to
notice what is happening and thus reveal their political bias, which we guessed
back in ancient times, when our country, at that time the Soviet Union, was
criticized, while ignoring human rights violations, including religious
freedom, in other countries loyal to the Western bloc.
For the Church as a single spiritual space,
there are no political boundaries. There cannot be divisions on a
political, national or territorial basis for our Orthodox brothers and
sisters. Last year, speaking in the Federation Council, I noted that the
peoples of Russia and Ukraine, who came out of a single Kyiv Baptismal font,
who are united by the Orthodox faith and bound by a common historical destiny, cannot
be considered the culprits of the current situation. And today I will
say that neither the people of Russia nor the people of Ukraine can be
interested in this internecine strife. And believe me, I have enough
information from the depths of Ukrainian life to testify to this.
All people of good will need a just and lasting
peace, the opportunity to exist without war. The political mainstream that
has formed in the West leads to the fact that the traditional norms of
Christian morality, especially those relating to marriage and the family, are
subjected to deliberate marginalization. We cannot agree with the
desecration of our spiritual heritage and allow us to return to a time when,
under the slogans of progress, faith, their national and cultural identity are
being removed from people's lives.
It's no secret that against the backdrop of
partial mobilization, some of our fellow citizens left Russia. Of course,
the fear of death they probably experienced is understandable. I think
that many of them need spiritual help and edification. At the same time, I
would like to note that people left for different reasons, so it would be wrong
to make any general judgments about everyone. Some are surprised by the
mass departure. But should this surprise us? After all, for many
years among the younger generation, false values imported from outside were
implanted and approved, perceived completely uncritically.
We must think about the systems of upbringing
and education, which turn at least part of our youth into internal emigration,
while the situation in the Fatherland requires from them, like from everyone
else, sanity and patriotism.
There is also an acute question about the
post-war future of both Ukraine and Russia, about the return of people to their
homes, about the revival of infrastructure and the social sphere. In part,
this issue is already being resolved, but we know that many buildings, entire
districts, villages and cities will have to be restored. It is already
clear today that a comprehensive revival of peaceful life will take
years. I would like to testify to the readiness of the Church to
participate to the extent possible in healing the wounds of hostilities.
History convincingly shows that peoples and
states that have trampled on their values are experiencing a deep
crisis. Today this is happening with many countries and peoples, and the
Lord is knocking on the hearts of people, prompting us to correct those
shortcomings that we also allow if we allow false values and stereotypes imposed
on us to enter our lives. It is gratifying that processes have visibly
begun in Russian society to overcome this kind of spiritual and moral
flaws. Indeed, what is happening with the country today has forced many to
rethink their point of view, and more and more people understand how important
such a value as love for the Motherland, as loyalty to one's country, as a
readiness to defend one's sacred borders.
(…)
During the period of partial mobilization, in
cooperation with the leadership of the Ministry of Defense, it was possible to
come up with a temporary solution, thanks to which the clergy were granted a
deferment from mobilization for the entire duration of their stay in holy
orders. As you know, the canonical norms of the Orthodox Church strictly
forbid clergy from entering military service and even taking up arms. We
hope that this decision will be enshrined in law. The priest is called
to help the belligerents, but not with weapons in their hands, but spiritually
supporting the soldiers. Our military chaplains are in the hottest points
of confrontation, and often die. Already five priests have been killed on
the front lines. Fathers are not hiding somewhere behind the carts, they,
along with their soldiers, along with their flock, very often are on the very
front line of the front, but they are not protected by anything. When
soldiers go on the attack, often with them, as in pre-revolutionary Russia, a
priest with a cross goes in front - and, of course, becomes a desirable target
for the enemy. That is why today there are those who have died among
the priests who carry out their pastoral ministry at the forefront of the
front. I think that many have heard about the pastoral work and ministry
of Archpriest Mikhail Vasilyev, who was posthumously awarded the title of Hero
of Russia by the President. And the feat of Father Michael is now being
continued by many.
It seems overdue to fix in the legislation the
provisions on providing the clergy who take care of the soldiers in the combat
zone, as well as their family members, with the same social guarantees and
benefits that are provided to the military personnel involved in the conduct of
a special military operation. Indeed, if a priest is with the military, if he
is on the front line, then why shouldn't he have the guarantees that the
military has? I emphasize once again that the priest is the most desirable
target of the enemy, snipers first of all aim at the priests.
26/02/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from a speech at the plenary session of
the 21st International Christmas Readings
For several years now, external forces have
been using the Patriarchate of Constantinople for their political purposes. His
position is very vulnerable, since the center is in Turkey, in the territory
controlled by the non-Orthodox authorities, and the main dioceses and sources
of income are in the United States and Western Europe. It is quite obvious that
these factors deprive the Patriarchate of Constantinople of freedom, and
therefore it is through it that they try to split the Russian Orthodox Church
today by legalizing the newly created schismatic structure in Ukraine. Being
under powerful pressure from these forces, some Primates, as well as hierarchs
of a number of Local Orthodox Churches, declared the recognition of the
schismatics. Here is a very good indicator: if a certain hierarch defends a
schism, then this person is not free, he is controlled by other forces. Today, the attitude towards schism
determines the level of true freedom of a particular Church, its ability to
independently make important decisions.
In these difficult conditions, our joint
efforts to preserve the unity of the Holy Church of Christ, the guarantee of
which is fidelity to the canons and patristic tradition, are of particular
importance. The unity of all the faithful of our Church with humble hope in the
One Head of the Church — our Savior and Lord, unchanging adherence to His
commandments — this is the basis on which it is possible in good time to
overcome church discords, enmity between peoples and divisions unusual for
Orthodoxy that have arisen in relations today between Local Orthodox Churches.
Let us pray to the God of love and peace (2 Cor. 13:11) that He bow down His
mercy and fill us with faith, hope and love, setting up peace and unanimity in
all the countries of Holy Russia.
Sacred prayers for overcoming pernicious splits
and divisions, for the salvation of our land and people, artificially divided
by borders, we lift up to all the saints who shone in the vastness of
historical Rus'. We cherish the memory of Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir
and his sons-passion-bearers Boris and Gleb, of the miracle-workers of
Kiev-Pechersk, of St. Paisia Velichkovsky, of the martyrs of Yuryev and
Vilna, of the new martyrs of the 20th century, who suffered during the period
of persecution of the faith. Every year this host of saints is replenished with
new names. The Synodal Commission for the Canonization of Saints should
continue to work to identify the exploits of the saints of God, who have not
yet been glorified by the Church. It is very important that the feat of life of
these saints be known to our youth, that it is the saints who become their true
heroes and role models. I trust in the Lord that
25/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from a speech
Our country and the whole world are now going
through very difficult circumstances associated with the emergence of many
risks, and all of you are well aware of this. The Church is not a political
force, it is not involved in solving external and even internal political
problems. But the Church takes to heart the anxieties of the people, the
experiences and, all the more so, the sorrows of people. And, of course, what
is happening today in the expanses of historical Rus' cannot but respond with
pain in our hearts. As an enemy of the human race, he sowed the seeds of
discord, as he gave rise to conflicts and confrontations, including between
Orthodox people who became victims of the very civil strife that is taking
place today in the vastness of Rus'. And as always, when our people entered the
era of civil strife, whether in antiquity, the Middle Ages or modern times,
Our Church is the Church of all Rus'. Both
Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and other countries and peoples that are part of
historical Rus' are covered by our pastoral ministry, which means that the
problems that arise should be accompanied by our fervent prayer that the Lord
reconcile people, prevent internecine battles to strengthen the spiritual ties
of all the peoples that make up historical Rus'.
Our prayer should be especially fervent and
strong for this today. God grant that the Lord would incline mercy to all
historical Rus', our Russian state, which today is really facing many
dangerous, but at the same time fateful challenges. And God grant that the
right answer be found to these challenges, which would further strengthen the
fraternal ties of the peoples of Holy Rus'.
We believe that today this task is an important
part of the mission of our Church, because there is practically not a single institution,
not a single organization left that, without being involved in political
upheavals, would have influence throughout the vastness of all of Rus'. And
therefore, today my word is to the Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians and
everyone else who enters the historical reality of Holy Rus': to do everything
so that the enemy of the human race, having sowed the seeds of enmity, does not
lead to fratricide, so that all attempts to provoke internecine strife are
stopped and completely eradicated so that peace, prosperity and brotherly love
are present among all the peoples of historical Rus'.
Today, these prayers are accompanied by empathy
for all those who have lost their homes, health and even life. Therefore, I
especially call on our entire Church to intensify prayer for the reconciliation
of the peoples of Rus', so that no provocations, no temptations, no seeds that
are sown by the devil could grow tares that would drown out the spiritual life
— the common spiritual life of the peoples of Rus' — and weaken the testimony
of our Church.
25/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
Such is history, and it teaches us above all
that the Church must always proclaim the truth of God. Political tastes,
sympathies, antipathies are changing, various political groups, coalitions,
parties are being formed, everyone has their own goal, everyone goes their own
way. And the Church is outside of any party, because the very word
"party" means a part, that is, a part of the whole. And the Church is
not a part – it is for the whole people, and therefore no sympathy towards
certain political forces can be officially proclaimed as a church teaching and
cannot be officially proclaimed in a church sermon. What can be proclaimed? And
who can and should the Church support? All those politicians or public figures
who stand up for the unity of our entire people, for the unity of our Church,
for the true independence of the country from various powerful forces, whether
in the East, or in the West, or elsewhere on our planet. Because the Church is
afraid that political dependence can have a negative impact on the spiritual
life, as happened in the past. That is why the Church supports true independence
and all acts of power aimed at preserving this independence from political
forces outside our country. And this does not mean participation in politics -
it means concern for the well-being of people, for the preservation of our
authenticity, for the preservation of the Orthodox faith and those values
that our people still live by the grace of God. Those spiritual values that
come from our ancestors, those values for which our martyrs and new martyrs
of the Russian Church shed their blood.
Today, remembering the name of St. Philip, we
turn to him prayers so that by his intercession before the face of God, he
would save the Russian state from all misfortunes both from the outside and
from within, so that the unity of the people, the unity of our Church, would be
preserved, so that the government would have as its priority concern for the
preservation of the Fatherland ours as an independent state, as well as the
preservation of those values that are absorbed into the spiritual culture of
our people and which were largely formed under the spiritual influence of the
Russian Orthodox Church. Remembering the feat of St. Philip, today we
raise special prayers for the authorities, and for the army, and for our
people, so that our national life flows in peace, unanimity, spiritual purity
and faith, forming that inner strength that is capable of ensuring complete
independence and the freedom of our people.
22/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
Today we know that there are very big threats
to the world, to our country, and to the whole human race, because some crazy
people had the idea that the great Russian power, which has powerful weapons,
is inhabited by very strong people who from a generation in a generation have
always been motivated to win, who have never surrendered to any enemy, who have
always come out victorious - that they can either be defeated in the current
conditions, or, as
they say now, reformatted, that is, to impose on them certain
"values" that it is impossible to name values, so that they are
like everyone else and obey those who have the power to control most of the
world.
This desire to defeat Russia today has
acquired, as we know, very dangerous forms. We pray to the Lord that He will
enlighten those madmen and help them understand that any desire to destroy
Russia will mean the end of the world. But this is not the only thing
to be prayed for, but that instead of such madness the human race will acquire
some new consciousness. Consciousness of our interdependence,
consciousness of the fragility of the world in which we all live, and the need
to be all together and work for common values and goals that would be aimed
primarily at preserving life and, I would also add as an Orthodox Christian, at
the preservation of faith in God, without which all other values are either
deformed or simply reformatted into opposites and become not values, but
factors contributing to the destruction of human life.
This is such a worrying time. But we
believe that the Lord will not leave the Russian land, will not leave our
authorities, our Orthodox President, our army. That Russia will have
enough strength if necessary to protect its land and its people. But God
forbid that things do not come to such a showdown, that the Lord reconciles everyone, calms them
down and helps everyone work together to make the world a better place.
This is our prayer today, for world peace. But also about the well-being
of the holy churches of God, about the union of all. We pray that all
these menacing and exciting people's rumors, military rumors, will go into
oblivion, and that there will be peace in the world and the ability for
everyone to work together so that every untruth, every lie is expelled from
human relations.
19/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
Today is a joyful holiday, but some have tears
in their eyes. I cannot but speak about what is happening in Ukraine now:
exactly the same madness as in Russia after the revolution. Then in Russia the
Renovationist "church", artificially created by the godless
authorities, began to seize the churches of the genuine, grace-filled Russian
Orthodox Church. And all the cathedrals in St. Petersburg, the imperial
capital, were in the hands of the Renovationists, and with what a difficult
state of mind our Orthodox people passed by these churches! Many did not
believe that a reversal was possible. Such was the onslaught of the godless
authorities that it seemed that there would be no stone left unturned from
church life. But today we see that even where only the stones of the destroyed
churches remained, temples have been recreated, and new temples have been
erected in multitudes.
I don't think the wait is too long. God cannot be mocked (Gal. 6:7), and all the teachers of schism, the creators of schisms, and all those disguised “hierarchs” who are ashamed to look it, so even their appearance does not correspond to their rank, will be punished. And do you think that only we from here have this vision and this understanding of the reality that has developed today on Ukrainian soil? The Ukrainian people themselves see and understand everything! And we believe that all this will pass, otherwise it cannot be. After all, splits are not viable. Why? But because the grace of God is not there - emptiness, theatre, external ritual. What piety is there when all the canons are broken, when all the principles of the organization of the Orthodox Church are overthrown? Emptiness! But this emptiness is very dangerous for the spiritual life of the people.
And today we are with the pious Ukrainian
people, with those who are already bearing the stamp of both martyrdom and
confession. We pray for the Ukrainian bishops who are faithful to canonical
truth. We pray for those who are being expelled from churches today. We pray
first of all for the faithful people, that they will keep the Orthodox faith. We know for a fact that just as
the Renovationists disappeared, so the schismatics will disappear. As the
political hard times of the Soviet leaders, who raised their hand against the
Church, so the present authorities will not reign and rule over Ukraine. And I
think that it will not be long before things change. And our task, the task of
the Church is to pray for the Ukrainian land, for pious Ukrainian people, for
priests and bishops, for those who have taken the path of confession. To pray
also for those who were afraid, who disappeared from sight, who were called to
defend Orthodoxy - and as if disappeared. Where are they? Where have they gone?
What country are they in? God judge them all! But I am deeply convinced, and my
conviction is unshakable, that the Lord will not leave Ukrainian land, the land
of Kyiv-Pechersk ascetics, the land, covered and sprinkled with the blood of
new martyrs. And He will not abandon the Church, which, by her word and her
preaching, has laid the foundation of Christian life throughout Holy Russia. We
pray that the troubled times will come to an end as quickly as possible, that
peace will be established, that internecine strife will cease in the land of
Ukraine, and that no one will take advantage of the conflicts that have begun
in Ukraine in order to unleash an even greater war, in which forces hostile to
Russia will wish to involve our people. Let us ask the Lord that this cup
pass over us, that peace and prosperity may be preserved throughout the
territory of Holy Russia and that the Russian state, under the protection of
the Most Holy Mother of God, may safeguard itself from internecine strife and
from any invasion by foreign tribesmen.
In this principal cathedral of Holy Russia,
where the holy Fathers of our Church repose, one feels in a special way all the
complexity and all the dangers of what is now taking place in Russia, and at
the same time is strengthened with hope. Looking at these historical walls, in
front of the icons on which our pious predecessors prayed, we hope that the
grace of God will bow down to Russia and its spiritual unity will be restored,
the canonical system of Orthodoxy in Ukraine will be restored, and people will
again be communicated with the Holy Mysteries of Christ, will gain grace from
the other Mysteries of the Church, gaining strength to strive against all evil,
to strive for the Kingdom of God. Our prayer today is that peace and justice
will be restored in the land of Ukraine, that peace and rest will dwell over
all Rus'. Through the prayers of the saints in this church with their holy
relics and the prayers of all the saints who shone forth in the land of Russia,
may the Lord direct the further march of the Russian people along the
historical path prepared for them by God Himself.
08/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt of words after Great Vespers on
Christmas
Wars are all over the face of the earth, and in
the expanses of historical Rus' there is an internecine strife unleashed by other
forces. I think that we all deeply empathize with what is happening, but the
heart of the Patriarch is especially overwhelmed. And today, my special prayer
is for peace on the land of Ukraine, for the unity of our Church to be
preserved - despite the most powerful efforts and pressure that are exerted on
the episcopate, clergy, believers, so that the fabric of the united Russian
Orthodox Church, which emerged from Kyiv Baptismal font.
(…)
Prayer to God, communion with God, communion of
the Holy Mysteries of Christ is the highest priority, and if all this is put
in the first place, then everything else will work out, and peace and goodwill
will really appear in people, at least in the expanses of historical Russia, in
which extends the pastoral care of the Russian Orthodox Church.
I would like to once again thank you, Your
Eminence, and all of you, my dear Bishops, and in your person, the entire
episcopate of our Church, and in the person of the clergy, all the clergy of
our Church, and in your person, my dear brothers and sisters, — all Orthodox
people who make up the body of our Church. Once again, I would like to
accompany this gratitude with a prayer to the Lord and our Savior, that He
would bless our Church, protect it from schisms and divisions, renew our
strength, give us the ability to become His disciples not only by baptism, not
only by formal membership in the Church, but by sincere service to the Lord,
through which alone one can hope for the transformation of this world.
07/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from message around the Christmas Tree
Today no one demands such sacrifices from us,
although there are still places, including in the expanses of historical Rus’,
where weapons are used, where people defend the homeland and die in peacetime.
We say to them: There is no greater love than if a man lays down his life for
his friends.
(…)
So I would like to wish all of us to love our
Fatherland, our people. It is the same love that often requires sacrifice, as
it does today on the battlefield. Well, after love for the Fatherland - love for your family, for dad,
mom, grandma, grandpa. What about at the top? And at the top is the love of
God.
(…)
Therefore, I congratulate all of you, my dear
ones, on the great holiday of the Nativity of Christ and would like to wish you
to have love in your heart for dad and mom, grandma and grandpa. And then try
to love those who are far away - through good deeds, through help. And
finally, always be ready to love the Motherland so much as to serve it, and in
some of the most formidable moments - I appeal primarily to boys who will
become adults - to stand up for her. May the Lord embrace us all on this
great and joyful feast of the Nativity of Christ, and God grant that each of us
feel these embraces. And they are felt in the temple when we pray, when our
heart beats joyfully, when we see next to us boys and girls like us, who also
pray with us and glorify the Heavenly Father.
And at the end of my words, I want to say again
and again: I wish you all peace and love - love for the Fatherland, love for
parents, love for each other. I wish you that the Divine Light, which came
into the world through the Nativity of Christ, resonates in your hearts with a
strong faith in God and a willingness to do good deeds that turn our life into
a bright, peaceful, prosperous and joyful one. May the Lord keep you all, my
dear, from all evil. Once again I wish peace, health, prosperity and God's help
to everyone and everyone on the joyful holiday of the Nativity of Christ! I
congratulate you heartily!
07/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpts from an interview
The priest has no right to take up arms. He
cannot even defend himself during hostilities, that is, the presence of a
priest in the Armed Forces during hostilities is a huge risk. If we take the
pre-revolutionary practice, then the regimental priest with a cross in his
hands began the attack. With the first ones who left the trenches, they went
towards the enemy; and priests most often perished, because this is a desired target
for the enemy. Today, our priests also lift the spirit and strengthen the faith
of our soldiers in the war zone. But I would also like to say that the priest
very much humanizes this difficult, radically negative sphere of human
existence. A priest in the army is someone who can listen, help with advice,
and pray together; one who does a lot of work with relatives. Because most
often wives, mothers, and children turn to clergy for support, because people
are very worried about their relatives, their loved ones, those who can lay
down their lives.
Therefore, I want to say again and again that
the priest does not take up arms. He continues to be a desirable and easy
target. And we know that Father Mikhail Vasilyev was followed, and this blow
was inflicted precisely in order to destroy him. Every priest who is in the
area of hostilities is aware that he is an easy and desired target, but no
one leaves from there until the Hierarchy recalls - everyone remains true to
their priestly oath and their pastoral duty.
I really appreciate the work of our clergy in
any extreme situation, but especially where the presence of a priest is very
important for the spiritual state of people - first of all, we are talking, of
course, about military personnel.
(…)
I believe in the strength of the spirit of the
Orthodox Ukrainian people. People are very strong in their faith, courageous,
very emotional. God grant that all these best qualities of the Ukrainian people
will help the Ukrainian country to overcome the deep spiritual crisis in which
the country found itself. It is not only a political crisis, but spiritual
crisis, too. And all these calls to democratize, westernize the country, of
course, turn heads of those, who connect these appeals with improvement of
material life of people. The rich live well in the West and if we go this way,
we will also live well. But on the same road, as we know, is the question of
the change of sexes, the critical attitude to religion and many things that
accompany the de-Christianization of Western society today. So I don't
undertake to judge whether this is politically correct or incorrect, it is not
my question - I judge all of this solely from a pastoral point of view. Will
Ukrainians put up with gender reassignment, will they put up with all the moral
relativism that has become part of the culture and politics of the Western
world? If they accept all this, they lose their identity, their authenticity,
they cease to be a holy land. What then is the deed of the saints? Kiev
Pechersk Lavra, Pochaev Lavra, all that monastic tradition? In fact, it is
undoubtedly a struggle with the Orthodox Church, which has always been and, God
willing, in the future will remain the great moral and spiritual force of the
Ukrainian people.
Russians and Ukrainians are one people, in your
opinion?
Undoubtedly. This is one people that came out
of the Kyiv Baptismal Font, but a very large people. From the White to the Black
Sea. And this immensity - it always caused fear, envy among others, and
therefore, from ancient times, external forces worked to divide this people, pull them apart, and even push one
part into another.
And, if you look at history, that's how it
happened. But the Orthodox Church has been and is the force that holds this
people together. That is why radical steps were taken at one time to weaken the
influence of the Church, and first of all, this was the creation of a union.
Indeed, the union greatly divided the people of Western and Southern Rus', but
not only did it divide, it led to bloody clashes. And where there is blood,
there is conflict for a long time.
Indeed, we are now on opposite sides of a great
confrontation, there is clearly a growing bitterness, and on the other side
hatred of everything Russian is being cultivated. But this year is the year of
our common history, as you said. We are one people and we share the same date -
the 1035th anniversary of the Baptism of Russia, which we will celebrate this
year. Do you think we can, at least on the basis of this date, count on the
fact that we have some ways to overcome the split between the Russians and
Ukrainians?
The split is political. The fact that Ukraine
declared that it is radically changing the vector of its political and, I would
say, historical development and that this new vector does not coincide in any
way with the vector of Russia's development - that is the point. Here they are
trying to create some civilizational precondition for the division of people.
But to what extent this division can be brought to the depths of people's life
is a complicated question, although today in Ukraine everything is being done
to make Russia really an enemy in the eyes of Ukrainians and to make the
Russian people, the Russians become another people in the eyes of Ukrainians. On how successful all these
activities aimed at creating a chasm between the two parts of one nation will
be, of course, depends the future. But the Church must do everything to make
sure that the Ukrainians and the Russians did not become enemies in any way.
Well, thank God, we do not have such a
cultivation of hatred towards Ukrainians. We treat them as we used to, as we
are treating them now.
No cultivation of hatred.
We have a special attitude towards their
government.
Yes, we criticize the leadership, but also in
political categories. We do not stoop to any insults. We do not agree with the
political position of the leadership, but we are not talking about cultivating
a negative attitude to Ukraine and the Ukrainians, and I as the Patriarch of
All Russia am very attentive to it. For me it is one people, one Church. And
that is why, of course, the Patriarch and the Russian Orthodox Church are
attacked, because it is a factor of unity, not political, but spiritual. Just as we are united with the
Orthodox people who belong to our Church in the United States of America, in
Great Britain, in Western Europe, wherever. We are one Church, one people,
one praying community. But even this spiritual unity is too much for those who
want to dig a chasm between Russia and Ukraine, that is why the Church is under
attack.
But those who are digging a chasm between
Ukraine and Russia, they will probably never be able to do one thing - they
will not be able to abolish the Julian calendar. And this calendar is common
for Russians and Ukrainians. Thank God, and soon we will celebrate the feast of
Christmas together, at the same time. But how should this feast be? Is there
room in this feast for joy in the time of sorrow?
When we say "holyday," we already
mean joy. Because any celebration becomes a celebration when people celebrate,
but it is impossible to celebrate with sorrow. Celebration is a light
emotion, light feelings and church holidays have a special effect on the human
soul, on its conscience, creating a special experience of joy, a quiet
prayerful joy, and this joy will be one for all, for our brothers and sisters
in Ukraine, for all our brothers and sisters, who live in Russia and for all
our Church.
07/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
And when I say this, I think first of all
about our dear Ukraine, where schisms challenge the Church itself and the
possibility to carry out worthy service to the people and society of Ukraine.
We believe that through the prayers of saints, through the prayers of the
Church, peace will come between all the peoples of Holy Russia and peace
wherever it is broken today. But for that one condition must be observed:
the King of Peace, the Lord of Peace must be with us, therefore the expulsion
of the Christian faith from the lives of people, creation of godless
technocratic civilization, which does not need God, - is the most terrible,
that can be imagined, because the philosophy of life, based on human
omnipotence, expels God from human souls, from interpersonal relations.
07/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from Christmas message
Bowing before the humble majesty of the miracle
of the Incarnation and glorifying the Saviour who has come into the world, we
cannot help but worry about the military events taking place today, darkening
the holy Christmas celebration, for, as the apostle notes, if one member
suffers, all members suffer with it (1 Corinthians 12:26). In these trials
that have befallen the peoples of historical Rus', it is especially important
for us to confirm our loyalty to our Christian calling and to show love for
each other. It sometimes seems to us that good is weak and defenceless, and
little depends on our little effort. However, it is not.
06/01/2023 (Source)
Appeal for Christmas truce
I, Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus',
appeal to all parties involved in the internecine conflict with an appeal to
cease fire and establish a Christmas truce from 12:00 on January 6 to 24:00 on
January 7, so that Orthodox people can attend services on Christmas Eve and on
Christmas Day Christ.
05/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
During the past centuries, if we count from the
time of the holiness of Peter, Metropolitan of Kiev, of Moscow and All Russia, how
many attempts have been made by forces hostile to both our Church and Holy
Russia, to divide the Church, to split it up, to set one part of the Church
against another, in order to facilitate the designs of political forces which
were outside Russia! Russia was frightening in its strength, in its size and, I
am not afraid to say, in its spiritual identity, in its spiritual freedom.
There were practically no centres, which could rule Russia - neither political
nor spiritual. And, with all respect to the Patriarch of Constantinople, to the
Mother Church, which was carefully preserved in the Russian Orthodox Church,
there was no direct dependence and subordination, because it was impossible to
cover the enormous distance from Byzantium to Moscow, to this Borovitsky Hill
in order to govern the Church of Russia. But the distance between Moscow and
Byzantium did not mean a break with the spiritual tradition of the Eastern
Church. On the contrary, the spirituality of Byzantium, its rich heritage,
Sainted Basil the Great, Saint Gregory the Theologian, Saint John Chrysostom,
and other holy fathers, who shone forth in the Byzantine Church, were received
with both soul and heart and thought by our people and by our Church, and the
first readings for our people were from their works. On their words and on
their wisdom our clergy and our faithful people were educated. And this
spiritual communion with Byzantium continued unbroken for a long time, until difficult
times came for Byzantium, which fell under foreign religious influence and even
domination, and until many other forces began to work to divide the one body
of the Orthodox Church.
And today, as you know, our relations with
Constantinople are not easy. Not because the Russian Church wants it, but
because it wants and strives to be free from all sorts of foreign influences, no matter how they spread to our
people and our Church. And therefore, a certain detachment that takes place
today is not generated by theological differences, but by our certain caution
so that other influences that are really dangerous for the Russian Orthodox
Church are not present in our lives. But we believe that the Lord will
incline His mercy and full communion of all the Local Orthodox Churches will be
restored. Because this division is what the forces hostile to Orthodoxy are
longing for, and many efforts and all sorts of strategies have been aimed at
tearing the Orthodox East away from Russia, from the Russian Church! I say this
not by hearsay and not by guesswork - I speak on the basis of the documents
that were in my hands. It was a conscious plan - using various, very minor,
however, disagreements, to make sure that an abyss lay between Russia and the
heirs of Byzantium.
03/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
Today is
the Civil New Year. We are entering a new year of God's goodness, and, of
course, our prayer is for peace, for the Lord to prevent the destructive
development of international relations, which today have reached the most
dangerous point. We pray that there will be no war, that common sense will
prevail and that people with different political views and beliefs will be able
to find a common basis for a peaceful and just life.
(…)
God
bless Russia, our country. We thank God that today Russia is a country where
faith is strengthened. Many rich, prosperous people in other parts of the world
look with surprise at our Motherland and cannot understand: what is a modern
advanced country in which faith is being revived? For many, this is a shock,
but for us it is a symbol of hope and faith that if our Fatherland continues
to develop like this, if we combine faith with education, culture, science,
technology, with everything that gives material strength and well-being, then
Russia will be invincible and will become an even more striking example of
how modern man can combine faith and knowledge, God and matter, spiritual life
and material life.
Such was
the fate of our homeland. In its time, it was Russia that saved the world
from the terrible plague of fascism, and it was primarily thanks to Russian
sacrifices that the victory was achieved. Perhaps today, the Lord, without
calling us to such terrible sacrifices, calls us to ensure that our spiritual
life, our faith, the combination of faith with knowledge, the penetration of
faith in all spheres of public life, we will help the world to find salvation,
as we did when we defeated fascism. It may be that the Lord chooses our Fatherland,
to which the angry and spiteful eyes of those who do not share our convictions,
who are alien to us both in faith and in the moral principles of life turn
today. On the other side are misunderstandings, wariness, often evil feelings
and thoughts; but we, following our own historical path, must keep faith in
our hearts and do everything to become mentally, morally and physically
stronger, developing all aspects of our public and state life.
01/01/2023
(Source)
Excerpt from the journals of the synod meeting
On December 4, 2022, President of Ukraine V. A.
Zelensky announced a number of repressive measures against the Ukrainian
Orthodox Church. Draft laws that contradict international legal norms and imply
discrimination against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and its restriction of
rights have been submitted for consideration by the highest legislative body of
Ukraine. Against
this background, illegal actions against the structures and members of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church intensified in Ukraine. Diocesan administrations,
monasteries, and parishes are subjected to searches, while clergy, monks, and
laity are subjected to humiliating searches and arrests under far-fetched
pretexts, and "personal sanctions" are imposed on them. The
provocations of schismatics and their seizure of churches of the Ukrainian
Orthodox Church have become more frequent.
Growing pressure on the Ukrainian Orthodox
Church has been accompanied by an unbridled anti-church media campaign by
prominent politicians, government officials and public figures in the spirit of
the anti-religious campaigns of the Soviet past.
RESOLVED:
1. To express support to the bishops,
clerics, monastics and laity, striving to preserve the unity and canonical
structure of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church even in the current difficult
circumstances.
2. Consider it important to draw the
attention of the Local Orthodox Churches, representatives of Christian
denominations and the world religious community, as well as international human
rights organizations to violations of the rights of believers in Ukraine.
(…)
Report of His Grace Metropolitan of
Petrozavodsk and Karelian Konstantin, Chairman of the Synodal Liturgical
Commission, on the preparation of prayers in the Commission for soldiers in
battle for the living, wounded, captured and missing.
RESOLVED:
Approve for home reading:
a) a prayer to the Most Holy Theotokos for
soldiers on the battlefield;
b) a prayer to the mother to the Most Holy
Theotokos for a warrior on the battlefield;
c) a prayer to our Lord Jesus Christ for a
soldier wounded on the battlefield;
d) a prayer to the mother to the Most Holy
Theotokos for the healing of a soldier who was wounded on the battlefield;
e) a prayer to the mother (relatives) to the
Most Holy Theotokos for the deliverance of soldiers (warriors), in captivity of
beings (existing);
f) a prayer to the saints for the deliverance
of soldiers who are in captivity;
g) a prayer to the Most Holy Theotokos for the
missing soldiers.
29/12/2022 (Source)
Patriarch’s report to synod
In February of this year, when many people
heard – in the words of Scripture – about wars and rumours of war (cf. Matthew
24:6), they were confused, bewildered and afraid. Many people are still in the
grip of such feelings today. There is nothing surprising in this. After all,
the Saviour's warning that "all things must come to pass" is often
not perceived by a person who has long lived in peaceful circumstances as
referring directly to the time in which he lives and to him personally. Alas, for
a very long time many people also failed to take into account the fact that
relatively nearby, just hundreds or even tens of kilometres from our homes, the
internecine war unleashed in 2014 against civilians in the Donbass region was
waged. This war was started by those in Kyiv who allowed the diabolical
darkness into their hearts and blindly followed instructions to sow enmity
among the united people of Holy Russia, united by a common history, culture and
traditions. As time passed, it became abundantly clear that Russia's
peacemaking efforts to end this war were consistently sabotaged by both the
Ukrainian authorities and Western countries, and further developments
eloquently testify to this. Alas, the peace talks did not stop this strife; on
the contrary, the talks were cynically used on one side of the conflict to
accumulate forces and further escalate. Moreover, it became obvious that those
who kindled the fire of internecine strife in Ukraine sought, and still seek,
to spread it to all the countries of the Russian world, to the entire canonical
territory of our Church - to Russia, to Belarus, to the Baltic states, to
Moldova, to the countries of Transcaucasia and Central Asia. The consequence of
this was Russia's entry into an armed confrontation, which has been going on
for 8 years, to protect the people of Donbas from arbitrariness and violence.
I think it is also important to note the
following: the hostilities we are witnessing today are the consequence of a
long civilisational conflict. Reflecting on the circumstances in which this
conflict began, we can notice, among other things, an undeniable religious
dimension in them: an irrational hatred of the peoples professing Orthodoxy.
And if we now turn our mental gaze to the past, we cannot but ask the question:
is it not this hatred that caused the entire might of the Western war machine
to descend on Yugoslavia in 1999? Is not it the reason why, through economic or
political blackmail, through the so-called colour revolutions, a wedge is
consistently driven between the countries whose peoples are the bearers of
Orthodoxy? The
manifestation of this hatred has been the consistent persecution of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the fostering of schisms by the Ukrainian state
authorities, subsequently, unfortunately, supported by the Primates of some
Local Churches, who carried out the will of the international curators. The
source of the internecine war in Ukraine was the ill will of people who are
hostile to the Cross of Christ, Christian freedom and the common heritage of
the Dnieper font. The ill will of people who for years and even decades have
nurtured divisions, enmity and hatred in the united Orthodox people of Holy
Russia, divided by political boundaries. How much hatred has spilled out in
this time onto internet pages, into the media, even into communication between
relatives!
We say with sorrow today that the present
strife is internecine, because it involves people who belong to a people united
in their faith and traditions. As Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church,
whose flock is on both sides of the line of battle, I am deeply saddened by
what is happening, and especially by the suffering of civilians in both Russia
and Ukraine. However, we must bear witness with clarity that the blame for this
lies first and foremost with those who set out to destroy the unity of Holy Rus’,
the unity of our people and our faith.
As we reflect on the causes and consequences of
military conflict, we should turn our thoughts to the warriors. As we
admonish them, we pray for them as people who are facing mortal danger and
extremely difficult moral choices. We ask God to help them; we pray that the
Lord protect them from injury, captivity and destruction, but especially from
sin: from hard-heartedness, from harming peaceful people, from inhuman
treatment of others, from cowardice and betrayal. May the Lord protect our
soldiers on the difficult paths on which they are nowadays walking at the risk
of their lives.
How important it is that in hostilities there
should be priests alongside soldiers, praying with them, pastoring them,
instructing them in the Gospel, confessing and receiving the Holy Communion of
Christ. May the Lord and Provider of all creation protect with His grace all
our brother pastors, who selflessly, risking their lives, share the danger of
the front together with the soldiers on the front line, leaving their homes and
their families, at times many in number, to escape all evil. I express my
special and deep gratitude to them.
Remembering the clergy who laid down their
lives for others (cf. John 15:13), I testify that, regardless of whether or not
the state provides assistance, the Church has not and will not abandon their
families, as well as the families of those clergymen who - God forbid, of
course - may suffer in the future. I charge the leadership of the Synodal
Department for Co-operation with the Armed Forces, the Synodal Department for
Relations with Society and the Mass Media, as well as the Legal Department of
the Moscow Patriarchate, to step up their co-operation with representatives of
the state in order to provide social guarantees for military clergy and their
families.
I would like to take this opportunity to answer
the question that worries many people, as to whether clergymen are subject to
mobilization in the case of the announcement of mobilization. Unfortunately,
the law does not currently provide for a deferment of mobilization for members
of the clergy. At the same time, the holy canons of the Church strictly
forbid clergymen to join the military service. Thus the 83rd Rule of the
Apostles states: "A bishop, presbyter or deacon, who exercises himself in
military service [...] shall be expelled from the sacred ranks. For to Caesar
the things are Caesar's and to God the things are God's", and the 7th Rule
of the IV Ecumenical Council enjoins "the clergy and monks once ordained
must not be enrolled in military service [...]. Those who dare to do so and do
not return with repentance to that which they first chose for God are to be
anathematized". In reality, despite the loopholes in the law, it is
obvious to many in the leadership of our country that the task of the clergy is
not to take part in armed hostilities with weapons in their hands. In this
connection, during the recent partial mobilization, in cooperation with the
leadership of the Ministry of Defence it was possible to come to a temporary
solution, thanks to which the clergy was granted a deferment from mobilization
for the entire period of their priestly ministry. At the same time, I think
it is important that this decision should be secured. I have already issued a
corresponding instruction to the Legal Department of the Moscow Patriarchate,
which I request, together with the two aforementioned synodal departments, to
work closely on this task.
Dear participants of the diocesan assembly! It
is important to realize that the events we are experiencing are also directly
related to very serious threats to the unity of the Russian Orthodox Church. We
pray with you at each Liturgy that the Lord would hasten His faithful children,
zealous for Church unity, would strengthen them in the spirit of brotherly
love, and would deliver them from trouble; that He would overthrow the schemes
of those who, in the darkness of minds and hardness of hearts, tear away the
Lord's Robe, that is, the Church of the Living God (cf. Prayer for Holy Rus').
I am convinced that each of you puts all your strength and soul into this
prayer. At the same time, for those who live in the free dispensation of Church
life, it is sometimes difficult to imagine to what extent this hardening of
hearts can extend, and how difficult it is nowadays in some countries to remain
committed to the unity of the Church. Hatred of Russia, hatred of our
centuries-old spiritual community, which is declared "spiritual
justification of Russian imperialism", hatred of the identity of
Orthodoxy, rejecting all attempts to "adjust" our worldview to the
standards of the Western secular and globalist project, inexhaustible streams
of slander against the Church, on the Patriarch, on bishops and clergymen - all
this is poured out daily in abundance on many of our brothers outside of Russia
through propaganda in the media, through statements by state and public
figures, through statements by false brethren who themselves have already
become captives of ideas and interests alien to our faith.
This directly affects our dioceses and parishes
in Western countries; it particularly affects the Baltics and to some extent
Moldova, but in Ukraine the darkening of minds and the hardening of hearts of
the destroyers of church unity reaches its highest possible level. There it is not just expressed in
hostile words and publications - there the hatred is expressed in direct
persecution: in forceful seizures of churches, in beatings inflicted on clergy
and laity and threats to their lives, in mass searches and
"counterintelligence activities" in diocesan offices, churches and
monastic convents, in the institution of criminal cases, in calls for a
complete ban on the activities of the canonical Orthodox Church - now not only
in individual regions, but also in the state as a whole at the level of its leadership.
The cost of preserving ecclesiastical unity
thus becomes very high for its defenders. For some, alas, this price was too
high for them to bear, and some were even imbued with the rhetoric of the
persecutors.
We mourn over this, for if one member suffers
in the body of the Lord, "all the members suffer with him" (1 Cor.
12:26). We continue to pray for and with our brothers in Christ, that the Lord
will increase their strength to bear the heavy cross. We pray for peace and an
end to all strife. In justly advocating the unity of the Holy Mother Church
and not remaining blind to attempts at schism, made among other things within
the Church and exhorting those who stray from it to return to the path of
canonical truth, let us avoid every hasty and condemnatory word. Let it not
come out of our mouths, particularly in these trying times! Rather let us
ask the Lord that none of us should be shaken in the event that the day of
trial should come for us. Let us remember the words of the Apostle:
"Whoever thinks himself upright, take heed lest he fall" (1 Cor.
10:12).
You know that the Council of the Ukrainian
Orthodox Church, held in Kyiv on May 27 removed all mention of the Russian
Orthodox Church and the Patriarch from its statutes, except for the reference
to the 1990 edict of His Holiness Patriarch Alexiy II of Moscow and All Russia,
which gave the Ukrainian Orthodox Church wide rights of self-government. In
many churches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church after this Council the
commemoration of the Patriarch's name, provided by the canons of the Church,
ceased.
You also know, how the Holy Synod of the
Russian Orthodox Church responded to it in its decisions of May 29 and June 7.
The Holy Synod testified that, for the plenitude of the Russian Orthodox Church,
the status of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is hitherto defined by the already
mentioned diploma of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy, which expresses the
conciliar consent of the whole episcopate, expressed by the Council of Bishops
on 25-27 October 1990. The Holy Synod stressed that any revision of the
aforementioned status is possible only within the framework of the legitimate
conciliar procedure stipulated by the Charter of our Church. The Charter, which
was adopted in its time with the participation of all Ukrainian bishops. The
Synod warned that actions that disagree with the statutes and canons of the
Church can lead to a new schism and noted that the decisions in Kiev were taken
under unprecedented pressure on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church's bishops, clergy,
monastics and laity by government representatives, dissenters and extremists.
The Synod expressed support for all members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church,
who under these conditions continue to consider it their duty to preserve the
canonical order and to observe the canonical norm of commemoration of the
Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia during masses. The Holy Synod called upon
the whole body of the Church to pray for the preservation of unity, for an
early end to the bloodshed and for the provision of effective assistance to all
those touched by the disaster.
I ask all of you in your public statements and
assessments of current events in Ukraine, as well as in your correspondence and
conversations with clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church not to go beyond
what the Holy Synod has determined. Lest someone's inconsiderate and
self-righteous words should further harm the unity of our Church, inflict
further wounds on those who are already in distress, and add to the suffering
of our brothers and sisters in Christ. Heaven willing, peace will come and the
possibility of unhindered and unrestricted conciliar consultations will return, then the fullness of the Church
will discuss how and what occurred during the difficult times we are
experiencing and how archpastors should proceed in order to reign true to the
word of Christ.
Most Reverend Archpastors, venerable shepherds!
As we ponder the root causes and far-reaching consequences of the current armed
confrontation, we must take into account that not all of our compatriots are
united in their understanding, at least for now. This is partly true for the
parishioners of our churches as well, since our parishes reflect almost all the
diversity of our society. Yes, many parishioners are actively involved in supporting
the soldiers, but there are also those among them who distance themselves from
the decisions of the state or even leave their homeland. All Orthodox people,
whatever their views on political issues, even when we do not agree with them
on these issues, remain our flock. Therefore, the main task of a pastor in
a parish is, as it has been for centuries, to serve the Divine Liturgy,
administer the other sacraments and services, and preach the word of God. You
may be approached by parishioners with a request to give an assessment of the
present situation. Remember that a priest is called first and foremost to be
the voice of the Church. And if he is not sure that he is expressing the
position of the Church on a particular issue, it is better not to speak at all,
but to abstain. In any case, do not engage in inappropriate verbiage, which
can easily lead to unrighteous anger, and if you cannot find the right words,
it is better to refer the person to a more experienced pastor or archpastor.
The person inquiring can always be encouraged to focus on prayer, works of
mercy and helping those who are most in need at this time.
With special care and solicitude I urge you to
reach out to those who come with the grief of losing loved ones in the
fighting. Such people should first of all be invited to pray together, to hold
a requiem service, and to encourage them with a kind pastoral word. We should
help the bereaved to find consolation from above in prayer, which surpasses all
human words.
[Lists material aid provided to refugees and
victims of the war]
We should all be aware that the humanitarian
crisis is likely to continue for a long time to come, so it is important for us
not to falter in our efforts. The circumstances of the time call us, with
particular force, to fulfil the commandment of the Saviour to love our
neighbour, to have mercy, compassion and sacrifice.
(…)
There is no need to be shy. It is our duty,
when pointing out sin, to say, "It is sin," even when it comes to
questions from high ranking people. That is the prophetic ministry of the
Church. We are to proclaim the truth of God, regardless of the faces. Of
course, we can say it in different ways: we can say it with pastoral love, or
we can say it with intonations that will hurt people. But in any case, evil is
evil and vice is vice, and the Church must speak about it. Love for the
sinner should not be confused with indulgence in sin and vice, with
hypocritical respect for a person's sinful choices, with so-called political
correctness.
22/12/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
Hearing this news [Swedish invasion of Russian
Baltic coast], he left the temple, crossed himself and said amazing words:
"God is not in power, but in truth." He had very little chance of
defeating those who were much stronger, better armed, had more knowledge about
military affairs, but the words “God is not in power, but in truth” were
vividly displayed in everything that then happened. Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky
with a small retinue on the banks of the Neva inflicts a crushing defeat on the
Swedes and protects Russia from aggression from the Baltic Sea.
This victory was of historical significance,
but the question arises. At that time, the country was occupied by the
Tatar-Mongols, and the holy prince Alexander, like all Russian princes, had to
go to the khan, bring gifts. Why did he not join the fight against the
Tatar-Mongols? Of
course, because the strength of the Novgorod squad was incommensurable with the
strength of the eastern army, but also because Prince Alexander Nevsky,
despite his young age, managed to see where the real danger came from. Eastern
conquerors were only interested in the material factor. They needed
tribute, and they collected it, but they did not interfere at all in the inner
life. They were indifferent to what god the Russians believed in, whom they
worshiped, what were their internal state and religious arrangements and
customs. It was important for them to collect tribute, and this limited
their role as occupiers. But those who came from the West did not need our
tribute - they needed our souls, our minds, our political will. And this danger
was seen by the young prince Alexander Nevsky and understood with whom to
fight, not sparing his life. Having no chance to win, he utterly defeated the
Swedes, and it was really a great victory that protected the Russian land from
occupation, which could damage its spiritual life.
The Holy Prince Alexander Nevsky accomplished
many important deeds, won many victories over the enemy, who, by his possible
occupation of the Russian land, could bring spiritual death, change the
spiritual, religious, cultural code of the country. Now we are talking about
all this in modern categories of thought, Alexander Nevsky did not use and did
not know such a language, but with his mind, his heart, his intuition, if you
like, he saw the real danger. And our people have retained true sovereignty, so
that even the most terrible world wars have not been able to inflict spiritual
harm on them. Much blood was shed, but the example of Alexander Nevsky even in
the terrible years of the Great Patriotic War inspired our soldiers to defend
not only the wealth of our land, not only political sovereignty, but also our
spiritual sovereignty, our faith, our tradition,
Remembering the holy noble prince Alexander
Nevsky, we lift up prayers so that, standing before the Lord, he will protect
our country today. We have entered a period of very difficult relations with
a number of countries, and God grant that the mercy of God would take away our
suffering and sorrow from our Fatherland, avert the gravest consequences for
national life. Today we offer prayers to St. Alexander Nevsky with the same
request with which many generations of Orthodox people offered prayers to him
when they encountered a dangerous force that could radically affect the spiritual
life of the people.
We believe that through the prayers of the holy
noble prince Alexander Nevsky, the Lord will protect our Fatherland today, and
keep us all in peace. All of us, that is, all people on both sides of the
borders, because there can be no peace in one place when there is a heavy war
in another. Through
the prayers of those who put a lot of effort into establishing peace in our
Fatherland, peace, tranquility, and justice reigned in human hearts, and the
peace of God descended on the troubled, so complicated, contradictory modern
world.
06/12/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
All this is very difficult; but when it comes
to the resettlement of an entire people, then, of course, this is a special
feat of the spirit. And, probably, he would never have been so successful if
not for the Orthodox faith. Unlike many conquerors who conquered Africa,
North and South America and, colonizing these lands, brought violence, death
and destruction, nothing like this happened in Russia. The question may arise:
why? And the answer is very simple: the Orthodox faith. People brought up in
the Orthodox faith could not bear death, destruction, fires, violence - this
simply did not correspond to the spiritual dispensation of a Russian person.
(…)
The Russians came and did not commit those
terrible atrocities that the colonialists usually commit—after all, the
conscience was Orthodox!
04/12/2022 (Source)
Words during his birthday celebration
You and I, dear Bishops and Fathers, are
responsible before God for human hearts, and therefore, we are at the forefront
today. Do not distance yourself from this responsibility - neither from
patriotic education, nor from personal participation in the nourishment of our
army, volunteers. We must support them in word, deed and materially. And we, as
a Church, must take part in the struggle of our Fatherland against world evil,
against this leprosy, against this antichrist movement that can destroy both
the whole world and Russia.
Therefore, as a Patriarch, I call all of you
to wakefulness, to the multiplication of strength. We need to strengthen the
faith of our people, inspire soldiers, work with our intelligentsia, with the
media, so that the word of the Church spreads and helps people live, work, and
fight for the Motherland.
Remembering what the word of God says in
relation to the coming of the Antichrist into the world, we can say that today
Russia is a restrainer. And this means that all the forces of the Antichrist
will be thrown at our country. What is the core of spiritual resistance in our
country? Undoubtedly, the Russian Orthodox Church. Therefore, you and I, brethren,
do not expect easy times. We need to mobilize. Everyone must fulfill his duty
to the maximum, go where we did not go yesterday, to those with whom only
yesterday we did not know how to speak correctly. Today we must work, realizing
that we are on the front flank, on the most important line of spiritual defense
of our people and our country.
And may the Lord help us all to rethink our
behavior, our way of life, our habits. To go where we may not have even thought
of going yesterday. May the Lord help us all so that together with everyone
who loves the Motherland, we can today stand up for the Fatherland and do
everything in order to gain victory.
20/11/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of sermon on his birthday
There is no greater need today than peace and
the calming of internecine strife in the expanses of historical Rus'. And there
is nothing more important today to protect our Russian Fatherland from all
sorts of slander and aspirations to deprive our country of independence, true
sovereignty, the ability to think the way our people desire and act in
accordance with national interests.
There is a lot of tension around these topics
today, and all of you, my dear ones, know about it. The Church does not
participate in politics in any way, but takes to heart the sorrow of people,
the pain of her people, and, of course, today our special prayer is for peace,
for prosperity and tranquility in the Russian land, for an end to internecine
strife, for the admonition of those of our brothers, who, driven by a dark
third-party force, are working to divide the single body of the Russian
Orthodox Church. But we believe that the unity of the Church and the
spiritual unity of all the people of Holy Rus' will be preserved, because we
pray for this, we work for this, and we know that all the saints who shone in
the Russian land, all the generations that preceded us, pray together with us,
in particular those who passed through trials of internecine strife, divisions
and civil wars. We have strong prayer books,
Today we are living through really difficult
times, but there is a good Russian proverb: a terrible dream, but God is
merciful. A dream is something that is unreal, something that cannot truly
destroy a person's life. And many conflicts do not actually have sufficient
force to destroy the national spiritual life of the entire people of Holy Rus'.
We know that in the past everything happened in Rus' - internecine strife,
clashes between brothers, the division of a single state; and in order not to
repeat what so dramatically weakened the strength of Rus'-Russia, we must pray
today for the unity of all our people, the Orthodox people, the children of the
Russian Orthodox Church, living in Russia, and in Ukraine, and in Belarus, and
in many other countries. The Prayer of the Righteous Can Accomplish
Much(see James 5:16), and the prayer of the Church can accomplish even more. Therefore,
I call on all of you to pray for the unity of historical Holy Rus', for the
unity of our Church, for victory over all opponents, both external and
internal, who seek to use the current political conditions to weaken, and
perhaps destroy Holy Rus'.
(…)
I would like to express my gratitude to the
President of our country, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, with whom the
Patriarch, who represents the entire Church in these contacts with the
President, has unanimity on very important issues of our time. I would like to express gratitude
to the President and all authorities for the conditions in which the service of
the Russian Orthodox Church is carried out in the Russian Federation today. As
you know, now this ministry is not limited to the walls of churches, but has
gone out into the world, into society, into the people. The Church is
actively involved in the education system, in the work of the Armed Forces, in
relations with our intelligentsia, with the world of science, and, perhaps,
there is not a single important direction in public life, wherever the Church
is not present and wherever our people do not manifest themselves to it with
attention and kindness. This indicates that that we live in a different
era. We went through confrontation, persecution, sorrow for the Christians
of Russia, and today there is an opportunity, starting from our Christian
convictions, to actively participate in the creation of our Fatherland.
But I would like to once again especially
emphasize the importance of preserving the unity of the Russian Orthodox
Church, the importance of each bishop working in his place, really not sparing
his life. So that every priest, looking at the example of the archpastor, also
carries out his ministry in the parish. So that every monastic realizes his
special responsibility - by the power of prayer, obedience, and his feat to
support the spiritual life of the people. And I believe that Russia, which
has never bowed before any adversary, will then be invincible, just as all Holy
Rus' will be invincible.
20/11/2022 (Source)
Thanks after speech in his honour on his birthday
We must be faithful to the Lord. We must be
united within our Church. We must pay special attention to the education of
children and youth, combining Orthodox education with patriotic education.
Because there can be no love for one's neighbour without love for one's
Fatherland. I would urge all of you to perceive in this way the time in which
the Lord commanded you and me to live.
20/11/2022 (Source)
Words at the start of a meeting of the Supreme Church
Council
We have gathered today to discuss the current
issues that are on the agenda. But our meeting is taking place
in a difficult context, in which our Fatherland, and our Church, and many
countries are today. Indeed, in the canonical space of the Russian Church,
hostilities are being carried out, in a sense, internecine strife, accompanied
by losses, and, as everyone knows, one of the losses affected us very closely
and very strongly. This is the death of Father Mikhail Vasiliev, who was a
very active participant in the pastoral work in the Armed Forces and in the
full sense of the word did not spare his stomach, being at the forefront. One thing I saw while performing
the funeral service in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, testifies to that
great recognition, of the love that military personnel felt for Father Michael. Father
Michael died on the battlefield, remaining true to his pastoral duty and
priestly oath. Therefore,
let's start our meeting with the proclamation of ‘Eternal memory’ to him.
Yesterday I ordered that, until the youngest
child of Father Michael comes of age, his family should be paid his salary from
the parish where he served. But, of course, no material factors can lower the level of that grief
and those experiences that the family of Father Mikhail has faced today. I
really hope that he will remain in our prayers, and I encourage all those who
can help, including support his family, to such good deeds.
10/11/2022 (Source)
Words during funeral service for a chaplain
killed in Ukraine
Of course, in order to carry out priestly
service in the Armed Forces, every clergyman needs to realize that at any
moment, remaining next to those who defend the Motherland, he can lose his
life. That is why the special attitude in the Church to those servicemen who
are today defending the Motherland shoulder to shoulder. That is why the
special attitude of the Church to those clergymen who stand shoulder to
shoulder together with the soldiers, defending the Motherland.
Father Michael lived a rich life. He managed to
do a lot. But all his deeds, which were constantly associated with certain
dangers, were simultaneously dedicated to both the Church and his Motherland.
But this combination of love for the Motherland and the Church is an ideal, and
he embodied this ideal in his life and remained faithful to this ideal even to
death.
09/11/2022 (Source)
Sermon
Every time we gather for worship as the Church
of God, as a single community of faith, we pray, and the words of the prayers
that the priest reads, and the words of the litanies that the deacon says, call
us to pray not only about our own, but also about many other things. In
particular, every time we are called to pray for the authorities and the army,
that is, for those who bear special responsibility for the fate of the country.
And this prayer should not be mechanical. We must not ignore these petitions, especially
when the people face dangers face to face – such dangers that defy the very
existence of our country.
Today, too, we are going through such dangers
and we ask the Lord and the Queen of Heaven, Who, we believe, covers all of
Rus' with Her sovereign Mantle, so that She saves our people and all the
peoples of Rus' from the dangerous internecine strife imposed from the outside.
Unfortunately, not all politicians are smart enough to understand
where the wind is blowing from and what is behind this desire of powerful
forces outside of Rus' to excite people to internecine strife. There is only
one thing behind this - the desire to weaken Holy Rus'. When I say this, I mean
Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, which, according to the outstanding ascetic of
piety Lavrenty of Chernigov, are Holy Rus'.
So, we must clearly understand that we have
entered into such an era. And this is not only a provocation of
hostilities, but a diabolical temptation aimed at pushing the fraternal people
into internecine strife. And therefore, today our common prayer, the prayer of
the Russian Orthodox Church, whose children are Russians, Ukrainians,
Belarusians, and all Orthodox people who live in the expanses of historical
Rus', that all internecine strife cease, that the enemy’s slanders disappear,
evaporated, passed away, and for Rus' to develop as a powerful Orthodox
community of people, able to oppose their spiritual life and their spiritual
experience to extremely dangerous temptations that corrupt the human soul and
push it into the abyss of sin. These temptations, these temptations today are
testing the strength of Orthodox people,
Of course, a special responsibility falls on
those who are entrusted with the duty to defend the borders of our Motherland,
because they can aim anywhere, but they will hit Russia. Today it is a
kind of pillar and ground of the truth (see 1 Tim. 3:15). These words were
spoken in relation to the Church, but our believing people, having accepted the
word of God with their mind and heart, brushing aside many political, cultural,
economic temptations throughout history and remaining free from these temptations,
is in itself something to be a pillar of truth. Only God grant that we all hold
on to the Orthodox faith, refrain from sin, so that we can be such pillars of
truth, perceiving the word of God and including it in our consciousness, our
heart and our life.
Today we prayed for all our servicemen and, of
course, especially for our guards. We prayed that the Lord would give
strength to those who are called to defend the Motherland, strengthen their
will and, most importantly, strengthen in them the consciousness of the
rightness of the deed that every soldier does, standing up for the defense of
his Fatherland. His parents, his family and his land, which the Lord gave to
all of us, the inhabitants of Russia.
I would like again and again from the bottom of
my heart to wish the high representatives of our Guards, the Armed Forces and
all the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation to have, first of all, spiritual
strength. Because where, for some reason, another force can weaken, only
the strength of the spirit makes it possible to win. Once again I want to say
that the very concept of “spirit” is not a material concept. Surprisingly, even
unbelieving Marxists spoke about the strength of the spirit, calling for a
strong spirit. But how could one call for a strong spirit when one did not
believe in the spirit? But today we believe in the spirit. We believe that a
person has not only a material, physical body, but also an immortal spirit, in
which all this moral force lives, capable of moving a person to lay down his soul
for his neighbors. Not in the
brain, not in the liver, not in the lungs, in no other way is this strength – it
is in the human spirit. Unfortunately, for many decades, those in power
have rejected the right of our people to have a soul, but today we all have the
opportunity to believe in the Lord, and I thank our authorities, and our Armed
Forces, and our Orthodox intelligentsia, teachers, and not least our pious
clergy for strengthening the strength of the spirit of our people.
It is the strength of the spirit that I would
like to wish today to our guards, and the Armed Forces, the clergy and all the
believing people. The stronger the spirit, the more power the people
have to resist external and sometimes internal dangerous destructive
influences. And may the Lord help us in this way, and not otherwise, to go
through our life's career, strengthening spiritually and thereby serving both
the Church and our Fatherland. Amen.
06/11/2022 (Source)
Message to Vladimir Putin on National Unity Day
Please accept my heartfelt congratulations on
National Unity Day.
The history of this holiday is inextricably
linked with the memory of the difficult times for Russia, which our ancestors
were able to overcome by rallying around national shrines and realizing the
responsibility for the fate of the people and the future of their country.
Celebrating this day in honor of the Kazan Icon
of the Mother of God, we testify with gratitude to the many mercies of the Lord
shown to our ancestors in the past, honor the memory of the heroes who defended
the freedom and independence of the Motherland, and hope for help from above in
building a peaceful and prosperous life. Now the Russian Orthodox
Church lifts up solemn prayers for our God-protected country, the authorities,
the army and the people, so that the Lord overthrows the plans of all those who
have taken up arms against Holy Rus', and affirms in people the spirit of
brotherly love and peace.
I am grateful to you for your continued
attention to the activities of the Moscow Patriarchate, for your personal
contribution to the harmonization of church-state relations. I hope that
such cooperation will continue to develop, bearing good fruit, contributing to
the establishment in the minds of contemporaries of the enduring ideals of
mercy and justice, unity and social harmony, and the preservation of the rich
historical, spiritual and cultural heritage of our country.
I wish you strength of mind and body, God's
generous help, and blessed success in your high and responsible service as
President of the Russian Federation.
04/11/2022 (Source)
Message to Mikhail Vladimirovich Mishustin,
Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, in National Unity Day
I heartily congratulate you on National Unity
Day.
More than four centuries have passed since our
people, having defeated foreign invaders, returned freedom and independence to
the country, defended their spiritual and cultural identity.
Turning to the origins of national history and
glorifying on this day the Most Holy Theotokos, who granted deliverance to the
Mother See of the city through Her miraculous Kazan image, now we also pray
with special zeal for our Fatherland, for its preservation from the invasion of
foreigners, for peace and unanimity of the whole people.
I hope that the successful co-operation of the
Russian Orthodox Church with state authorities and public institutions will
continue to bear many good fruits, contributing to the spiritual, moral and
patriotic education of the younger generation.
I wish you good health and God's unfailing help
in your high and responsible service for the good of Russia.
04/11/2022 (Source)
Speech on National Unity Day
More than four centuries ago, it was with the
liberation of the Moscow Kremlin that the revival of the lost internal
integrity of our Fatherland began. Back in 1612, thanks to the joint efforts of
our courageous ancestors, foreign invaders were expelled from the heart of the
country and its comprehensive revival began.
Over the centuries that have passed since then,
our people have experienced many trials, overcame many difficulties, creating a
unique civilizational space, the most important value orientations of which
were love for truth, mercy, mutual respect and good neighborliness. Note:
not a single purely utilitarian and even more so political goal! No domination,
no power, no money, but only what pleases the Lord.
Formed by the labours of many outstanding sons
and daughters of our Fatherland, Russian culture has long overstepped the
national boundaries, becoming an integral part of the common heritage of all
mankind. Unfortunately, today we are witnessing destructive attempts made by a
number of Western countries to ban or exclude Russian culture from the agenda,
the fault of which, according to its critics, lies precisely in traditionalism,
in appealing to the fundamental qualities of the human soul, in the readiness
to affirm the truth of God and to show the world the beauty and power of
Christianity.
Spiritual and cultural aggression against our
country is by no means new. Perhaps the origins of this should be sought
precisely in our spiritual otherness. How can one not recall here the subtle,
but very strong remark of the outstanding thinker Nikolai Yakovlevich
Danilevsky, who drew attention to the fact that the basis of the Western
European understanding of human culture is the identification of the fate of
European civilization with the fate of all mankind, which inevitably leads to
the forcible imposition of Western values on other nations and to destruction
of other traditions, destroys cultural diversity.
However, all this fundamentally contradicts the
civilizational foundations of our people, for which adherence to unshakable
moral principles, careful attitude to historical memory and deep respect for
the spiritual traditions of other peoples have always been of paramount
importance. And if it were not so, then there would never have been a great
multinational, multicultural and even multireligious space of Holy Rus'. Our
great culture was created by the efforts of many people belonging to different
ethnic groups, living in different territories, but thinking of themselves as
belonging to a single Russian tradition.
Today, despite the forces that seek to sow
discord, increase the fruits of hatred among the heirs of Holy Russia, we must
testify with one mouth and one heart not only about the commonality of culture,
spiritual tradition, historical destiny, but also about the unity of faith of
all East Slavic peoples who emerged from a single Dnieper font Baptism in 988.
I remember the day of the celebration of the
1020th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus', when in Kyiv, on Khreshchatyk,
thousands of people proclaimed the words of St. Lawrence of Chernigov: "Ukraine,
Russia, Belarus - together we are Holy Rus'!" It was a choir of
many thousands of people who were united by a single faith, a single national
identity. What strength was shown then by our people! I am sincerely convinced
that today the desire to split the united people of historical Rus', to oppose
one part of it to another, to sow hatred for our common past in the minds and
hearts is fed by anti-Christian motives, the desire to etch the image of God
from a person, to enslave people to the power of sin and vice, to make them
exclusively subjects global market and consumers of wealth. The tragic
situation currently prevailing in Ukraine is a vivid confirmation of this. And
we grieve, pray and hope that the Lord will give His mercy to the people of
Ukraine, and therefore to all of historical Rus’.
It must be clearly understood that opposition
to the destructive action of hostile forces that destroy the spiritual
foundations of our life, captivate the souls of our contemporaries and seek to
separate the peoples of historical Rus' into national apartments, should be
based primarily on following the Divine will, as well as on preserving the
internal unity of society, on love for God and for each other. This is the
guarantee of a worthy future for our people, and this is the only way to
preserve unity, love, mutual understanding and good cooperation between the
peoples of Holy Rus'.
It is gratifying to testify that the Russian
Orthodox Church today is finding faithful co-workers among the state
authorities, among representatives of other traditional religions in the work
of establishing enduring spiritual and moral values in people's lives. Our
sacred duty is to make every effort to preserve the priceless treasure of our
spiritual culture and heal the wounds of divisions with love.
God grant that by our joint work the life of
our country, state, our people will continue to improve on a solid foundation
of enduring spiritual and moral values that we absorbed with mother's milk
from our ancestors, from our faith, from our spiritual tradition. It is upon
this foundation that our national life must be based. Today, this is what we
pray for and ask the Lord to preserve the unity of Holy Rus', to preserve the
Orthodox faith, to preserve in all of us the ability to live, work, create
together a future that would really be based on those Divine principles of
human existence, without which there can be no human welfare. And everything
else that contradicts these principles, - so that by the power of God it leaves
the boundaries of our historical Fatherland and ceases to excite and infect
with itself, with its pernicious and dangerous content, the souls of our
people. God grant that all of us, by the power of God, have the opportunity to
follow the historical path determined by God for all our people, keeping faith
in our hearts, and therefore hope for our salvation. Amen.
04/11/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
It is today that our Fatherland is going
through trials that are associated with the turning towards Russia of evil
views, evil thoughts, evil will. Some believe that the time has come when
Russia can be done away with. Why? But because Russia is an
alternative view of the world, of God, of man. It does not fit into the
framework of that programmed system that excludes God from people's lives, and
therefore Russia is like a thorn in the eye for many. What is happening
today is not just another military campaign. One gets the impression that
many wanted to wipe Orthodox Rus from the face of the earth. But let it
not be so! And therefore, today our special prayer is for our authorities,
for our army, for our President, for all those on whom the outcome of the
battle that we entered against our will really depends.
And after all, with us are the holy lands of Russia
and the holy, merciful, humble old man, the Monk Seraphim! Today he is
also with us, today he is also with Russia, because he is from there, from the
Kingdom of Heaven, from that point in front of which the horizons of eternity
are open, he sees and knows what is happening to our Fatherland. And
therefore, there should be a fervent prayer to him today, so that by his
intercession to the Lord he will grant victory to our army where hostilities
are going on, so that he will pacify people, so that any internecine strife on
the land of historical Russia and any invasion of foreign tribes will stop.
Through the prayers of our holy reverend and
God-bearing father Seraphim of Sarov, may the Lord preserve the Russian land,
our Church and this holy monastery. Amen.
23/10/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
May the Lord help all of us, all of our people,
which today is subjected to many temptations. Our country and
our people are criticized, they teach us how to live, what to do, which way to
go. It is in connection with these complaints and accusations against
Russia that we must remember that we have our own historical path. And in
order to be sure of the correctness of this path, we must correlate it, and
hence our actions, with God's truth, and then no temptations will darken our
consciousness and weaken the strength of our national life.
Today we have really entered a period of very difficult
international relations, but the truth is above all, and one cannot compromise
with a lie, even if this lie is very strong. After all, the devil is the
father of lies (see John 8:44), so to compromise with lies is to compromise
with the devil, and the devil does not wish us well. That is why it is
very important, my dear ones, first of all, to keep the faith, because through
the Orthodox faith, the highest wisdom appears to us, revealed in the Divine
commandments, in spiritual experience, in the experience of prayer, in contact
with God.
That is why now is the very time when everyone needs to be
strengthened in the faith, especially all our wavering intellectuals, who have
one foot in the Church, the other outside the Church. We need to end this
dichotomy, this division, we really need to accept the faith of our fathers and
forefathers as a great force that protected and saved our people. And
today, undoubtedly, faith will inspire us on the path of love and service to
our Fatherland and on the path of love for each other.
22/10/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
Today, remembering St. Peter, we pray at his
holy relics. Of course, for the Russian state and for the dissipation of
all the slanders of the enemy, which today are aimed at the final and
irrevocable destruction of the unity of Rus'. Because these plans help the
enemies of Rus', but Rus' itself, be it Russia or Ukraine, does not benefit
from them, although many forces are working to prove the opposite, as if the
division of Rus' is something good.
Once a politician asked me: "That's why
you are so defensive about preserving the unified space of Rus’? After
all, this is the Middle Ages! And now the political situation has changed. I
replied: "Maybe it would really be an irrevocable change, if we were not
talking about the life of a single people, regardless of how it is
called today. But it is one people, and it wants to live in a big house."
And I then asked this gentleman, "Would you rather live in a small
apartment, defending your kind of freedom and independence from others? Or in a
big apartment, in a big house? Well,
we prefer to live in a big house, but not so crowded, so that this living would
not turn into something that sometimes happens in hostels, when people become
enemies”.
And today there is such a situation in the
expanse of Rus’, when each person, living in his own house, must in so doing be
conscious of his belonging to the united spiritual space of Holy Rus’, to the heirs of the Grand Princes
Vladimir and Alexander Nevsky, the heirs of those Grand Princes, who
established Orthodoxy and fought the enemies. And today, this awareness of
belonging to one people is so important in order to avoid any military upheavals
in the space of Holy Rus’, to have the strength and wisdom to resist
temptations, temptations and provocations, aimed at bringing together one
people in another fratricidal war.
We pray and will pray for the unity of Holy Rus’ – how else could it be? How
else can we imagine ourselves, praying in the Kremlin under the vaults of the
Cathedral of the Assumption of All Rus’? The very walls themselves cry out for
this truth – that we are all one people, and this Cathedral of All Rus’
bears the seal of responsibility for the spiritual well-being of all Orthodox
Christians, present in the territory of Holy Rus’. It is the responsibility
for our Church, one and indivisible, that it preserves its unity and through
that unity manifests the will of God for all our people, wherever they may live
– in Moscow or Kiev, in Minsk or other cities. It is a single
spiritual community, united by the bonds of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Our prayers today are that this unity, as I
said, will not be shaken or destroyed. But for it to be so, each of us
must work to preserve this unity by praying first, for the Lord hears
prayers. Through prayer, the Lord delivered our land from the invasion of
foreign tribesmen and from internecine strife. And if you look closely at your life's journey –
the Lord rescued everyone from tribulations, troubles and evils by his prayers.
God hears our prayers, especially the prayers not for any personal little
well-being, but for the spiritual well-being, spiritual health of our united
historical nation of Holy Rus’.
And I want to tell you once again: all these
thoughts are actualized, when you look at the historical walls of the Cathedral
of the Assumption – the cathedral of Holy Rus’. May God incline His mercy to
all our people, cease internecine warfare, which today, unfortunately, in some
lands of historical Rus’ acquires the form of real military action. May
the Lord give wisdom to everyone who is involved in these hostilities. And everyone must understand that he
is shooting at his brother, and therefore the cessation of war, the
establishment of peace and the spiritual unity of all our people – that is what our prayer today is
about and that is what must be the subject of our common labors.
But when we say this, we are very far from what
in Western parlance is called pacifism. Pacifism is the struggle for
peace under any circumstances and very often under any conditions. But we always say – and this is
ingrained in our spiritual tradition – there can be no peace without justice. Peace
without justice breaks down whenever there is any complication or change in
people's attitudes. So peace must be lasting. And for it to be such, it is
necessary that by the power of God all devilish thoughts should be eradicated
from the consciousness of people who do not aspire to the spiritual unity of
Holy Russia, so that we all become aware of our responsibility for the
preservation of the spiritual unity of the Russian world.
And may the Lord help all of
us to fulfill our ministry in this manner, each in his own place. I have the
courage to use the word "Russian World" within these walls, even
though I know that some forces in Ukraine demonize it. But we do not use
the word "Russian" in the sense that it means only a part of
historical Russia that corresponds to the Russian Federation. We use the word
in the same sense as Nestor the Chronicler used it when he spoke of "where
the Russian land came from. Not Russian, not Ukrainian, not Byelorussian – where did the Russian
land come from! This is the sense in which we use this word – with full
responsibility, inner calmness, and confidence in the rightness of our
position.
Once again I call upon all of you, my dear
ones, to pray today for the entire Russian land, for the peoples who inhabit
this land, for the overcoming of differences, and especially for the ending of
internecine strife, which always entails death and human suffering. That the
Lord reunite us all in the one body of one Holy Rus’. That with all
understanding of the political picture of the world, with all respect for such
political concepts of modern times as the sovereignty of individual nations,
our awareness that we are one people – the people of Holy Russia – is not
destroyed in any way.
Through the prayers of St. Peter, the Kiev
Saints, from St. Michael to the holy confessor Vladimir, who laid down his life
at the walls of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra during the civil war, through the
prayers of all, who worked in the name of Holy Orthodoxy in the expanses of
Russia, may God stop the internecine strife and may He restore peace and
love among the children of the one historical Fatherland, called Orthodox Rus'.
Upon this our prayers today and upon this we direct our labors. Amen.
18/10/2022 (Source)
Excerpt
from a sermon
Today,
too, there are rather difficult circumstances related to what is happening on
the external borders of our Fatherland. Forces are rising again that
dream of destroying and subjugating Russia. Today, all this is put into other
verbal forms, but behind all this is the inescapable dream of those who attacked
Russia from the West: to destroy our sovereignty, deprive us of our freedom,
and then use all the resources of the richest country in the world for their
own purposes. And today, with a very special feeling, a prayer is raised to the
Most Holy Theotokos, and with a special feeling the events associated with the
glorification of the Queen of Heaven, sitting on the throne, are remembered. We
believe that the Protection of the Most Pure Blessed Queen of Heaven is over
us, over our country, over our people, and it will be so as long as we keep the
faith.
14/10/2022 (Source)
Congratulation of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill
to the President of Russia V.V. To Putin on his 70th birthday
Your Excellency, dear Vladimir Vladimirovich!
Please accept my heartfelt congratulations on
your significant life date - your 70th birthday.
Over many years of tireless work in key
government positions, you have gained a reputation as a national leader,
selflessly devoted to the Fatherland, sincerely loving the Motherland and
giving her all your strength, abilities and talents. The Lord placed you at the
helm of power, so that you could perform a service of special importance and
great responsibility for the fate of the country and the people entrusted to
your care. Transformation of the image of Russia, strengthening of its
sovereignty and defense capability, protection of national interests,
progressive socio-economic development, concern for the well-being of fellow
citizens - these are just some of the obvious and indisputable results of many
years of joint work of various branches of government and public institutions,
carried out under your leadership.
I am very pleased to testify to the changes
that have taken place in the past time in the sphere of church-state relations,
marked by the creation of a unique model of cooperation, building a trusting
and mutually beneficial dialogue. I would like to express my special
gratitude to you for your continued attention to the service of the Russian
Orthodox Church, the needs and aspirations of believers, as well as for the
active support that you provide to the most important church and public
initiatives.
I hope that the existing fruitful cooperation
will continue to contribute to the consolidation of the people, the
preservation of the rich historical, spiritual and cultural heritage of Russia,
the creation of a peaceful and prosperous life for fellow citizens on the
unshakable principles of solidarity and mutual assistance, goodness and
justice.
On this significant day for you and our country,
I wish you unrelenting strength, God's abundant help and blessed success in
your further service in the high and responsible post of the state leader of
great Russia.
May the all-merciful Lord keep you in a
spiritual and physical strength for many years.
With deep and sincere respect
07/10/2022 (Source)
Circular letter sent to all clergy of the
Russian Orthodox Church
October 7 this year Russian President Vladimir
Vladimirovich Putin turns 70 years old.
His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All
Russia calls on all archpastors, pastors, monastics and laity to offer fervent
prayer at home on this day for the health of the Head of the Russian State.
October 8 - on the day of the feast of our
venerable father Sergius, hegumen of Radonezh, who many centuries ago blessed
the prince of Moscow - the holy blessed Demetrius of Donskoy - and the
Russian army to fight the enemy, who wanted the dismemberment of the Russian
Land and encouraged civil strife among its people, His Holiness the
Patriarch blesses to raise to the Special Litany of the Divine Liturgy, a
special petition for the health of the President of Russia, adding them to
the already established petitions for Holy Russia, and also to proclaim many
years after the dismissal of the Liturgy, according to the following wording:
- on a special litany, after petitions for Holy
Russia: We pray Thee, O Lord our God, yet for the Head of the State of Russia,
Vladimir Vladimirovich, and for the gift of Thy abundant mercies and bounties, granting
him health and long life, and delivering him from all resistance both visible
and invisible, establishing him in wisdom and spiritual fortitude, whereby
we pray, Lord hear us and have mercy;
- many years: A prosperous and peaceful
life, health and salvation and good haste in everything, give the Lord to the
now honored Head of the Russian State Vladimir Vladimirovich, the power, army
and people of our God-protected Fatherland and save them for many and good
years!
06/10/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from sermon
Once again, I would like to say that today is a
time when we must especially ask ourselves this life-changing question:
"What am I doing?" Because what is happening today in the expanses
of Holy Russia certainly darkens the hearts of many. I will not speak about
myself, but with these thoughts, with this suffering, I lie down, get up and
spend the whole day, because I am the Patriarch not only of Moscow, but of all
Russia. But at the same time I believe that by the grace of God this
misfortune will pass, that it will not undermine the deep foundations of our
coexistence, which keep the people of Holy Russia, living in Russia and in
Ukraine, united. I believe that the Lord will bow down in mercy and the
internecine strife will cease. And where today is perplexity, suffering
and sorrow, our human love to each other should appear. And in response to this
love, God's love for our united people, for those who live in Russia and
Ukraine, for those who live in different parts of the world.
(…)
My parents survived the Leningrad siege, and
they told me about how God's churches in Leningrad were filled, how hungry
people, almost dying, flocked to the churches, despite the shelling, despite
the weakening of all physical strength. The churches of Leningrad were
overcrowded during the blockade, and perhaps this prayer saved the city. I
don’t want to compare the current times with what Leningraders experienced
during the hardest years of the blockade, but in a sense, a fateful time has
come today! Because many are rebelling against Russia, and many are dizzy in
the desire to destroy Russia, its identity, its independence, its freedom. And
today we must especially strengthen ourselves in the faith, fill our churches,
pray for the authorities, for the army, for our relatives, loved ones, pray for
the Orthodox Church, which in these difficult circumstances maintains the
spiritual unity of Holy Russia.
And may the Lord help us! Once again I want to
say that we have lived with you to a fateful time, and in a fateful time we
should renew our faith, sharpen our consciousness and our memory, look
differently at much of what we looked at yesterday without much attention and
special care. Then our spiritual mobilization, to which I now call everyone,
will also help the mobilization of all the forces of our Fatherland. And it
will undoubtedly help in the end the complete reconciliation of Russia and
Ukraine, which constitute the single space of the Russian Orthodox Church.
You can imagine the state of me as the
Patriarch of All Russia, when today a brother kills a brother. Probably, someone from the bearers
of extreme political views will say: here, pacifism is preaching at a time when
... Not pacifism, but with these words I simply testify to our common duty
before God - to pray for an end to internecine strife, to do everything in
order to fraternal relations between the two parts of united Russia have been
restored, and we also pray that the Lord will deliver, especially our youth,
from the fact that their lives are cut short in this internecine strife. And
in order for it to be so, it is necessary, it is necessary that the fighting
cease.
And may the Lord help us, the saints of united
Russia, the reverends of the Kiev Caves and the reverend fathers of numerous
monasteries, including the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, in the expanses of great
Russia! Let us trust in their prayers, because their souls are grieving and
suffering today over what is happening. And let us hope that by common
efforts, without going down the path of dangerous compromises that could harm
united Russia, we all simultaneously moved along the path of reconciliation
and the restoration of that spiritual unity that was formed in the depths of
the united Russian Orthodox Church.
May God's blessing abide over all Holy Russia,
over those in authority, over spiritual leaders, over warriors and over all
those on whom the peaceful and prosperous outcome of this very dangerous clash
between two fraternal peoples can depend. May the Lord keep us all and
strengthen us in faith, love, unanimity. Amen.
27/09/2022 (Source)
Prayer for Holy Russia
Lord God of strength, God of our salvation,
look in mercy on Your humble servant, hear and have mercy on us: behold,
those who want to fight against Holy Russia, hoping to divide and destroy her
one people.
Arise, O God, to help Thy people and give us victory
by Thy power.
Hurry to your faithful children, jealous of the
unity of the Russian Church, strengthen them in the spirit of brotherly love
and deliver them from troubles. Forbid those who tear apart in the
darkening of minds and hardening of hearts Thy robe, which is the Church of the
Living God, and overthrow their plans.
By the grace of Thy power, guide for every good
and enrich with wisdom!
Confirm the warriors and all the defenders of
our Fatherland in Your commandments, send down the strength of the spirit to
them, save them from death, wounds and captivity!
Deprived of shelter and in exile of beings,
bring them into houses, nourish the hungry, strengthen and heal those who are
ill and suffering, give good hope and comfort to those who are in confusion and
sorrow!
Grant forgiveness of sins to all those killed
in these days and who died from wounds and illnesses and create blessed repose!
Fill us even in Thee with faith, hope and love,
raise peace and unanimity in all the countries of Holy Russia, renew love for each other in Your
people, as if with one mouth and one heart we confess to You, the One God in
the Trinity glorious. Thou art intercession, and victory, and salvation to
those who trust in Thee and we send glory to You, the Father and the Son and
the Holy Spirit, now and forever, and forever and ever. Amen.
25/09/2022 (Source)
Full
sermon
“For God so loved the world that he gave his
only begotten Son” (John 3:16). To death! Only Begotten Son,
Divine Son! And why was this terrible divine Sacrifice required, the scale
and significance of which cannot be grasped by the human mind? Almighty
God gives Himself up for execution, which was used to execute criminals,
outcasts of human society, who really committed terrible, dangerous crimes.
When one thinks about this ineffable divine
Sacrifice, it is difficult for the human mind to grasp the entire divine
plan. But it is quite obvious that the Lord gives Himself, suffers and
dies in a human way, not for something that would be completely
incomprehensible to us and inherent only to Him, who has immense knowledge
about Himself. He gives us the opportunity to understand that if God in
His Son gives His human life for the sake of other people, for the sake of the
human race, then sacrifice is the highest manifestation of a person's love
for his neighbors. Sacrifice is the greatest manifestation of the best human
qualities.
We know that today many are dying on the
fields of internecine warfare. The Church prays that this warfare will end
as soon as possible, that as few brothers as possible kill each other in this
fratricidal war. And at the same time, the Church is aware that if
someone, driven by a sense of duty, the need to fulfill an oath, remains true
to his calling and dies in the line of military duty, then he undoubtedly
commits an act that is tantamount to a sacrifice. He sacrifices himself
for others. And therefore we believe that this sacrifice washes away all
the sins that a person has committed.
The war that is now going on in the vastness of
Russia is an internecine strife. And that is why it is so important that
as a result of this battle there should not be a wave of bitterness and
alienation; so that the fraternal peoples are not divided by an
impenetrable wall of hatred. And the way we all behave towards each other,
what we will ask the Lord in our prayers, what we will hope for, will to a
large extent define not only the results of the battles, but also what will
happen as a result of all this. God grant that the current hostilities do not
destroy the single spiritual space of Holy Russia and, moreover, do not harden
our peoples. May all wounds be healed by the grace of God. So that,
by the grace of God, everything that today brings grief to many and many will
be blotted out of memory. So that what will replace the current situation,
And this can only happen if we live with faith
in our hearts. Because faith destroys fear, faith grants the possibility
of mutual forgiveness, faith strengthens relationships between people and can
really transform and is transforming these relationships into brotherly,
cordial and kind. God grant that it be so that everything that now darkens
the souls of many ends. God grant that during this internecine strife,
as few people as possible die or get injured. God grant that there be as
few widows and orphans as possible, fewer divided families, fewer broken
friendships and brotherhoods.
The Church, which carries out its pastoral
ministry among the peoples of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and many others in the
vastness of historical Russia, today especially suffers and especially prays
for the speedy cessation of internecine strife, for the triumph of justice, for
the restoration of fraternal communion and overcoming all that, having
accumulated over the years, and eventually led to a bloody conflict. We believe that all the saints who
shone in the Russian land—in this case, using the already accepted expression
“in the Russian land,” we mean Russia, the whole Russian land, Holy
Russia—today, together with us, offer up prayers to the Lord that so that peace
is established on earth, so that the reconciliation of the fraternal peoples
comes and, most importantly, justice triumphs, because without justice there
can be no lasting peace.
May the Lord keep us all and help us all to
walk our Christian career with dignity, despite the difficult life
circumstances that today are the reality of our earthly existence. With
the prayers of the saints, whose names we glorified today, may the Lord help us
all to be strengthened in peace, love, unanimity and purity.
25/09/2022
(Source)
Excerpts from a Sermon
Today our Fatherland, Rus’, historical Rus’ is
going through severe trials. We know what is happening in Ukraine. We
know what danger hangs over the Ukrainian people, which they are trying to
reformat, to make a state that is contrary to Russia, hostile to Russia. It
is very important that in our hearts there is no feeling that there is an
enemy. We must pray today that the Lord would strengthen the fraternal
feelings of the peoples of Holy Russia, so that the unity of our Church becomes
even stronger and stronger, which is really a guarantee of peace in the
expanses of Russia - which is why the collapse of our country began with
attempts to break the Church, create schisms and separation. The enemy
knew that this point should be hit. And although we have suffered losses
and a dangerous, sinful, graceless schism has arisen in Ukraine, but at the
same time the Orthodox faith is preserved there, and our brothers and sisters,
archpastors and pastors are united and, I believe, continue to pray together
with us around the throne of God to stop the internecine strife and to restore
peace in the expanses of historical Russia.
Today is connected with the memory of the great victory of
our people, their spiritual feat, with the memory of how spiritual authority
influenced the formation of courage and heroism. I mean, first of all, the
blessing of St. Sergius of Radonezh given to Dmitry Donskoy. How all this
formed the true spiritual strength of our army, which won the historic battle.
This is an excursion into history from our ecclesiastical
point of view. This point
of view is not present in secular historical science, but in vain, because it
is this approach to history that highlights the most important thing – the
spiritual dimension in the life of people and the state, without which victory,
in the conditions of the fading of faith and spirit, becomes impossible. Therefore,
today we pray to the Lord again and again that He would pacify Russia, stop
internecine strife, so that Holy Rus’ would be reunited – in the sense that no
strife and division would torment the heirs of that very united Holy Russia. And
today, when we remember the victory of our people in the Battle of Kulikovo, we
ask that a true victory come without special battles and bloodshed, which would
return to us spiritual unity, peace, prosperity and mutual love.
21/09/2022 (Source)
Message to the participants of the VII Congress
of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions
I cordially greet all of you who have gathered
on the hospitable land of Kazakhstan to participate in the work of the VII
Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions.
The current forum is dedicated to the role of
religious leaders in the spiritual and social life of people in post-pandemic
times. There is no doubt that today humanity is going through one of the most
difficult periods of modern history. Added to the challenges posed by the
coronavirus pandemic are food, energy and economic problems caused by attempts
to build a world without moral values. Over the past two decades, these
attempts have led not only to the loss of the concept of justice in
international relations, but also to fierce confrontation, military conflicts,
the spread of terrorism and extremism in different parts of the world.
Today, as never before, it is difficult for
people to navigate the flow of information, to resist ideological suggestions,
to maintain a sober mind and peace of mind. We have witnessed the distortion
of historical facts and unprecedented manipulation of mass consciousness. This
is because there is less and less love, mercy, compassion in society.
Increasingly, we hear and read in the public space words filled with hatred
towards entire peoples, cultures and religions.
The path of dictatorship, rivalry and
confrontation chosen by some rulers of this world is leading humanity to
destruction. And under these conditions, it is faith that can sober people up,
return them to the path of dialogue and cooperation, because in traditional religions the fundamental
moral principles of human existence remain unshakable.
Taking this opportunity, I would like to
express special gratitude to the authorities of Kazakhstan for the fact that,
at their invitation, authoritative religious leaders from all over the world
were once again able to gather in the capital of the Republic. The possibility
of dialogue in the current difficult circumstances is a very valuable resource,
an important step towards solving existing problems. I am sure that the
peacemaking dialogue of religious leaders, coupled with their influence on the
minds and hearts of people, can and should contribute to overcoming the
challenges of our time, harmonizing international relations, and establishing a
just world order.
I wish the participants of the Congress
meaningful and useful communication, mutual understanding and agreement, in
which God help you all.
14/09/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of a sermon
Today is such a time – a time of anxiety, even
very disturbing. And we must pray that all dangers will pass our
Motherland, that those who dream of crushing Russia as an independent, truly
independent state will be left with nothing. Such states can be listed on
the fingers of one hand, all others in one way or another depend on the world centres
of power; but Russia does not depend on any centres of power that are outside
its sovereign territory. This is a great privilege, but it is also a huge
cross, because there are always those who would like to bring such a rich,
strong country as Russia into the orbit of their influence.
We know that the world is restless, while
Russia continues its truly sovereign historical existence, and if we look at
our history, we will understand that this sovereignty was largely determined by
the strength of the spirit of the Russian people, the strength of the spiritual
influence of the Church on our Fatherland. We know what an enormous role
the Church played in the liberation of Russia from foreign forces. We know that
it was the Church that inspired the soldiers for the historical battles, as a
result of which the Motherland remained sovereign and free. We know how the
saints prayed for the country, for the army, for the Grand Duke, and then for
the Tsar.
Today, the time has come when we should
especially pray for our Fatherland, for our President - what difference does it
make what the head of state is called! for our army. So that the country has the
strength to maintain its true independence from the most powerful forces that
today dominate most of the countries of the world.
Russia has a special historical path. When
everything is safe, calm, we somehow think a little about it; but when troubled
times come, you begin to become especially aware of the world-wide fateful
mission of Russia. So it was in antiquity, and so today this special mission
is returning and placed on the shoulders of our people.
Today we prayed to the holy noble Grand Duke
Daniel and his father, the holy noble Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky, who, by
virtue of their position, combined both the head of the state and the head of
the army. But how difficult it was! After all, where there is an army,
there is a sword, and where there is a sword, there is death. And what
spiritual strength one had to have, how one had to be aware of one's moral and
spiritual responsibility to remain a holy man while leading a country and an
army and having a sword at one's hip! The Grand Dukes Alexander Nevsky and
Daniil of Moscow, whom we remember today, managed to combine this political and
military mission with holiness. But, probably, such a combination is a
guarantee that a country with such leadership will never commit war crimes. Because if at the head of the
Fatherland, at the head of the army is a saint, and maybe not a saint, but a
believer, Orthodox, baptized, aware of his responsibility before God, Church
and country, the country is guaranteed against all kinds of military
adventures, the country can be sure that the sword at his hip will be drawn
only when it is morally, morally and even spiritually justified.
And today, I want to say again, we live in a
very difficult time, and therefore our special prayer is for the head of our
state, for Supreme Commander Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, who has a special
responsibility, as well as for all military leaders and those who are in
authorities. So that the Lord would make wiser, strengthen,
enlighten, protect from sins and mistakes and at the same time inspire actions
that would bring protection to our Fatherland from all external, even perhaps
the most dangerous and terrible threats.
12/09/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
Today, as in the days of St. Peter, the Russian
Church is threatened by many dangers. Then it was the nomads who attacked the
Russian land, robbed it, killed people, destroyed the economic opportunities of
the country, but even today, as we know, not everything is calm in the
world. And in a sense, a very special service, undoubtedly by the will of God,
is now being given to this city and our country. Because the strength of modern
Russia is capable of resisting many forces, including those fighting with God
and with Christ. Those forces that are directed and direct their sting at
hurting a person in such a way that he loses the ability to distinguish between
good and evil. The concept of sin disappeared from the political lexicon,
because instead of distinguishing between good and evil, a new model of behaviour
arose, focused solely on the choice of the person himself, when he himself
determines what is good for him and what is evil. But when a significant
part of the so-called civilized world takes up these ideas, our country, as it
was in times past, retains its ability to resist this terrible temptation. And
we must observe the ability and readiness to distinguish good from evil, guided
not by momentary political interests, not by human ambitions, but exclusively
by the moral law that God has put into our souls, into the very nature of man.
And God grant that the Mother See of Moscow retains the opportunity to
remain an island of freedom in this stormy world, so that it is here that a
healthy spiritual resistance is formed to any attempts to mix good and evil and
completely abandon the fact that sin is called sin, and virtue is virtue. God
grant that with the prayers of St. Peter, laid the foundation of church life in
our Mother See City of Moscow, the Orthodox faith was strengthened in our
people, love for the Fatherland was strengthened, the ability to resist the
temptations and intrigues of tempters was strengthened, so that our faith would
remain alive, the independence and freedom of our Fatherland would be
preserved. And if so, then there is hope for salvation.
Through the prayers of St. Peter, Metropolitan
of Kyiv, Moscow and All Russia, may the Lord preserve the Russian land, may
He strengthen the brothers who now live in different states - Russia, Ukraine
and Belarus - in unanimity and awareness of special responsibility for our
common destiny, and in which in a sense for the fate of the world. And we
believe as long as the blessing of St. Peter remains over Russia, over our
people, over our Church, and through his prayers we will retain a great ability
to distinguish right from left, good from evil, sin from holiness. Through
the prayers of St. Peter of Kyiv, Moscow and All Russia, may the Lord protect
the Russian land, may the Lord help overcome disagreements, most often provoked
from outside, which today threaten the unity of our entire people. May the Lord
preserve, through the prayers of St. Peter, our people in unanimity and
Orthodox faith. Amen.
06/09/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon on the feast of the
Donskoy Mother of God
Today such times have come when we should
especially ask the Lord for help to our Fatherland. Indeed, there is a struggle
between good and cosmic evil. Why do we say so? Because the justification of sin is the work of the
devil. The devil needs to destroy the mediastinum between good and evil, to
confuse concepts, and this is exactly what is happening today! People do not
distinguish what is good and what is evil, because powerful propaganda forces
are working all over the world, forming such a worldview. This is what the dark
force stakes on: if people cease to distinguish between good and evil, then
they will belong to evil, without any compromise.
What prevents the final victory of evil? He is
opposed by the Lord Jesus Christ, His Divine power, manifested in the faith of
His followers, His disciples. And as long as there is an unshakable faith among
His disciples and followers that the Lord is the master of history, that the
fate of the universe is in His hands, that faith in God is an indispensable
condition for the survival of human civilization, then the human race will also
be preserved.
In this sense, our country has a special
mission today. We are one of the few who call evil evil and good good, who do not allow powerful
propaganda forces to mix these concepts so that a person does not distinguish
between good and evil. In fact, a terrible idea is being imposed on us that
there is no good and evil, but there are models of human behaviour, and
everyone has the right to choose the model that suits him. And if this model
contradicts God's will, God's moral law, the one that Israel found on Mount
Sinai, the one that was brought to the world by Christ the Saviour, then what
should we do? Well-bred, intelligent people do not answer such a question, but
less well-mannered and intelligent people directly say what they think of us. Therefore,
what is happening today is really part of a very important struggle, cosmic
struggle between good and evil. And God grant that through the prayers of
the saints who have shone forth in our land, our people, in spite of any
temptations, temptations, influences, retain the Orthodox faith, faith in the
Lord and Saviour, in the Protection of His Most Pure Mother, and therefore the
ability to distinguish good from evil, the ability to be truly free people. For
you are called to freedom, brethren, says the apostle (Gal. 5:13).
Bearing in mind all this, let us keep the
Orthodox faith as the greatest shrine and treasure. And to those who have not
fully believed yet, I make an appeal: the times have come when you can’t
pretend that nothing is happening, when you need to make an ideological choice,
on which depends not only the personal life of the one who makes this choice,
but the very existence of our Fatherland.
Praying before the miraculous image of the Don
Mother of God, remembering the great heroic events of our national history,
connected with the struggle of our people for freedom and independence, we will
be worthy of our great ancestors. In the present conditions, let us just as
strongly hope for the Intercession of the Most Pure Mother of God, we will also
lift up our fervent prayer to Her image, we will also love our Fatherland and
also be ready to defend it, if necessary. And we believe that the Lord will
be with us, because the truth is on our side. Someone may be surprised
and say: why so? The answer is simple: because we are trying to live according
to the truth of God, according to God's law, according to the commandments; and
if, humanly, out of weakness, we violate them, then we do not renounce these
commandments as the basic law of human life. And as long as it is so, our
Fatherland will be preserved.
01/09/2022 (Source)
Message
of condolences on the death of Daria Alexandrovna Dugina
Dear
Alexander Gelevich!
It is
with deep sorrow that I received the news of the tragic death of your daughter.
Darya
Alexandrovna was known in Russia and abroad as an active public figure, a
bright journalist, and a talented scientific researcher. Being the successor of your
work, she, despite her young age, managed to achieve significant success in her
chosen field, earn the gratitude and respect of her colleagues.
In the
days of severe trials associated with the loss of family and loved ones, for
us, the words of the Holy Scripture sound like a consolation: “if we live, we
live for the Lord; if we die, we die to the Lord; therefore, whether we live or
die, it is always the Lord's" (Rom. 14:8).
May the
merciful Lord of Heaven and Earth rest the soul of His newly-departed servant
Daria in the abodes of the righteous and create eternal memory for her.
21/08/2022 (Source)
Message
to the organizers and participants of the 1st International Anti-Fascist
Congress
I
cordially greet all the participants of the Congress, which is taking place
within the framework of the Army-2022 International Military-Technical Forum.
The
fight against fascism has become, unfortunately, one of the most acute and
topical topics in recent times. The Russian people, who paid a huge price for the victory over the evil
of Nazism, have a particularly reverent attitude towards this topic. After the
end of World War II, it seemed to many that the "brown plague" was
finally and irrevocably destroyed, because it is impossible to forget the
horrors and incalculable suffering that the ideology of hatred, national and
racial superiority brought to humanity.
However,
for several decades now, we have been watching with concern how, with the
support of certain malevolent forces, obvious and indisputable facts are being
revised, how a world of fakes and lies is being created before our eyes, the
purpose of which is not only to distort the history of the events of the 20th century,
devaluing the contribution of our country in the eradication of fascism, but
also to sow the seeds of distrust and enmity between people, to pit entire
fraternal peoples against each other. All this, of course, is the work
of the devil, who, as Christ testifies in the Gospel, was a murderer from
the beginning and did not stand in the truth, for there is no truth in him – he
is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44).
For the
people of Russia, the memory of the Great Patriotic War and the sacrificial
feat of their ancestors is truly sacred: it has become an integral part of the
national cultural code and our identity. We know from our own bitter experience
how dangerous experiments are to forget the past. That is why the Russian
people do not get tired of testifying to the whole world about what an
insidious evil humanity faced in the last century and what catastrophic
consequences the neglect of danger and frivolous flirting with fascism can lead
to.
Of
course, the disease of nationalism can strike any nation, especially if its
spiritual immunity is weakened by proud self-exaltation, the rejection of
historical memory and the ideals of good neighborliness, peacefulness and
mutual respect. But how important it is to prevent the growth of this cancerous
tumor, which will inevitably bring death to the entire healthy body! How
important it is not to allow feelings of hatred, pride and cruelty to settle in
our hearts!
Today,
the universal responsiveness and all-humanity of the Russian spirit, about which
F.M. Dostoevsky wrote, are revealed in new circumstances. Defending the
historical truth and protecting the suffering brothers in blood and spirit, our
people are fulfilling a difficult and very responsible mission: they return to
the world the values that they, in their madness, are trying to refuse. These unshakable values are
fidelity to God and traditional moral principles, adherence to the ideals of
brotherhood and love, mercy and spiritual nobility.
In order
to carry out this fateful mission, the rallying of society is especially
necessary, strong faith is needed, combined with hope in the wise Providence of
the Almighty. God grant that we all have the strength, wisdom and patience to
adequately cope with the difficult test of time and bring closer the
establishment of a lasting and just peace for all peoples.
Calling
on you the blessing of Christ, I wish the participants of the Congress good
health and help from the Lord in good deeds.
20/08/2022
(Source)
Sermon on the anniversary of the Baptism of Kievan Rus’
Today we live in a time when among the peoples
of historical Russia the enemy of the human race has sown and nurtured the
seeds of discord. This has happened before in our history, for the unity and
peace commanded by God are always a target for evil forces. But a Christian
should not be afraid of the menacing phenomena of the times, remembering that
the Church of Christ has constantly faced and will face the hostility of theomachic
forces trying to extinguish the light of truth.
We firmly hope that the faith of Christ will
help us heal the wounds of divisions inflicted on the unity of peoples who have
come out of the common font of Baptism. And today, remembering the feat of Equal-to-the-Apostles
Prince Vladimir, who baptized and united her, may each of us turn fervent
prayers to this saint for overcoming mediastinations and enmity, for the reign
of a lasting and just peace in the expanses of historical Russia. Amen.
28/07/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from sermon
Maybe that's why they rise up against us
because we are different? Faith disappears everywhere - I mean the Christian
world - or is deformed so that nothing remains of it. Because in the appendix to the
Gospel, people arbitrarily include such an interpretation of texts, such an
ethically incorrect interpretation, which today really leads to the decline of
moral, spiritual life in countries that were considered Christian. For us, this
is not a reason to say: "We are different, we are better" - this
would be completely wrong, this would be a sinful conclusion from the analysis
of the situation. But for us, this is a reason to say: "We are different,
and God grant that we have the strength to remain different." Not from the
point of view of some kind of political confrontation, especially in the
military sense, – we are talking exclusively about the moral, spiritual and
religious dimension of our life.
21/07/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of sermon
Today we are living through different times. Today Russia is a powerful
state, and hardly anyone will try to deprive us of our freedom and independence
by force of arms. But in our evil age, there are many other ways to crush
people, deprive them of their national identity, deprive them of their faith,
deprive them of a sense of patriotism. We know that today many forces are
working to influence our people and our country in this way. Why? Because we
continue to be different. In "enlightened" Europe, faith in God
is banished, educated people are ashamed to admit that they are believers, and
this is a fact. And in our country, which has gone through years of godlessness
and persecution, the faith of Christ is strengthened in people. God grant that
it be so. So that our authorities, and the army, and our intelligentsia, and
all our people keep faith in the Lord, the Orthodox faith,
Today we have gathered here precisely in order to pray again and again
for our Fatherland, which is passing through a difficult time in its history.
May the Lord help Russia and all historical Russia to preserve faith, preserve piety, preserve the ability to keep in your
mind, in your memory the great spiritual feats of those representatives of our
people who became famous as saints. And among them, one of the foremost is the
humble Elder of Radonezh, the Monk Sergius, who became the soul of our people,
a great saint of God, undoubtedly for all of us and today praying for Holy
Russia and the Orthodox faith.
18/07/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
And if
we are all with God, if we live according to God's law, if we find the strength
in ourselves to fight our passions, vices, sinful thoughts and not very good
deeds, then the Lord will really be with us. And today we really need God to
be with us, and here, on the western border of Russia, this is especially felt.
Many are rising up today against our Fatherland, but we know that the
Fatherland has done nothing wrong to anyone. And they rebel not because we are
bad, but because we are different. This otherness of Russia arouses feelings of
jealousy, envy and indignation, but we cannot change ourselves. Of course, many
wanted, as they say now, to reforming us, but it did not work out, although
such huge efforts and funds were invested in the reformation of Russia. And
she, as she was, is, in essence, Holy Russia, inheritance of the Most Holy
Theotokos. God grant that it be so in the future, and it is especially
important for me to tell you about all this, my dear ones, who live on the
western border of Holy Russia.
May
the Lord protect the Kaliningrad land, our people and the whole Russian land
from every enemy and adversary. But the most important thing is that the Lord keep our hearts pure and
the faith in our hearts. If so, then we are not afraid of any enemies, and
first of all, our internal enemy is not afraid, which inclines us to sin, vice
and deviation from God's law. May the Lord protect Russia, the land of
Kaliningrad, the Church that lives here, and all of you, my dear
Kaliningraders.
03/07/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from Sermon
Once again I want to say that my words may seem incomprehensible to someone, strange, but these are not my words! I am telling you the words of God, this is God's law, and as a Patriarch I am obliged to speak about this law in order for the life of the individual to be integral, for our families to be strong, and hence for all our people to be strong. And how we need today this consolidation, the concentration of our entire nation in the face of enormous external dangers! We must be strong, but a strong man cannot be weak in his personal life. Everything is connected, one with the other, from childhood to the grave. That is probably why the Lord, having bowed His mercy to us, gave us the opportunity to build temples today. Nowhere, neither in Europe nor in America, new churches are being built, people no longer need them. They are closing, repurposing, and sometimes, instead of temples, dance floors and other entertainment facilities appear. And we, to the horror of the very world that cannot understand us, are building God's temples. We are the Russia of the 21st century. Isn't this a miracle of God? We, who have gone through all these persecutions, through all this godless ideology, we as a people have risen and are b
May the Lord protect the Kaliningrad land, our people and the whole Russian land from every enemy and adversary. But the most important thing is that the Lord keep our hearts pure and the faith in our hearts. If so, then we are not afraid of any enemies, and first of all, our internal enemy is not afraid, which inclines us to sin, vice and deviation from God's law. May the Lord protect Russia, the land of Kaliningrad, the Church that lives here, and all of you, my dear Kaliningraders.uilding churches, and a feeling of love for the Fatherland is growing in us. And we see how our young guys are now defending Russia on the battlefield. Our priests, who take care of our warriors, tell me about amazing examples of courage, self-sacrifice, the ability to lay down their lives for their friend. Where is it from? Not from a high salary, not from the encouragement of the authorities, not from the desire to advance in the service, but from an inner moral feeling, brought up by the Orthodox faith.
19/06/2022 (Source)
Happy Russia Day message to Putin
Your Excellency, dear Vladimir Vladimirovich!
Please accept my heartfelt congratulations on Russia Day.
This holiday unites our fellow citizens, for whom the value priorities
are love for the Fatherland and Russian traditions, the desire to work for
the good of the native country and the readiness to remain faithful to it in various trials.
It is gratifying that today an important area of state policy is the preservation of the
people, which includes, among other things, the maintenance of social
stability, the preservation of a rich cultural heritage and the protection of Russia's sovereignty.
I am grateful to you for your unwavering attention to the mission of the
Moscow Patriarchate. I am convinced that the cooperation of the Church, government agencies,
public institutions and all people of good will can contribute to
strengthening the unity of our country and the spiritual health of our
contemporaries.
I wish you full strength of mind and body, peace, well-being and God's
inexhaustible help in serving in the responsible post of President of Russia.
With deep and sincere respect
12/06/2022 (Source)
Journal of the Holy Synod of June 7, 2022
(…) about the development of the situation after the Council of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church held in Kiev.
RESOLVED:
1. To note with regret the continuing pressure on the bishops, clergy,
monastics and laity of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from
representatives of the Ukrainian state authorities and the extremist
part of Ukrainian society.
2. To express support to all the bishops, clergy, monastics and laity of
the Ukrainian Orthodox Church who, realizing the need to observe the
canonical system, strive to adhere to the order determined by the Diploma
of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia dated October
27, 1990 and the canonical norm of commemoration at the services of the
Patriarch Moscow and all Russia (see Dvukr. 15).
3. Recall that the decision to change the status of the Ukrainian Orthodox
Church can only be made within the framework of the canonical procedure,
including the decision of the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox
Church. Emphasize that unauthorized actions to change the status of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church may lead to the emergence of a new schism
within it. The Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church also drew attention to
this, pointing out in its statement of May 12, 2022 that any discussions
regarding the life of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church should take place
within the canonical field and should not lead to new divisions in the
Church.
4. To call on all bishops, clergy, monastics and laity to pray for the
preservation of church unity.
07/06/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from the sermon of the Sixth Sunday after Easter
Today we remember the terrible events in the history of our Fatherland.
Firstly, the decision to divide Russia, which was taken by the then leader
Lenin. Prior to that, enemies tried to divide united Russia, and the
princes of Kyiv, then the princes of Moscow, tsars, emperors defended
the unity of the country. But then such a gentleman or comrade came and
liquidated a single country, creating independent states on the
territory of historical Russia. Since everything that the
revolutionaries did was connected with the deception of the people, then
what this person did also carried deception. On the one hand, he signed all these decrees that independent
states were created on the territory of Russia, but very soon little was
left of his decision. But there was a solution! The supreme ruler has decided to destroy his country, and we know that
the consequences of that terrible decision still affect the fate of all
of us - people living in the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Belarus, and
other places. Of course, many have got used to it, many even consider
that all this is good; how many heads - so many minds. But the great
country, the stronghold of Orthodoxy, the force that balanced all other
forces, weakened through these terrible historical decisions. However, not so much that it is no longer considered at all, and
therefore today we are face to face with new problems, which are again
connected with the fact that dangerous attempts are being made to weaken our Fatherland. And we believe that the Lord will not allow this through the
prayers of the holy saints, through the prayers of all the saints,
starting from the fathers of the Kiev Caves, the fathers who labored in
all Russian monasteries, and especially the new martyrs and confessors of
the Russian Church.
(…)
Today, of course, we cannot but grieve over what is happening in fraternal Ukraine. Undoubtedly, the same spirits of wickedness in high places took up arms against our
Church, striving not only to divide the Orthodox people of Russia and
Ukraine, but to make sure that an abyss lay between us. And not just an
abyss, but that a ditch be dug, like those ditches that are used during
a military operation, so that the enemy does not pass through. I am deeply convinced that since all these efforts are not from God
and not with God's blessing, this goal will never be achieved.
Because, despite any changes in the borders between states, the Church of the
united people that emerged from the Kyiv Baptismal font, like the people
themselves, will undoubtedly keep in their hearts, in their memory, in
their pious customs the great heritage of their ancestors, coming from the prince Vladimir to this day. Today, some forces,
allegedly acting for the benefit of one of our peoples, are digging these
ditches, thinking that by doing so they will ensure happiness and
well-being.
I want to say again and again: we fully understand how the Ukrainian Orthodox Church suffers today. We
are sympathetic to the fact that His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry and
the episcopate should act today as wisely as possible so as not to
complicate the life of their believing people. We treat all this with
understanding, but we also pray that no temporary external
mediastinations destroy the spiritual unity of our people. And we ask the Lord that the spiritual values that our pious people
have formed under the auspices of the one Russian Orthodox Church, and
which are rooted in the souls and hearts of people, bear their fruit of
standing for the unity of the Church and for God's truth.
29/05/2022 (Source)
Resolutions of the extraordinary meeting of the Synod, to discuss the
decisions taken by the council of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow
Patriarchate)
1. Express all possible support and understanding to the arch-pastors,
pastors, monastics and laity of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is subjected to unprecedented pressure
from representatives of schismatic structures, local authorities, the
media, extremist organizations and the nationalist-minded part of the
public.
2. To call on the fullness of the Russian Orthodox Church to fervent
prayers for strengthening the strength of our brethren in Ukraine, for
granting them courage and God's help in the daily feat of Christian
witness.
3. To state that the status of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is determined by the
Diploma of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia of
October 27, 1990.
4. To note that the additions and amendments to the Statute on the Administration of
the Ukrainian Orthodox Church adopted by the Council of the Ukrainian
Orthodox Church need to be studied in the prescribed manner for their compliance with the
aforementioned Charter and the Charter of the Russian Orthodox Church,
according to which such additions and amendments must be submitted for
approval to the Patriarch Moscow and all Russia.
5. Emphasize that Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, deeply
empathizing with all those affected by misfortune, has repeatedly called
for doing everything possible to avoid casualties among civilians, and for
all members of the Russian Orthodox Church to purely pray for the speedy
restoration of peace and provide all possible assistance to all those
affected, including refugees, people left without shelter and
livelihood.
6. Express regret over the fact that in a number of dioceses of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church the commemoration of the Patriarch of Moscow and
All Russia is being discontinued, which has already led to divisions
within the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and which contradicts Canon 15 of the
Two-Time Council.
7. To testify that the entirety of the Russian Orthodox Church prays for
the preservation of church unity and for the speedy cessation of
bloodshed.
29/05/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of a message to performers in a charity concert for refugees
from Donbass
Now, in the era of aggravation of conflicts and contradictions, the
multiplication of hatred and anger, it is especially important for
believers not to forget their calling to be peacemakers, to show
kindness and love, responsiveness and mercy.
26/05/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of sermon on on the day of memory of Saints Methodius and Cyril
Equal-to-the-Apostles
Today we are going through a very difficult time. It is a sorrowful time when external forces are trying to break the
unity of the Russian Orthodox Church; when enormous efforts are being
made to tear our Church in Ukraine away from the fullness of the Russian
Orthodox Church. We know in what difficult conditions our brothers are
working there today, and I pray every day, and I urge you to pray that
the Lord would give them the strength to remain faithful. Loyalty to one’s hierarchal oath, loyalty to the unity of our
Church, so that everyone here, and everywhere, remembers that attempts by
secular forces to invade the inner life of the Church, to break unity, are
not being made for the first time. Throughout almost the entire history of
the Church, there have been schisms and divisions, when external enemies
found adherents and supporters within the Church,
We believe that the same will happen on Ukrainian soil, and therefore we
pray that the episcopate of the Ukrainian Church, our brothers, retain
their fortitude, courage, ability to resist external pressures,
and at the most difficult moment remember how we all resisted the most
dangerous external pressures during the times of atheism, and withstood,
kept our Church immaculate from all temptations, all kinds of slander,
all dangerous ideas, proposals, and even demands that came from the
authorities, and thus preserved faith among our people. Today, I especially pray that the forces of evil do not shake the unity of our
Church, which means the firm standing of our people in the faith of Christ, the
ability to maintain unity and solidarity in the bowels of the Orthodox
Church.
24/05/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of speech at the plenary session of the 20th International
Educational Readings
The teacher must constantly learn so that the subject he teaches does not
lose its attractiveness for students. What does it mean to keep learning?
The teacher knows very well the topics that he should teach, but the
teaching of religion is always tied to life, and apart from life it is a
dry and useless subject. Therefore, examples from life, reference to life
situations will help children perceive Christianity contextually, that is,
in connection with the fact that they know what is familiar to them in the
context in which they themselves exist and act. Scholastic teaching, in my
opinion, is not one that strictly follows certain patterns, but one that
is divorced from life. Teaching is one thing, life is another. So, the teaching of the Fundamentals of Orthodox culture can in no case be
divorced from our life, so you should always fill it with wonderful
examples. Of course, from the lives of saints, but also from the lives
of our wonderful contemporaries, from the lives of heroes who gave their
lives on the battlefields. After all, even today there are so many
heroes, so many who sacrifice their lives, their health, defending their
homeland. All these examples can and should also help children
understand how important the spiritual power of a person is. Because not a single heroic deed is performed rationally - this is
what you need to remember! — but always irrational. It is rational to
hide, run away, hide, but a person, driven by the power of the spirit,
gets up and goes towards death. It seems to me that this topic is very
important, including for arousing interest in spiritual life in children,
so that they understand that the Christian, Orthodox faith is really a
great power.
(…)
I have repeatedly said that there were no easy times in our
history. And now the Russian world is once again becoming an outpost of
Christian civilization. Our prayers today are for those who selflessly keep the faith in the
expanses of historical Russia, for the clergy performing the feat of
sacrificial service to their neighbours, for doctors and volunteers, for
all those who courageously defend the truth of God in difficult
conditions, testifying to goodness and justice.
Today, the unity of historical Russia is especially important. “By unity and love we will be saved” - this message was addressed to
the people by St. Sergius of Radonezh, the 600th anniversary of the
acquisition of the relics of which we also celebrate this year. This call
of the Hegumen of the Russian land resounds through the centuries even
today, especially in connection with the attempts of the forces that act
against the interests of the Russian world to break this world, to push
parts of this world against each other, including in a real physical
conflict, in a war. We know what is happening in fraternal Ukraine, and
therefore my prayers are for His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry, for the
episcopate of our Church, for the clergy and, of course, for the pious
believing Ukrainian people, who today defend the values of the Orthodox
faith in the most difficult historical circumstances.
23/05/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of sermon on the day of memory of St. Nicholas the
Wonderworker
Through the prayers of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, may the Lord preserve the Russian state, may the Lord preserve our land
from all sorts of enemies, may it strengthen our Church in unity, and all of us, my dear ones, in the Orthodox faith and in the ability
to overcome all fears and all despondency. Amen. Christ is Risen!
22/5/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from the speech by His Holiness Patriarch Kirill at the X
Parliamentary meetings in the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly
of the Russian Federation - On the 350th Anniversary of the Birth of
Peter I: Secular Peace and Religiosity.
(…)
At that time, this cultural communication was built largely taking into
account common Christian values. However, in modern times in the West appeared and then became widespread, in my
opinion, dangerous ideas based on the denial of the Christian heritage and
on the acceptance of moral relativism as a kind of principle on which
relations between people should be built. Unfortunately, over the past
centuries, these ideas have only intensified and led to the fact that the
European society began to revise the unshakable Christian values, which
led to the establishment of arrogance and pride, to the destruction of
trust between countries and peoples.
And today Russia does not close the “window to Europe” once cut through by Peter, and does not isolate itself, but this window remains open only for mutually respectful dialogue, and
not ideological dictate and bossy shouts from outside. Participation in this dialogue should not injure our self-consciousness and
deprive us of legitimate pride in our country, in our history, in our
culture.
(…)
Now a few words about Ukraine.
It is impossible to talk about the situation in Ukraine, and even more
so to give it any assessment, outside the historical context. As you
remember from national history, in the XII-XV centuries our country
existed in the form of many disparate principalities – fragments of a
once united and strong state. Under these conditions, the Church remained the main force holding the
nation from final disintegration. Our Church countered the tendencies of chaos and conflict in Ancient
Russia with the ideal of a common life based on love, brotherhood, peace and
mutual trust. This principle in the XIV century was proclaimed by St. Sergius of
Radonezh, who called on his compatriots "by looking at the Holy Trinity to
overcome the hated strife of this world." The monk made a huge personal contribution to overcoming the disunity
between the principalities, realizing
It is no secret that over the past few centuries, divisions among the
peoples of historical Russia have been artificially provoked, including
from outside. In this regard, a landmark event was the conclusion of the Church Union
of Brest in 1596, an agreement according to which part of the clergy of
the Orthodox Metropolis of Kyiv joined the Catholic Church. This act,
aimed at destroying Orthodox unity, solved a very specific political
problem for the Western powers.
During the Time of Troubles, civil confrontation brought the Orthodox
Cossacks of Zaporozhye under the banner of the Polish
interventionists. This historical precedent of the division of the peoples of Russia, alas,
was not the only one. It is worth remembering the betrayal of Hetman Ivan
Mazepa, who, during the Northern War between Russia and Sweden, went over to
the side of the Swedish King Charles XII. The majority of Russians,
Ukrainians and Belarusians have always perceived Mazepa precisely as a
traitor to Russia, and not as a personal enemy of Peter I. Unfortunately, in
recent years, Hetman Mazepa has been consciously rehabilitated in Ukraine,
many historical facts have undergone a radical reassessment, and if you call
a spade a spade, — were distorted or completely forgotten.
The revolutionary events of 1917 and the ensuing civil war in Russia were
in no small measure the result of the expansion of Western teachings about
a new structure of social and political life. This is a vivid example of the fact that even the most seemingly attractive
ideas that come from outside cannot be treated uncritically. "Equality,
brotherhood, freedom" turned people's heads. And Berdyaev wrote wonderfully,
simply destroying this very idea of "equality, fraternity and freedom."
According to him, where there is freedom, there can be no equality. Equality
is on the lawn, which is mowed, but there is no freedom. And the meadow at
the edge of the forest is the realm of freedom, but there is no equality
there. These wonderful words led to a very important rethinking of the
revolutionary events - first of all, among our emigration, and then in our
country.
During the Great Patriotic War, the peoples of our country united in the
face of a common threat. The mitigation of persecution against the Church made it possible to rely
on the faith stored in the hearts and survive. For modern Russia, the memory
of wars, and especially of the last major conflict on a global scale - the
Great Patriotic War - is truly priceless and helps to realize the undeniable
significance of unity.
The tragedy of the Great Patriotic War, which claimed the lives of 27
million of our brothers and sisters, of whom 18 million were civilians,
must never be forgotten by the peoples of historical Russia. That is why any attempts to justify not only the inhuman Nazi ideology itself,
but also all its supporters and accomplices look so unacceptable. Such
attempts can only cause deep moral rejection and justified
indignation. Attempts to rehabilitate, in particular in Ukraine, those who were
associated with the German Nazis, to perpetuate their memory – all this
is a sign of contempt for the victims of the Great Patriotic War,
including the victims suffered by the Ukrainian people.
The collapse of the USSR and the emergence of national states inevitably
raised the question of the relationship of fraternal peoples in the new
historical realities. Deep folk ties that have developed at the level of
kinship relations, joint activities, centuries-old history, and most
importantly – a common faith, culture and language – have led to the
preservation of church unity, stretching over new state
borders. The Church respects the borders and sovereignty of states, but for her
political divisions are of secondary importance, the main thing is
spiritual unity, good neighborliness and mutual understanding between people.
Now a few words about the divisions that began in 2014. The fratricidal division that began in Ukraine in 2014 is experienced by
the Church as a tragedy. I would like to remind you that from the very
beginning of the conflict, the Church in Ukraine and Russia has been
unceasingly offering prayers for peace and invariably calling people to
overcome divisions. Throughout the eight years of armed confrontation, the Church organized
many charity events in support of those who found themselves in trouble,
lost their homes and were forced to flee from military clashes. As you know, with the mediation of the Church, the exchange of
prisoners of war took place more than once.
I remember how difficult it was to organize the first such
exchange. There were fears on both sides, but by the grace of God, it was the
participation of the Church in this exchange, the initiative that came from
the Church, that helped to remove those fears, suspicions, tensions that
accompanied this action, unprecedented for that time.
I am convinced that the division of the peoples of historical Russia,
which has come down to a bloody conflict, as before in history, is the
result of the intervention of external hostile political
forces. It is well known that the colonial powers, guided by the principle of
"divide and conquer", also created points of military tension and
internecine conflicts in other regions of the globe. Today, this shameful
rule, unfortunately, is also used to escalate Russian-Ukrainian
hostility.
Yes, quarrels also happen between siblings, but it turned out to be
possible to bring it to fratricide through targeted propaganda of
aggression and lies. I said earlier that the peoples of Russia and Ukraine, who emerged from
the common Kyiv Baptismal font, are united by the Orthodox faith and bound
by a common historical destiny, cannot be considered the culprits of this
situation. They do not and cannot have an interest in the conflict.
Our flock is both in Russia and Ukraine, and we fervently pray for the
restoration of peace, for the Lord to overthrow the plans of an evil
external force that feeds hatred. One cannot but say that the schism of Ukrainian Orthodoxy is yet another
link in this vicious chain of divisions. The actions of the Patriarchate
of Constantinople, which legalized the schism, are worthy of historical
comparison with Uniatism. The ultimate goal of this project is the
reorientation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in such a way that it can
no longer serve the unity of the fraternal Russian and Ukrainian
peoples.
The political goal of creating all these autocephalies, all these
schismatic associations is to weaken the influence of the Orthodox
Church, the one Orthodox Church of Russia, Ukraine and
Belarus, using ideological clichés to incite enmity and create new myths that
would alienate one people from another.
Yes, military clashes really accompanied the entire history of mankind
after the fall. As one of the sad manifestations of sinfulness, military clashes, in all
likelihood, will accompany human history and beyond. However, even in situations of armed conflict, a person can and should
preserve his dignity and care for the dignity of others. Exclusion of
prohibited methods of warfare, protection of the civilian population,
observance of international humanitarian law, respect for the prisoners
and the wounded - this is what I, as the Patriarch of All Russia, call on
the parties to the conflict and ask them to do everything possible to
avoid civilian casualties.
I am convinced that the right lessons should be drawn from what is
happening in Ukraine, giving an assessment of the experiment that was
carried out on the Ukrainian people after the collapse of the USSR. The tragedy that has happened again forces the Church to raise its voice
in the name of protecting national languages and culture. No one in the
world should be disadvantaged just because he speaks or thinks in "the
wrong" language.
From the lips of certain politicians and in the media, there are often
calls for widespread infringement of the rights of the Russian-speaking
population living in the former Soviet republics, now independent
states. The so-called "cancellation of Russian culture" in the West has become
evidence of the sad moral state of society. An attempt to eradicate the
culture of a particular nation is the apogee of hatred. Worse – only an attempt to physically destroy the people who have
become objectionable.
Our society felt a connection with European culture even in the difficult
times of the Cold War and the struggle of ideologies. Western classical literature, music and painting have always been highly
valued by our compatriots who perceive European culture as an integral
part of the rich Christian civilizational heritage. So we continue to
perceive it now, despite everything that happens. I hope that those who
are now “fighting” with Pushkin and Dostoevsky, who are boycotting
Tchaikovsky competitions and refusing to perform Rachmaninoff, will sooner
or later come to realize the shamefulness and madness of their
actions.
But still I would like to talk about the future, and say it with
hope. Despite the fact that hostilities are not over yet, today it is necessary
to work for the restoration of peaceful life in Ukraine and Donbass. I am confident that our prayers will be heard and a long-awaited and
lasting peace will reign. I have no doubt that Russia will make the necessary efforts to create
this peaceful life, in which the main principle will be the preservation
of unity among peoples based on mutual understanding.
Civilizational and value differences between Western countries and
Russia are inevitable and at the moment seem difficult to overcome, but
they should not be an obstacle to peaceful coexistence, to an equal and
mutually respectful dialogue of cultures.
I would like to share with you my thoughts on what conclusions could be
drawn from the current situation. I think we are called to a deep rethinking of the vector of social and
state development of the last decades. It is important to focus not on what
some external observer thinks about our further development, but on how to
build the future of the country based on our historical experience, national
and spiritual culture, our Christian heritage. We do not need isolation from the outside world, but we need a renewed
understanding of sovereignty. Sovereignty not only political, but also
cultural; sovereignty that would extend to many areas - from economics to
law. We are turning the page of national history, this is a fact, and we
need great creative forces.
17/05/2022 (Source)
Sermon on the Day of Saint George
We won that terrible war, and we thought, like many others, that
everything would end there and there would be no more wars. How much can you kill each other, how much can you suffer, how much can you
destroy? This was the hope of the whole human race, and the United Nations was
created to prevent possible wars – and nothing happened in the
end. Thank God that there has not been a global war so far, and we will pray
that it will not happen in the future, but how many people died in local
conflicts! Therefore, today, realizing what a difficult situation is
developing in Europe, how difficult the situation is developing around our
country, we must intensify our prayer to the Lord, His Most Pure Mother, the Patroness of the Russian land,
and to Great Martyr George - the saint, so closely, deeply, ontologically
connected with our Great Victory in the Great Patriotic War. We must ask the Lord to show His mercy over our country, to protect it
from external and, I will add, internal enemies. Today is the time of special consolidation of all our people. We must all be together, we must be aware that we are going through a
difficult, dangerous and, in a sense, fateful period in our
history. And we will turn our prayers to St. George the Victorious, to all the
saints who shone in the Russian land, so that our country will remain
free, independent in the full sense of the word from all world centers
of power, because only in this way can a great Orthodox country exist,
also with a large pious Islamic population, who proved their loyalty to
Russia with their lives and their victims. This amazing combination of feat, courage, and faith of our people
gives even today hope for our victory, for getting rid of any enemies who
want to encroach on our country, on our land. Let us pray to St. George, on the day of whose memory our people won the
Victory in the most terrible war in all of human history, that he, undoubtedly accompanying us in that desperate and terrible
struggle for the survival and salvation of the people and country, will be
with us today, with our people, with our army, with our authorities. But,
first of all, that Saint George before the throne of God would pray for
the Russian land.
08/05/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from the sermon on the third Sunday after Easter
It so happened that our country almost never waged aggressive
wars. There were two cases that can give us an example and say: “But
what about the First World War? And before it, the Balkan
war? After all, you went to the Balkans, and Samsonov's army moved to
East Prussia - that means you are aggressors. Not at all! Our army went to the Balkans not in order to expand the territory of
our country, not in order to enrich the country with rich booty, not in
order to subjugate other peoples, but in order to save the Bulgarian
people from five hundred years of slavery. And name another country that has sacrificed thousands and thousands of
its sons in order to help another country the way we helped the
Bulgarians!
And the First World War? Serbs became the main goal and target of
Western forces. And this well-known provocation in Sarajevo -
everything was aimed at ensuring that Serbia, an Orthodox country close
to Russia in spirit, but living surrounded by Western countries, ceased
to exist. The West did not want to have this courageous Orthodox
people loving Russia among its peoples, and provoked the First World
War. And Russia entered this war not in order to acquire land for
itself, not in order to enrich itself, not in order to gain power over
others, but in order to save the fraternal Serbian people.
So, the two wars about which we can be accused of having gone first are
the defense of the Bulgarians and the defense of the Serbs. These
goals were not related to mercantile, material, political or geopolitical
interests - Russia was exhausting itself, Russia was sacrificing itself in
order to help others. That is why we call our army Christ-loving -
because what power, other than internal spiritual strength, can explain
the great feat of our soldiers in those two wars!
And what happened during the Great Patriotic War? A terrible enemy
attacked a country that had not gone through the best period of its
history – the 20s and 30s. Each of us who has studied history knows
how difficult, difficult and even terrible these years were for the
people. But then the war came, and all insults were forgotten, all
the repressed were ready to go and defend the Fatherland. And how
many people, whom only yesterday the authorities considered enemies of the
people, have become ardent defenders of the Motherland! Where does
all this come from? This is from our spiritual roots, this is from
our national identity, which really stems from the spiritual values of
our people. And even in a godless time, these values could not be
dismantled and destroyed, because they became part of life, part of the
soul of our people.
And today, in this military temple, we pay tribute to all those who are
now defending our Fatherland at various frontiers. We believe that
even today our army needs spiritual strength, support and, most
importantly, the prayers of all our people no less than in those times
that I recalled. And the army must remember that we love it, remember
and pray for those who are defending our Fatherland today.
I would like to appeal to the servicemen who are present here, and
through them to our entire army. Remember, brothers, that on how you
carry out your military duty, on how capable you are of defending the
Fatherland, and even, I’m not afraid of these words, to lay down your soul for your friends, according to the commandment of God, the freedom, independence,
independence of our Fatherland will depend. Independence from even the most powerful forces that today practically
rule the world, but do not rule our country, and hence all the
problems. And may the Lord enlighten all of us - the army, the people, the
youth, the elderly, our intelligentsia, and the workers, and those who
work in the countryside - and help us to realize what an important
historical moment we are going through today, how we need our prayers and
help our army, navy, all our armed forces. How we should be all together today - not threatening anyone, not
attacking anyone, but being absolutely ready to repel any aggression
against our people and our country. May the feat and example of our great commanders - saints Alexander
Nevsky and Dmitry Donskoy, wonderful military leaders Suvorov,
And here's something else I would like to say. Russia does not wish harm to anyone, does not want to capture and
occupy anyone, does not want to drain resources from anyone, as most of
the rich and strong countries of the world do, economically occupying
weak and helpless countries. We do not need all this, we are
self-sufficient, but we need only one thing - our true freedom, our
independence from these world centers of power, which today,
unfortunately, are becoming hostile to Russia. We must consolidate
all our forces, both spiritual and material, so that no one dares to
encroach on the sacred borders of our Fatherland.
And my words are not what our opponents would like to characterize as
"another militaristic speech of the Patriarch." It's all
nonsense! My relatives and friends died during the war or died in the
Leningrad blockade. I was born right after the war - in 1946, I
remember post-siege Leningrad. On all of us, on that first post-war
generation, lay the stamp of sorrow, sacrifice, loss, destruction. I
walked to school along Maly Prospekt of Vasilevsky Island and saw the
skeletons of destroyed houses - they had not yet been demolished, they
stood as a terrible reminder of the Leningrad blockade. And these
skeletons were very close to the house where my mother lived with her
eldest son, still a baby, when aerial bombs exploded a hundred meters
away. We all remember this, and therefore today we especially pray
and must all work together, so that the Lord protects our Fatherland
from every enemy and adversary, so that our people unite, overcoming all
disagreements and differences of opinion and life positions that are
natural for human society. Today, everything must be put aside and we
must be united in the most important thing - in our readiness to show love
for the Fatherland in a real way, both in deed and in word, and in the
ability to protect our people and our country.
I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to those who are present
here today, but most of all I would like to once again thank the authorities and our
army, which today, in conditions of practically military operations, is
serving, defending our Fatherland. And again and again, emphasizing
the importance, beauty and valor of the military feat, I urge everyone
to pray for peace, that the Lord would avert all military actions, that
the Lord would reconcile peoples, nations and states, so that peace
would become the property of the entire human race. Because the
Lord has called us to peace, not to war.
08/05/2022 (Source)
Patriarchal sermon during the Paschal commemoration of the dead in the
Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin
Grand Dukes and Duchesses - those who bore on their shoulders the burden
of enormous responsibility for the historical existence of our country,
our Church, our people. Many of them, of course, are with the Lord.
Someone is glorified, someone is not glorified, but today, praying for
them, we turn to them with a request to pray for the Russian state, for
our country, so that our sacred borders are impregnable, so that we always
have enough wisdom, strength and honour to protect them if necessary. We
also appeal to them so that love for the Fatherland never dries up,
especially in the minds and hearts of the young generation that is coming
after us.
I think it will be so, everything will be preserved, and first of all,
perhaps, through the prayers of those who lie in this cathedral, as well
as through the prayers of the host of saints who shone in the Russian
land, and through the prayers of our Church, which goes along its
historical path and, despite the dangers and difficulties of the path and
the slyness of this age, carries the word of truth about God, about His
Divine Providence, about the salvation that was brought by His Son and our
Lord Jesus Christ. And we believe: as long as faith is preserved, love for
the Fatherland and the ability to defend one's people and one's country
will be preserved with it.
We don't want to fight anyone. Russia has never attacked anyone. It is
amazing that a great and powerful country never attacked anyone - it
only defended its borders. God grant that until the end of the century
our country will be like this - strong, powerful and at the same time
loved by God. We ask the Lord that He does not reject His love from our people
and from our Church, that He would enlighten the authorities, that in
faith, piety and wisdom He would strengthen our people, that He would give
us the strength to work, live and, if necessary, fight for the free and
independent life of our people and our country to be preserved. And may
the saints help us, who shone in the Russian land. May those who rest
their bodies here help us with their prayers, but we believe that many of
them stand before the Lord with their souls. With the prayers of all, the
entire Church, heavenly and earthly, all those who has departed from us,
and who lives on our land, may the Lord protect the Russian land from internecine strife and from
the invasion of foreigners, and may it strengthen the Orthodox faith -
the only spiritual force that can really hold our people together. And we believe that the Lord will not leave us with His mercy and
grace, including in the current difficult time of the summer of His
goodness.
03/05/2022 (Source)
Full text of the commentary by the Communications Service of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate on the interview given by Pope Francis to the Italian publication Corriere della sera.
It’s regrettable that a month and a half after the conversation with
Patriarch Kirill, Pope Francis chose the wrong tone to convey the
content of this conversation. Such utterances can hardly further
constructive dialogue between the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox
Churches, which is so necessary at the current time.
This is what Patriarch Kirill actually said in his conversation with Pope
Francis, which took place on 16th March: “I thank you for the opportunity
to hold this meeting. When we met in 2016 in Cuba, I said to you that we
were meeting at the right time and in the right place. And although our
communication is being held through the use of long-distance technology, I
still believe that we are once more talking to each other at the right
time. With your permission, I would like to share with you my perception
of the present-day difficult situation. Of course, we live in different
informational expanses: the Western media has either remained silent or
said practically very little on those facts which I would like to draw
your attention towards.”
Patriarch Kirill further noted that the conflict had begun in 2014 with
the events of Maidan in Kiev, as a result of which there was a change of
government in Ukraine. He drew special attention to those events in Odessa
and their consequences: “There was a peaceful meeting in the city of Russian speakers who were
defending their right to their own language and culture. This peaceful
gathering was attacked by Nazi groupings who beat them up and struck
them with sticks. People sought refuge in the nearest building which was
the Trade Union House. At that moment something terrible happened: the
building was locked and then burnt to the grounds. People tried to flee
by jumping from the second and third floors, and of course they
sustained terrible injuries as they hit the ground. Those who stood by
the windows decided not to jump as they were being fired upon from
below. We watched all of this as it happened live on the television.
This terrifying lesson from Odessa influenced the decisions of the
population of south-east Ukraine in defending their rights.”
Patriarch Kirill further reminded the Pope that at the end of the
Soviet period Russia received assurances that NATO would not expand a
single inch eastward. However, theses promises were not kept and even
the former Soviet Baltic republics became members of NATO. An extremely
dangerous situation had risen as a result in that the borders of NATO
were now within 130 kilometers of St. Petersburg and the time it takes
for a rocket to reach the city is a few minutes. Had NATO received
Ukraine into its membership, then the time it would take for a rocket to
reach Moscow would also be a few minutes. Russia could not and cannot
permit this.
In conclusion the Patriarch emphasized: “Of course, the present situation causes me great pain. My flock is on
both sides of the conflict and most of them are Orthodox people. Part of
the opposing side are also among your flock. I would like therefore,
leaving the geopolitical aspect to one side, pose the question of how we
and our Churches can influence the situation? How can we act together to
bring peace to the hostile parties with the single aim of establishing
peace and justice? It is very important in these conditions to avoid
further escalation.”
The response by Pope Francis was reported accurately by Vatican News in its release of 16th March: “Pope Francis thanked the Patriarch for the meeting, motivated by the desire to point out, as shepherds of their people, a path to peace, to pray for the gift of peace and for a ceasefire. The Pope said, in agreement with the Patriarch, that ‘The Church must not use the language of politics, but the language of Jesus.’ Pope Francis added that ‘we are shepherds of the same Holy People who believe in God, in the Holy Trinity, in the Holy Mother of God: that is why we must unite in the effort to aid peace, to help those who suffer, to seek ways of peace, and to stop the fire.’”
The statement also noted that the “Pope and the Patriarch stressed the
exceptional importance of the ongoing negotiation process.”
04/05/2022 (Source)
Easter greetings to President Putin
Your Excellency, dear Vladimir Vladimirovich!
Christ is Risen!
Please accept my heartfelt congratulations on the great and
life-affirming feast of Holy Pascha.
Sharing the Easter message and testifying to the unity in the faith of
millions of Christians, the Church calls on her children to do good
deeds for the good of their neighbours and for the glory of the
Fatherland.
I would like to express special gratitude to you for your continued attention to the service of the Russian Orthodox Church, as
well as for supporting its cultural, educational and other socially
significant initiatives. I hope that the fruitful cooperation of the Moscow Patriarchate
with state authorities and public institutions will continue to contribute
to the preservation and consolidation of the people, the moral and
patriotic education of young people, the creation of peace and civil
harmony, and the preservation of the rich historical, spiritual and
cultural heritage of our country.
I wish you strength of mind and body, God's generous help, and blessed
success in your difficult and responsible service in the high office of
the President of the Russian Federation.
With deep and sincere respect
24/04/2022 (Source)
Excerpts of sermon on Monday after Easter
(…)
Today, too, our people especially need internal unity. Things that are
developing around our Fatherland are not easy, you are aware of this as
well as I am. And therefore, our people today must especially rally around the
historical centre of all Russia - around the city of Moscow, realizing
that our strength is only in unity. And as long as we are united and
strong, as long as we keep faith in our hearts, as long as we are
inspired by the great example of our predecessors, then Russia will be
invincible. Victory is always not only a physical victory, not only a victory of
the weapon with which the warrior meets the enemy, but it is always a
victory of the spirit. And today, many would like this spirit to
disappear. And in order for it to be so, it is necessary to sow
confusion, create new idols, draw attention to new pseudo-values. But we
must keep ours, if you like.
Our pious heroic ancestors, including those who built this cathedral,
knew and understood everything well, and therefore the cathedrals were
built like fortresses, realizing that at some point, it might be necessary
to defend behind their walls, that and happened repeatedly in the history
of our Fatherland. Suffice it to recall the heroic defence of Smolensk,
when the enemy passed through the fortress walls, and only one cathedral
remained as the last fortress and refuge for the defenders of the city.
And they did not want to surrender the cathedral - the temple was blown up
and buried under the arches of its defenders, who remained
undefeated. Let all these wonderful heroic examples inspire us today to defend the
Fatherland, to defend our true independence from the powerful centres of
power that exist today on earth. May the Lord keep us in true
freedom.
All this is directly related to the preservation of the Orthodox faith in
the hearts and minds of our people, and therefore my word is addressed
today not only to those who stand in this church, and even not only to the
children of our Church. My word today is addressed to all our people,
especially to those who, by tradition, by the faith of their ancestors,
belong to the Orthodox Church: it is time to return to our spiritual home in order to have the
strength that can help us, including in the struggle for our true
independence and our freedom. May the Lord guard our land, may the Lord guard our people, may the
Lord bless the path of those of our brothers and sisters who have been
baptized but have not yet really entered the Church. May the Lord keep
our army, our authorities and all those on whom the defence of our
Fatherland especially depends today.
In this historic cathedral of All Russia, we, strengthened by the
wondrous example of our ancestors, today raise a special prayer for the Orthodox faith, for the
preservation of the unity of our Church, for the preservation of the
unity of our people, for the freedom and independence of our
Fatherland. And may the Lord help us to live in this way, to arrange our relations
with each other, so as not to darken the Lord in any way, but so that our
life helps our prayers, so that they are heard and so that the mercy of
the Heavenly Father extends over our land, over our Fatherland, as it
stretched throughout a thousand years of history, especially in the most
dangerous, critical moments of this history. May the Lord keep our land,
our people, our Church, authorities and army for many and good years!
24/04/2022 (Source)
Sermon on the fourth Sunday of Lent, during a liturgy in the main temple of the armed forces
We sometimes think that money gives strength. Indeed, money can
sometimes give strength, and when the money runs out, then the power
ends. And sometimes money ends under tragic circumstances, and as a
result, a person suffers more than he rejoices. You can not rely on
money and wealth in the hope that they will help you climb the stairs
up. If we create wealth within ourselves, if we form a rich inner world
that is not subject to external influences, then we can remain poor, but
be rich inside. And how many such wonderful examples are known! Many of the poor
materially, but rich inwardly people have become, for example, great
scientists. Recall that the remarkable scientist Lomonosov came from
Pomors, lived in his youth in the north, was a completely poor person, but
what heights did he achieve, becoming the first Russian academician,
(…)
I am very glad that today I had the opportunity to celebrate the Divine
Liturgy in this beautiful church, in the presence of our servicemen.
Today, our Fatherland is going through a difficult time. Today, again, the
name "military man" is associated with being not only in a peaceful state,
but also being on the battlefield. Fortunately, our Fatherland does not
often face the battlefield, but the arrival of young people in the Armed
Forces who aspire to become officers, who strive to devote their lives to
defending the Fatherland, does not dry out. And if in peacetime this can
be explained by some kind of privileges or material considerations,
then in wartime service in the Armed Forces is a real feat, and this is
exactly the time we are experiencing now. The service requires readiness
from everyone who has taken the oath to defend the Motherland, not
sparing their lives.
Today the word "independence" is often applied to almost all countries of
the world. But this is wrong, because most of the countries of the world are now under the colossal influence
of one force, which today, unfortunately, opposes the force of our
people. And since this is so, since there is great strength, then we
must also be very strong. When I say "we", I mean, first of all, the
Armed Forces – but not only. All of our people today must wake up, wake
up, understand that a special time has come, on which the historical
fate of our people may depend.
That is why today I celebrated the Divine Liturgy right here, in this
church, in order to meet first of all with representatives of our Armed
Forces, to address them, and through them to our entire army, to the
navy, to all the defenders of the Fatherland, so that they realize the
historical importance of the present moment. I want to say again and
again: we are a peace-loving country and a very peace-loving,
long-suffering people who suffered from wars like few other European
nations. We have no desire for war or for doing something that could
harm others. But we have been so educated by our entire history that we
love our Fatherland and will be ready to defend it in the way that only
Russians can defend their country.
When I say these words, I do not say any empty compliments. I start from
the history of our people, from the history of our Armed Forces. After
all, we broke the back of fascism, which, undoubtedly, would have defeated
the world, if not for Russia, if not for the feat of our people. May the
Lord help us today too, so that we, being peaceful, peace-loving and
modest people, are at the same time ready – always and under any
circumstances – to protect our home.
Of course, when I say all this, I do not cease to feel anxiety for all the people who live in those
places where military clashes are taking place today. After all, all
these are the people and peoples of Holy Rus’, all these are our
brothers and sisters. But, as in the Middle Ages, wishing to weaken
Russia, various forces pushed the brothers against each other, plunging
them into internecine strife, so it is happening today. Therefore, we
must do everything we can to stop the bloodshed and avoid the danger of
internecine strife with all its consequences. But at the same time, we
must be faithful - when I say "we", I mean, first of all, military
personnel - to our oath and readiness to "lay down our lives for our
friends", as the word of God testifies.
(…)
To all of you, my dear ones — Bishops, fathers, brothers, sisters,
military personnel, military leaders, our youth — I once again cordially
greet and congratulate you on this Sunday and wish all of us to maintain
strength of mind, the ability to pray for the Fatherland, and for
ourselves, the ability to always maintain inner strength, which can be translated
into different life situations, including multiplying the power of our
Armed Forces. May the Lord keep our land, our Fatherland for many and good years!
Amen.
03/04/2022 (source)
Excerpt from the Sermon on the Second Sunday of Lent
We see how the story of the paralyzed man, whom people brought to the
Saviour, is actualized in our history. In all these historical subjects,
on which I dwelled today, the grace of God was undoubtedly present. But
there were also specific people whose names we remembered.
So today, when our Church is going through a difficult period, at least in recent
history, when many forces are trying to break the united body of our
Church, when people on Ukrainian soil are suffering grievously, we must,
like St. Sergius, like Patriarch Hermogenes, like Patriarch Tikhon,
first of all, pray for the spiritual unity of the heritage of St. Prince
Vladimir. That, despite the political boundaries that lay on the body of
historical Rus, the peoples living on this earth always recognize each
other as brothers and sisters, so that the system of common values
never collapses, so that the sword of one brother never rises against
another.
Today's Gospel reading about how people brought the paralyzed Saviour to
their feet and the Lord healed him, doesn't it help us to understand what
the Russian Church is? The One Church that came out of the Kiev Baptismal font, which is in
Russia, and in Ukraine, and in Belarus, and in many other countries, is
it not similar to those who brought the paralytic to the Saviour? After all, someone must pray for our united people, whom they want
to make paralysed! Someone must defend God's truth that we are really one people who came
out of the Kiev Baptismal font! I know how the opponents of this people
will now shout there, in Ukraine: “Again, the Patriarch says that we are
one people.” But the Patriarch cannot say otherwise, because this is
historical and God's truth. And the fact that today we live in different countries, does not change
this historical truth and cannot change it. We know that other peoples,
including those in Europe, often lived in different countries for a long
time, but never lost their common national identity. And in relation to
our people, I will say: we have not lost the single Orthodox faith.
And may the Lord help us, as a paralytic, to gain strength, and may all
those who are likened to unknown people who brought the paralytic to the
feet of the Saviour, all those who are ready to work today to preserve the
spiritual unity of our peoples, to preserve the unity of our Church, not
hesitate and not doubt the rightness of the chosen path, just as those who
brought the paralytic to the feet of the Saviour did not hesitate. May the
Lord protect the land of Rus’, the peoples who today inhabit this land,
Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, because all of us, representatives of these
three peoples, are also connected by a single Slavic culture and
practically a single history. May we never forget our common roots, may we
always pray for each other. And the most important prayer should be that
the devil does not allow that terrible moment when a brother raises his
hand against a brother. Therefore, we must all pray for peace, for the
well-being of the holy Churches of God, for our united people, who today
live in different countries, but who came out of a single Kiev Baptismal
font, which is united by a common faith and a common historical
destiny.
With the prayers of the holy saints of God, starting with Prince
Vladimir, who stands at the beginning of the whole host of Russian saints,
Princess Olga, the faithful Boris and Gleb, the monks of the Kiev Caves
and all the saints who are included in the wondrous single tradition of
Russian Orthodoxy, may the Lord keep in spiritual unity our people and our
Church, the great guardian of the spiritual culture and Orthodox faith,
which formed the united people of united Holy Rus’.
20/03/2022 (Source. Edited for clarity)
Address to the Supreme Church Council
Today we are to make a number of decisions according to the agenda, but
besides that to exchange opinions on the developments, in the first place,
on what is happening in Ukraine and how it affects the inter-Orthodox and
inter-confessional relations. I will share information about my video meetings with the Pope of Rome
and the Archbishop of Canterbury, when we discussed in detail primarily
the problems of the security of people in Ukraine, as well as the
relations between the Orthodox and Catholics as also linked with the
Ukraine issue. All this is important for our relations with the Catholic
Church, with the Anglican community and certainly for the Patriarch’s bilateral relations with the
Primates of these Churches. I think the meeting, though remote but a real,
face-to-face, was positive for both the preservation of good relations between our
Churches and for the formation as far as possible a common attitude to
the situation in Ukraine.
I would also like to say that the events in Ukraine demand that we make
not only a serious analysis from the ecclesial perspective, but also our
prayers, and to stress once again that the Russian Church, despite the very negative political context, is
called today to preserve the spiritual unity of our people – the Russian
and Ukrainian peoples – as one nation which has come out of the Kievan
baptismal font. Without doubt, this unity is exposed to certain dangers
in the situation of hostilities, and if we speak of an external factor, then the internet space, the
information space, has also become a battlefield, and in this space there
is much disinformation, downright lie, provocative statements, which can
arouse negative feelings among people, prevent a speedy resolution of the
conflict and reconciliation. In this context, I consider as especially
important what is happening today in our Church – in the Russian
Federation, in Ukraine, in Byelorussia, in other countries. I believe that the stand taken by the Church can become a real
peace-making factor for making a positive impact on the developments in
Ukraine, a country fraternal for us. We should be especially zealous in lifting up prayers for peace and
should certainly accompany our prayers with concrete actions. And the most
concrete and important action today is to render assistance to those
affected by this conflict – in the first place, refugees, who have found
themselves in the territory of the Russian Federation.
(…)
Most of all, it is the work of prayer and indispensable efforts to
preserve good relations between peoples who have found themselves involved
in this conflict. The Church cannot be a bearer of any other signal than a peace-making
one because our flock is everywhere, on the either side of the
barricades.
(…)
I would like to say once again that a considerable attention was
certainly given to what is going on in Ukraine as well. Once again, I would like to stress the importance of the fact that my
personal remote contacts with both the Pope of Rome and the Archbishop
of Canterbury have revealed a high level of consent and understanding.
And, perhaps, the most important impression is that our interlocutors
have not moved away from us, nor have they become our enemies, and this
means that the political context, by God’s grace, have not destroyed the
relations we have developed with our brothers or, as they say today,
partners, despite the resounding criticism from a certain part of our
church community. You remember all those calls to withdraw from the World Council of
Churches, to discontinue bilateral relations; we were told that it was a
betrayal of the Church, etc. Well, now we can see that if all this had not existed then our Church could
have become fully isolated and we could not have the least opportunity
to convey to our partners our understanding of the situation, our view
of the developments. And, which is the most important thing, we would
not have chances to see in these partners those who regard the stand of
the Russian Orthodox Church with understanding. Therefore, we have existentially received a convincing validity of the
policy of developing relations with Orthodox and non-Orthodox Christians,
which our Church began to pursue in the post-war years. Of course, our
participation in the work of the World Council of Churches was a very
important factor of developing these relations and creating an atmosphere
of confidence, which helps us so much in this situation.
18/3/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from sermon on the Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy
[Following a description of the iconoclasm period, patriarch Kirill speaks
of the] dependence of the Church on the secular authorities, which manifested
itself in this whole story with iconoclasm! The emperor, who did not believe in icons, came and ordered everyone
not to believe in icons. Empress Theodora came, who believed in the
rightness of the Church and icon veneration, and everything returned to its
place. This dependence of the Church on an external force, dependence on those
who have political power, is the most dangerous dependence. All
members of the Church are law-abiding people, we pray for the authorities
and the army. But at the same time, every Christian reserves the
right to choose – in the event that the authorities become godless and
force the Christian to renounce the faith or, as was the case with iconoclasm, fall into heresy and force their
subordinates to follow it.
It would seem that all this is already in the past. Not at
all! My heart bleeds when I think about what is happening in
Ukraine. Is it not the same as once in Byzantium? Power comes and, for political reasons, does not consider it possible
that the majority of Orthodox believers belong to the Russian Orthodox
Church, the Moscow Patriarchate. The persecution of these people
begins. They are accused almost of treason, they are pressured not to
go to the Church, which is insultingly and blasphemously called the
"Church of the Occupiers." And, of course, there are people, as it
was during the time of iconoclasm, who immediately go in the wake of state
power – no matter what happens, no matter how the priest is deprived of a
good parish, no matter how the bishop loses his pulpit, no matter how they
accuse aiding the occupiers,
To all those who “waver along with the fluctuation of power,” it must be
said: but after all, our Church has gone through the trials of this very
wavering and has survived, despite persecution and oppression. And
today, starting from our own historical experience, we must say: we respect secular authorities, but we reserve the right to be free from
interference by authorities in the internal life of the Church. We
hope that this will be the case on Ukrainian soil, although today even the
commemoration of the name of the Patriarch in the temple for some becomes
impossible for fear for of the Jews (John 19:38).
We do not condemn anyone, but with my grieving heart I want to understand
such people. At the same time, I realize that if someone is unfaithful
in small things, then he can be unfaithful in big things (see Luke
16:10). Therefore, today my prayer is that our people in Ukraine will preserve the Orthodox
faith, so that they will not be afraid of the pressure of those who
suggest that they go into schism and thereby show loyalty to the
authorities. We pray and will continue to pray for the Ukrainian
Orthodox Church, so that the Lord would enlighten and strengthen our
episcopate, our clergy, so that no shameful, insulting nicknames that
today the bearers of radical views impose on our Orthodox people, accusing
them of some kind of complicity almost to the occupiers, so that all this
filth did not darken their souls. It must be remembered that we all
belong to the One Holy Catholic Apostolic Church – the same Church as in
Moscow, and in Kyiv; our Local Church, martyr and confessor. And God grant that we
all preserve unity, regardless of any external pressures and any efforts of
forces alien to the Church, to destroy the spiritual unity of our
peoples. When someone, out of fear, refuses to commemorate the Patriarch, then
this, of course, is a sign of weakness. It doesn't offend
me. But this is dangerous for the spiritual life of those who deviate
from the truth in small things. Today we do not commemorate the
Patriarch, because it is scary, but tomorrow someone may demand more. But this is dangerous for the spiritual life of those who deviate
from the truth in small things.
May the Lord keep our Church on Ukrainian land, His Beatitude
Metropolitan Onufry, the entire episcopate, for whom we pray, with whom we
are together in these difficult days. We believe that the Orthodox
faith and the Orthodox Church will not suffer damage from the ongoing
political processes, which we hope will soon pass. May the Lord
protect our Church, strengthen our people and help all of us, Russian
Orthodox people. I repeat: when I say “Russians”, I mean the words
“where did the Russian land come from” from The Tale of Bygone Years. I pray for everyone who lives in Ukraine, in Belarus, in our
Russian land, that we all be united in spirit and maintain unity in
faith. May the Lord help us, and about this today, on the day of the
Triumph of Orthodoxy, our special prayer is to preserve unity in faith,
unity in spirit, remembering that we have the same saints, one spiritual
tradition, often common spiritual fathers, monastics – one people of
God. Sorrow will pass, but it is very important that this sorrow does
not weaken our inner spiritual strength. If we endure, then our Russian land will be preserved, which now includes
Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and our Church, whose children live in different states almost all over
the planet. And we believe that the Lord will be with us if we preserve
the purity of the Orthodox faith, the guardians of which we especially
remember on the first Sunday of Great Lent. Amen.
13/03/2021 (Source. Edited for clarity)
Response to letter from the World Council of Churches
(…)
These days, millions of Christians all over the world in their prayers and thoughts
turn to the dramatic developments in Ukraine.
As you know, this conflict did not start today. It is my firm belief that its initiators are not the peoples of Russia
and Ukraine, who came from one Kievan baptismal font, are united by common
faith, common saints and prayers, and share common historical fate.
The origins of the confrontation lie in the relationships between the
West and Russia. By the 1990s Russia had been promised that its security and dignity would
be respected. However, as time went by, the forces overtly considering
Russia to be their enemy came close to its borders. Year after year, month after month, the NATO member states have been
building up their military presence, disregarding Russia’s concerns that
these weapons may one day be used against it.
Moreover, the political forces which make it their aim to contain Russia were not
going to fight against it themselves. They were planning to use other means, having tried to make the brotherly
peoples – Russians and Ukrainians – enemies. They spared no effort, no
funds to flood Ukraine with weapons and warfare instructors. Yet, the most
terrible thing is not the weapons, but the attempt to “re-educate,” to
mentally remake Ukrainians and Russians living in Ukraine into enemies of
Russia.
Pursuing the same end was the church schism created by Patriarch
Bartholomew of Constantinople in 2018. It has taken its toll on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
As far back as 2014, when blood was being shed in Kiev’s Maidan and there
were first victims, the WCC expressed its concern. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, the WCC General Secretary at the time, said on March
3, 2014, “The World Council of Churches is deeply concerned by the current
dangerous developments in Ukraine. The situation puts many innocent lives
in grave jeopardy. And like a bitter wind from the Cold War, it risks
further undermining the international community’s capacity to act now or
in the future on the many urgent issues that will require a collective and
principled response.”
That was also when an armed conflict broke out in the Donbas region,
whose population was defending their right to speak the Russian language,
demanding respect for their historical and cultural tradition. However, their voices went unheard, just as thousands of victims among
the Donbas population went unnoticed in the Western world.
This tragic conflict has become a part of the large-scale geopolitical
strategy aimed, first and foremost, at weakening Russia.
And now the Western leaders are imposing such economic sanctions on
Russia that will be harmful to everyone. They make their intentions blatantly obvious – to bring sufferings not
only to the Russian political or military leaders, but specifically to the
Russian people. Russophobia is spreading across the Western world at an unprecedented
pace.
I pray unceasingly that by His power the Lord help establish the lasting
and justice-based peace as soon as possible. I ask you and our brothers in Christ, united in the Council, to share
this prayer with the Russian Orthodox Church.
Dear Father Ioan, I express my hope that even in these trying times, as has been the case
throughout its history, the World Council of Churches will be able to
remain a platform for unbiased dialogue, free from political preferences
and one-sided approach.
May the Lord preserve and save the peoples of Russia and Ukraine!
10/03/2022 (Source)
Patriarchal Sermon on Wednesday of the First Week of Great Lent
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!
The time of Great Lent is a time of repentance and prayer. For what? To free ourselves from the captivity in which we fall, committing
ungodly, sinful deeds. We are captured by sin. A person does not even notice how this happens – somewhere he told a lie,
somewhere he distorted the facts, somewhere he answered inappropriately
and offended the interlocutor. It is from such small conflicts that alienation grows, people become
enemies. And sometimes conflicts are fomented by a third party who has an
interest in two people quarreling – this happens all the time. Everyone, probably, went through such a temptation when you realize that
you, having nothing bad in your heart towards another person, suddenly
become an enemy in his eyes. And then it turns out that someone worked and
inspired the one
Such domestic conflicts are very well known to all of us, and since they
are most often based on lies, we must remember who the father of lies
is. The devil is the father of lies, and his goal is to destroy human souls,
to push people into conflict, because conflict liberates
passions. What a person would never say or do in a calm state, he begins to say and
do if he comes into conflict with his neighbour, if he sees an enemy in
him. Then some kind of animal, natural element is liberated in a person, and
we know what terrible forms conflicts take. Families are falling apart,
people are dying, but this has to do not only with interpersonal
relationships, but also with conflicts between peoples, between
countries.
Now we are going through a conflict between Russia and
Ukraine. Let's think about what really can divide us? We are practically one
people, bound by historical fate, we all came out of the Kiev font
together, we are united by faith, our saints, common hope, the same
prayers. What can separate us?! But the enemy of the human race -
through specific people, through specific associations of people -
throws lies into the relations between our peoples, and on the basis of
this lie a conflict develops. And we know that this is not just a quarrel between neighbours, but a
conflict in which states are involved, that is, institutions that have the
legal right to use force, forcing their citizens to obey if they violate
the laws, or forcing other countries if they see there is a threat in them, to
ensure that this threat does not exist.
In other words, today two fraternal peoples have entered into a conflict – but in fact
one, the Russian people. Let me remind you again and again of the words of The Tale of Bygone
Years, our historical chronicle, which tells “where the Russian land came
from”, and then comes the story of Kyiv. Russia is one country, one people, but this people turned out to be
very strong, and the neighbours, frightened by its strength, began to do
everything to divide this people, to inspire parts of this people that
you are not at all one people. And we know to what a terrible climax the consequence of this
suggestion is now reaching, when someone does not see a brother in his
brother, but sees an enemy. And it's terrible that there are some
religious organizations (I can't even dare to call them religious) that
raise the need to fight against the fraternal Russian people to the
shield of their preaching.
The Church, which measures time not in days, not in months, not in years,
but in centuries and millennia, in its historical experience keeps the
memory of the many conflicts that have been since ancient times – in
Ancient Rome, Byzantium, the Old Russian state, the Russian Empire, modern
states on territory of historical Russia. The Church remembers these conflicts and knows what dire consequences
they have always led to. And today, with all their might, the enemies of both the Russian and Ukrainian peoples from the outside
are trying to instill that you are not brothers, but you are enemies,
and you must fight each other. And after all someone succumbs to this temptation! And we, of course, regret and mourn the fact that political forces have
arisen on our close, native Ukrainian land, which, using the idea of an
enemy in relation to the Russian people, are shaping policy towards Russia
today.
Let's not talk about those who set fire to this war – God will judge
them, and He will punish them. Today we need to talk about ourselves, and I call on all of you, my dear
ones, first of all, to intensify the prayer that all military confrontation between Russia and
Ukraine will stop, so that our people will once again be able to realize
the existence of common spiritual roots and common spiritual strength,
which is our undivided Church, residing in Russia, in Ukraine and in
other countries. This is indeed a guarantee of salvation, a guarantee of the future
world, but that is precisely why she is being persecuted there today, on
Ukrainian soil, by those who are not interested in peace. Therefore, we must pray especially for His Beatitude Vladyka, Primate of
the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, for the Ukrainian episcopate, but also, of
course, for our Church.
But here's something else I'd like to say. Where the devil is, there is always a lie. Even today – what a huge amount of lies are being spread! There was even such a newfangled word "fake" as a synonym for lies. But
this is an ordinary devilish lie, because it is lies that are used today to deepen the gulf between two
peoples, to make them enemies; and we must be very vigilant to
everything that is being said in connection with the mournful conflict
that has arisen in the Donbass.
Our Church is both in Russia and, I hope, in Ukraine, because we have
common values, common ideals, a common Christian conscience, after
all. We cannot act otherwise than to pray for peace and try to reduce the
degree of confrontation, the degree of emotional political discussions, often overstepping
the bounds of decency. We must do everything to pacify and pacify our hearts so that the enemy
of the human race does not manage to destroy our spiritual unity, around
which the religious and cultural life of our united people, Russians and
Ukrainians, was formed.
Of course, the topic related to Russian-Ukrainian relations has now
become a part of big politics or, as they say now,
geopolitics. And one of the goals of this geopolitics is the weakening of Russia, which
has become a strong, really powerful country. But how disgusting and
vile to use the fraternal people to achieve these geopolitical goals!
How terrible to set these people against their brothers! How terrible it
is to arm him so that he enters into a struggle with his brothers of the
same blood and of the same faith! All those who do this in the form of
propaganda that has massively attacked Ukraine, in the form of concrete
actions, in the form of creating prerequisites for the expansion of the
military conflict - all these people are enemies of both Russia and
Ukraine. They are against our unity, against our spiritual roots, regardless of
whether they call themselves believers or non-believers.
May the Lord help all of us — Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, all peoples who came from the same
root, came out of the Kiev Baptismal Font — to maintain our spiritual unity, to prevent the division of our
Church. By the way, those who sought to divide the peoples began by dividing the Church,
creating some schisms in Ukraine. This started in order to break the spiritual unity, but by the grace of
God this unity is preserved.
Today I especially prayed for His Beatitude Onuphry, for the episcopate, for
the clergy, for the believing people of Ukraine, so that the Lord would
save them from the wiles of the evil one, keep them in the understanding
that any war between Orthodox brothers who belong to one Church is the
work of the devil, not God's. And therefore, our one Church, whether in Russia, in Ukraine, in other
countries, must today pray for peace, for an end to internecine strife, as
St. Sergius did, as our Russian Church did when the Russian princes
entered into internecine strife, destroying each other. So today we will not follow the path to which we are called, provoking the
involvement of the Church in the conflict, but we will follow the path
of St. Sergius and pray for the unity of Holy Russia so that no forces
can divide our people.
May the Lord bless our land – historical Rus’! May the Lord save us from divisions in the Church, may He help us overcome all those divisions that are generated not by
differences in faith, but by the influence of political forces on
certain church circles. So that all this remains in the past and that we all, with one mouth
and one heart, can glorify the holy and magnificent name of the Father and
the Son and the Holy Spirit and, guarding ourselves with the Cross, drive
away any enemy, demonic power from our common life and from our fate.
Amen.
09/03/2022 (Source. Edited for clarity)
Excerpts from the Patriarchal Sermon on Cheesefare Week after the Liturgy at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour
(…)
We know that this spring has been overshadowed by grave events related to the
deterioration of the political situation in the Donbass, practically the outbreak of hostilities. I would like to say something
on this subject.
For eight years there have been attempts to destroy what exists in the
Donbass. And in the Donbass there is rejection, a fundamental rejection
of the so-called values that are offered today by those who claim
world power. Today there is such a test for the loyalty of this government, a kind
of pass to that “happy” world, the world of excess consumption, the world of visible “freedom”. Do you
know what this test is? The test is very simple and at the same time
terrible – this is a gay parade. The demands on many to hold a gay parade are a test of loyalty to that
very powerful world; and we know that if people or countries reject
these demands, then they do not enter into that world, they become
strangers to it.
But we know what this sin is, which is promoted through the so-called
marches of dignity. This is a sin that is condemned by the Word of God –
both the Old and the New Testament. Moreover, the Lord, condemning sin,
does not condemn the sinner. He only calls him to repentance, but not to
ensure that through a sinful person and his behaviour, sin becomes a life
standard, a variation of human behaviour – respected and acceptable.
If humanity recognizes that sin is not a violation of God's law, if
humanity agrees that sin is one of the options for human behaviour, then
human civilization will end there. And gay parades are designed to
demonstrate that sin is one of the variations of human behaviour. That is
why in order to enter the club of those countries, it is necessary to hold
a gay pride parade. Not to make a political statement “we are with you”,
not to sign any agreements, but to hold a gay parade. And we know how
people resist these demands and how this resistance is suppressed by
force. This means that we are talking about imposing by force a sin
condemned by God's law, and therefore, by force to impose on people the
denial of God and His truth.
Therefore, what is happening today in the sphere of international
relations has not only political significance. We are talking about something different and much more important
than politics. We are talking about human salvation, about
where humanity will end up, on which side of God the Saviour, who comes
into the world as the Judge and Creator, on the right or on the left.
Today, out of weakness, stupidity, ignorance, and most often out of
unwillingness to resist, many go there, to the left side. And all that is
connected with the justification of sin, condemned by the Bible, is today
a test for our faithfulness to the Lord, for our ability to confess faith
in our Saviour.
Everything that I say has not just some theoretical meaning and not only
a spiritual meaning. Around this topic today there is a real war. Who is attacking Ukraine today, where the suppression and extermination
of people in the Donbass has been going on for eight years; eight years
of suffering and the whole world is silent – what does that mean? But we know that our brothers and sisters
are really suffering; moreover, they may suffer for their loyalty to the
Church. And so today, on Forgiveness Sunday, on the one hand, as your
shepherd, I call on everyone to forgive sins and insults, including where it is
very difficult to do this, where people are at war with each other. But forgiveness without justice is capitulation and weakness.
Therefore, forgiveness must be accompanied by the indispensable
preservation of the right to stand on the side of the world, on the side
of God's truth, on the side of the Divine commandments.
All of the above indicates that we have entered into a struggle that has not a physical, but a metaphysical significance. I know how, unfortunately, Orthodox people, believers, choosing the path of least resistance in this war, do not reflect on everything that we are thinking about today, but humbly follow the path that the powers that be show them. We do not condemn anyone, we do not invite anyone to come to the cross, we just say to ourselves: we will be faithful to the word of God, we will be faithful to His law, we will be faithful to the law of love and justice, and if we see violations of this law, we will never put up with those who destroy this law, blurring the line between holiness and sin, and even more so with those who promote sin as an example or as one of the models of human behaviour.
Today, our brothers in the Donbass, Orthodox people, are undoubtedly
suffering, and we cannot but be with them, first of all in prayer. It is necessary to pray that the Lord would
help them to preserve the Orthodox faith, not to succumb to temptations
and temptations. At the same time, we must pray that peace will come as soon as
possible, that the blood of our brothers and sisters will stop, that the
Lord will incline His mercy to the long-suffering Donbass land, which
has been bearing this mournful stamp for eight years, generated by human
sin and hatred.
(…)
And let us pray that all those who are fighting today, who are shedding blood, who are suffering, will also enter into this joy of the Resurrection in peace and tranquility. Because what joy will there be if some are in the world, while others are in the power of evil and in the sorrow of internecine warfare?
Prayer for the speedy restoration of peace, pronounced by the Patriarch on Forgiveness Sunday
O Holy and merciful God, Lord Jesus Christ our God, through the prayers
of the All-Pure Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, the holy Grand Duke
Vladimir and Grand Duchess Olga, the holy New Martyrs and Confessors of
our Church, Our venerable and godly fathers Anthony and
Theodosius, wonderworkers of the Kievo-Pechersk monastery,
Sergius, hegumen of Radonezh, Job of Pochaev, Seraphim of Sarov and all
the saints; make our prayer favourable for the Church and for all Your
people.
From one baptismal font, in the days of holy Prince Vladimir, we Thy
children have received grace: establish in our hearts a spirit of
brotherly love and peace for ever!
To the foreign people who desire to be at war and to fight against Holy
Rus', – forbid them and overthrow their plans.
Through Thy grace incline those who hold power to good; strengthen the soldiers, that they keep Thy commandments;
provide homes for the homeless; nourish the hungry; strengthen and heal
those who are in affliction and suffering; give hope and comfort to those
who are in confusion and sorrow, and give forgiveness of sins and a blessed repose to those who have been
killed in battle.
Fill us with faith, hope and love that we may confess to Thee, our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ, with Thy everlasting Father, Thy Holy and
Life-giving Spirit, in one word and with one heart, for ever and ever.
Amen.
06/03/2022 (Source. I had considerable difficulty obtaining a good translation of this prayer. I take full responsibility for the final result, obtained through a mix of automatic translations and edited for clarity. The original can be read in the link provided. If anybody detects mistakes, please let me know in the comments. A few changes were made since I first posted it, following suggestions from a Russian speaker. The most significant being replacing "Holy Russia" with "Holy Rus'")
Excerpt from a Sunday homily
Today we also need unity – the unity with our brothers and sisters in Ukraine. We are aware of the difficult circumstances encountered today by the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. I especially prayed
today for His Beatitude the Primate and certainly for the whole episcopate
and all the faithful people of Ukraine; and I call you to lift up these
prayers too. God forbid that the present political situation in fraternal Ukraine so
close to us should be aimed at making the evil forces that have always
strived against the unity of Rus’ and the Russian Church, gain the upper
hand. God forbid that a terrible line stained with the blood of our brothers
should be drawn between Russia and Ukraine. We should pray for the restoration of peace, for the restoration of good
fraternal relations between our peoples. A guarantee of this fellowship is
our united Orthodox Church represented in Ukraine by the Ukrainian Orthodox
Church headed by His Beatitude Onuphry. We prayed for them today as well. We
prayed that the Lord may give them strength and wisdom to repulse the
attacks of the evil one while serving their people in faith and truth
promoting peace by all possible ways.
May the Lord preserve our Church in unity. May the Lord protect from fratricidal battle the peoples comprising the
one space of the Russian Orthodox Church. It must not be allowed to give the dark and hostile external forces an
occasion to laugh at us; we should do everything to preserve peace between our peoples while
protecting our common historical Motherland against every outside action
that can destroy this unity.
Today we lift up a special prayer for His Beatitude Onuphry, for our
Church and for our devout faithful. May the Lord preserve the Russian land. When I say “Russian”, I use the ancient expression from “A Tale of
Bygone Years” – “Wherefrom has the Russian land come”, the land which
now includes Russia and Ukraine and Belarus and other tribes and
peoples. That the Lord may protect the Russian land against external enemies, against internal disorders, that the unity of our Church may strengthen
and that by God’s mercy all the temptations, diabolical attacks,
provocations may retreat and that our devout people in Ukraine may enjoy
peace and tranquillity – these are our prayers today. And I ask you all to
mention His Beatitude Onuphry in your prayers in church and at home, to
mention our brothers and sisters in Ukraine and to pray for peace.
27/2/2022 (Source. Edited for clarity)
It is with deep and heartfelt pain that I perceive the suffering of people caused by the events taking place.
As the Patriarch of All Russia and the Primate of the Church, whose flock is in Russia, Ukraine and other countries, I deeply
empathize with everyone who has been touched by misfortune.
I call on all parties to the conflict to do everything possible to
avoid civilian casualties.
I appeal to bishops, pastors, monastics and laity with an appeal to
provide all possible assistance to all victims, including refugees, people
left without shelter and livelihood.
The Russian and Ukrainian peoples have a common centuries-old history
dating back to the Baptism of Russia by the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles
Prince Vladimir. I believe that this God-given community will help overcome the divisions
and contradictions that have arisen that have led to the current
conflict.
I call on the entirety of the Russian Orthodox Church to offer up a
deep, fervent prayer for the speedy restoration of peace.
May the all-merciful Lord, through the intercession of our Most Pure Lady
Theotokos and all the saints, preserve the Russian, Ukrainian and other
peoples, which our Church spiritually unites!
24-2-2022 (Source)
Prayer on anniversary of invasion
We offer our thanksgiving prayers to God, His
Most Pure Mother and all the saints for the fact that the Lord helped us
preserve our Ukrainian state. Today we commemorate the anniversary of the
beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine.
Although this brutal war has been going on for 9 years, the last year has been
very difficult. We thank God, we thank every defender of our Ukraine, the
newest hero who carries out a feat, defending our Ukrainian land. We are grateful
to all of you, our newest heroes-warriors, grateful to every volunteer, people
of good will, who, having united, are still doing good deeds of charity.
(…)
We must also remember those who are no longer
with us – after all, the Mykhailo Golden-roofed Monastery has become the center
of commemoration of our fallen newest heroes. We remember them, we pray for
them and we have no right to forget them – they gave the most precious thing,
their lives, for the sake of each of us, for the sake of the peaceful sky that
we have.
24/02/2023 (Source)
During meeting with Ukrainian soldiers
The Church prays for you, our newest heroes. We
are unbreakable and together we will win. Morally, we have already won and
the whole world believed in our victory. So we will fight to the end and drive the enemy out of our land.
24/02/2023
(Source)
During meeting with Apostolic Nuncio Visvaldas
Kulbokas
We support the desire of the Ukrainian state to
protect our fellow citizens and freedom of religion from the hybrid influence
of Russian propaganda, of which, unfortunately, the Russian Church has become
an instrument. It is not about the prohibition of religion, but rather about
the prohibition of Russian religious centers, which are controlled by the Putin
administration, to
have influence on religious organizations in Ukraine.
21/02/2023 (Source)
Call for prayer and fasting on anniversary of
the invasion
The anniversary of the full-scale Russian
invasion of Ukraine is approaching, the anniversary of the great war for the
freedom of our Motherland. As Christians, we should meet this day with prayer
and fasting.
Therefore, I bless, in addition to our usual
prayers, on February 24 in our monasteries and cathedrals, and wherever and for
whom there will be such an opportunity, during the day, read the Psalter with a
prayer for our soldiers, for the victory of truth and a just peace for Ukraine.
Let's spend this day in fasting and prayer for
our defenders, for the living and the dead, for the soldiers and for the
civilians who suffered and continue to suffer from the invasion of the evil
Russian empire. And let with God's help the time of war be shortened, and the
day of victory and peace draw closer. Amen!
17/02/2023 (Source)
Words during a meeting with the vice-minister
of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania
We pray and believe that this war will end with
our victory, because the truth we stand for deserves it. A new generation of
young people has already grown up, who do not want to have anything to do with
Russia, who want to live in their single, independent, European state.
16/02/2023 (Source)
Speech on the fourth anniversary of the primate’s
enthronement
The walls of Saint Sophia limit physical space,
separating it from the rest of the world. But at the same time, they seem to
expand the spiritual space, help us to go beyond the visible space and at the
current time, help us feel that we are not left in grief, in troubles,
suffering, that we are not left alone before the challenges of the aggression
of the Russian empire of evil. With us is our Lord and Saviour, with us the Virgin of Oranta, with us
the host of heaven and the council of saints, glorified by exploits on the land
of Russia-Ukraine. And the main thing is that we have the truth and moral
victory on our side. And therefore, no matter how difficult it is to confront
the forces of evil that destroy and destroy Ukraine, we believe that with God's
help we can achieve victory and win a just peace. We pray for this here in
Saint Sophia, and every day in all our churches and in every heart.
(…)
We gave thanks to God and His holy saints, and
it is our duty, as Christians, never to forget to thank the Lord for
everything, because all good has its source from our Creator. But in addition
to thanking God on this day, as on every day to come, we must thank our brave
new heroes, our defenders, soldiers, sons and daughters of Ukraine, thanks to
whose sacrificial heroism we preserve dignity and freedom. Every month, day,
every moment of our will, our life, our prayer in our native language and work
have a dear, extraordinary price - the price of the blood given by our
defenders, the price of their lives. Let's never forget that!
(…)
It should not be forgotten that evil does not
originate from man, but from evil spirits and their chief, the devil. And he
sows, like tares among the wheat, temptations and falsehood, trying to incline
every person to evil. Therefore, we should resist not only foreigners,
Russian aggressors who are fighting against Ukraine, but also resist the
temptations that attack our souls. Discord, enmity, corruption, moral
degradation are no less dangerous for Ukraine than Russian tanks, bombs and
missiles. But when we fight against these temptations, we will overcome
them too, with God's help.
03/02/2023 (Source)
Statement of the Holy Synod regarding the need
to legally limit the intervention of the aggressor country in the religious
life of Ukraine
The aggression of the Russian Federation
against Ukraine and the occupation of part of the territory of our state have
been going on for almost nine years. The ideological basis for this aggression
is the theory of the "Russian peace", which denies the unique
identity of the Ukrainian nation, denies the right of the Ukrainian people to
their own statehood and the Local Orthodox Church. Inspired by the ideology of
the "Russian peace", the troops of the aggressor country commit mass
terror and acts of genocide in the occupied territories and against the
civilian population throughout Ukraine.
Numerous indisputable facts testify to the
decisive, conscious and active participation of the leadership, clergy and many
supporters of the Moscow Patriarchate (Russian Orthodox Church) in supporting
and spreading the ideology of the "Russian peace", which contains
elements of heretical ethnophiletism. Personally, the head of the Russian
Orthodox Church Kyryll Gundyaev gives a public blessing to the Russian political
and military leadership for the continuation of the aggressive war against
Ukraine.
It is a widely known and indisputable fact that
the Moscow Patriarchate, as the governing center of the Russian Orthodox
Church, as well as its structural subdivisions, are under the decisive
influence of the political leadership of the Russian Federation and the Russian
special services. Other religious associations with their headquarters in the
Russian Federation are also under similar influence to a greater or lesser extent.
In the conditions of the war against Ukraine, this influence is used as a tool
of hybrid aggression against our country, to justify collaboration with the
occupiers on captured Ukrainian lands, to incline Ukrainian citizens to treason
against the Motherland and to act in the interests of the aggressor.
In this regard, the protection of the security
of Ukraine, the protection of citizens of Ukraine and religious organizations
from their use by an aggressor for criminal purposes is a fully justified goal,
for the achievement of which it is necessary to introduce restrictions on the
influence of Russian religious centers, and through them - on the political and
military leadership and special services aggressor countries on religious
organizations in Ukraine.
Therefore, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine
supports the need to introduce a legislative ban on subordination (affiliation)
of religious organizations in Ukraine to religious associations in the
aggressor country - the Russian Federation. Such a ban does not apply to
freedom of religion and belief, but only to administrative and legal issues. In conditions where the threat from
the aggressor country's use of pseudo-religious motivation and the
administrative influence of Russian religious centers on religious
organizations in Ukraine is quite real and poses a significant danger to the
rights and freedoms of all citizens of Ukraine, to the sovereignty and
territorial integrity of our state, the establishment of legislative
restrictions on the subordination of religious organizations in Ukraine to the
Russian religious association is a democratic and necessary reaction to
aggression.
If the religious association, which, contrary
to the law, continues to bear the name "Ukrainian Orthodox Church" is
really independent from the Russian Orthodox Church, as its spokesmen have been
saying for some time, such a legislative norm will not affect its position in
any way, but on the contrary, it will protect this association from criminal
Russian interference. However, as established by the religious examination, the
religious association "UPC" actually remains a part of the Russian
Orthodox Church. Its leadership, in concert with the aggressor country, spreads
slander about Ukraine regarding the alleged "persecutions", while at
the same time almost completely ignoring the numerous and systematic real facts
of violations of the right to freedom of conscience, as well as other human
rights and freedoms, in the Ukrainian territories occupied by the Russian
Federation.
Taking into account all the above, the Holy
Synod calls on the Ukrainian state to continue its work aimed at protecting
national security in the religious sphere, and the international community to
take an understanding and adequate approach to the measures taken by Ukraine in
its resistance to Russian hybrid aggression.
02/02/2023 (Source)
Words during meeting with head of Kherson
Military Administration
The occupiers are constantly mistaken when they
think that by terrorizing the civilian population they will be able to break
our will to protect the Motherland. Ukraine is not a totalitarian state, like
theirs, so we should not be intimidated. We are very self-organized and will
fight for our God-given land and freedom
31/01/2023 (Source)
Words to Pope Francis during visit of the
Council of Churches to the Vatican
Together with our country, with our people, we
are experiencing the tragedy of the war that Russia brought to our land.
Among us are those who were directly affected by Russian aggression and its
consequences. At the same time, we are all witnesses of the suffering,
grief, destruction, and irreparable losses that the Ukrainian people suffer every
day from the actions of the aggressor.
We know how important your voice, as the head
of the Catholic Church, is for hundreds of millions of Christians around the
world and for all people of good will. It is also important for Ukraine, where
wounds are open and bleeding, and therefore hearts and souls are especially
sensitive.
We thank you for your prayers for Ukraine. I am
sure that thanks to your call in this prayer for the victory of truth and a
just peace, millions of voices are united every day. And we believe that the
spiritual power of love and compassion, the power of God's mercy is able to
work miracles, is able to stop the spread of evil and defeat it.
Therefore, we ask you, Your Holiness, to
call Christians of the world to fast and pray for the victory of truth and a
just peace for Ukraine on February 24 - the day when a year ago the great
aggression against our country began. Such an opinion was born between us
during communication and we ask you to support this initiative.
We are sincerely grateful to Your Holiness for
the calls to show mercy to refugees, to provide humanitarian aid to those in
need. We thank all the communities and institutions of the Catholic Church, all
the faithful who have done and continue to do good deeds for our suffering
people.
Your Holiness!
As the Primate of the Local Orthodox Church of
Ukraine, the largest religious community in our country, as evidenced by the
data of sociological surveys, I want to emphasize our openness to dialogue and
cooperation. The leaders of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and the Roman
Catholic Church in Ukraine present here can confirm that we have had successful
cooperation and constructive relations for many years. As one of the Local
Churches in the family of World Orthodoxy, we testify to the desire of the
Orthodox Church of Ukraine to join the broad Orthodox-Catholic ecumenical
dialogue and, in particular, to direct interaction with the Apostolic Capital.
I am sure that it will benefit both our Churches and Ukraine.
In conclusion, I would like to present to you,
Your Holiness, a gift – a sculptural metal copy of the "Great Amber Heart
of Ukraine". The unique amber stone in the shape of a wounded heart, which
is depicted in this sculpture, was found in the north of Ukraine. At the
time of the invasion, the "Amber Heart" was kept in Buch, and during
the Russian occupation of this city, it was buried in the ground and thus saved
from abduction. May this sculptural image of wounded Ukrainian hearts,
which reminds of the tragedy of the genocide committed by the Russian occupiers
in Buch and other places in Ukraine, inspire further work for healing, for the
establishment of truth and opposition to evil.
25/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from sermon on the feast day of
Epiphany
Today we are celebrating the Divine Liturgy for
the second time in this cathedral church of the Pechersk Lavra. In times
of great grief and suffering brought to our common home by the war unleashed by
the preachers of the ideology of "Russian peace", we see in these services
a sign of spiritual comfort, God's favor and inspiration for further work to renew this
shrine. We pray, dear brothers and sisters, for our Pechersk Lavra and for
its renewal. May the Lord, through the intercession of His Most Pure
Mother, through the prayers of our fathers Anthony and Theodosius and all the
Saints of Pechersk, bless our work with success!
Dear brothers and sisters!
These days, in the midst of the sea of
suffering that Russia brought with the war to our native home, two tragedies
especially touched people's hearts. Moscow's terrorist attack on the city
of Dnipro - a city that proudly bears the name of our blessed river, the second
Jordan and the baptismal font of Ukraine-Russia - this attack took the lives of
many innocent children and adults. Adults and children also became victims
of the plane crash in Brovary yesterday. For the victims of these
tragedies, for those whose lives were tragically cut short due to the lawless
war imposed on us by Russia, today we will offer our funeral prayers,
although this is not usually part of the holiday service. May the Lord
accept the souls of the dead in His Kingdom and rest with the saints! May
God receive the souls of all soldiers who gave their lives in the struggle for
Ukraine, for truth and freedom, and all peaceful residents in His Heavenly
Homes, who died from the invasion of foreigners in this war! Eternal
memory to them!
19/01/2023 (Source)
Words during meeting with Ukrainian soldiers
Today we have gathered to congratulate you on
Christmas and celebrate your merits. You have proven that you are strong and
indomitable and will not give your God-given land to the Russian invaders. The
Lord will certainly help us, because we stand for the truth and for our people,
and the one who came to us with evil will be punished. In addition to the
physical, we are also waging a spiritual struggle, in which there are already
obvious results, so we will continue to free Ukraine from Moscow’s spiritual
yoke. However, all this is possible thanks to the fact that you carry your
difficult feat. So may the Lord protect you and give you strength and
inspiration for further righteous struggle.
17/01/2023 (Source)
Words during celebration in the Pechersk Lavra
On this day, we especially turn to Saint Peter,
as one of the spiritual leaders of the Pechersk monastery, with a prayer and
ask: saint our father Peter, you are now standing before the Throne of the Most
High God – pray to him for Kyiv, your capital city, and for all of Rus' –
Ukraine, for which you were a good archpastor, so that soon the enemies who
torment the state and the Ukrainian people will be defeated and expelled from
our land.
14/01/2023 (Source)
Words during meeting with Brigadier General
Anatoly Shevchenko
It is necessary to resolve the issue with
collaborators in cassocks once and for all, because the Moscow Patriarchate, no
matter what it calls itself here, is the last significant bridgehead of the
enemy inside Ukraine.
12/01/2023 (Source)
Words during meeting with the head of the
Military Chaplaincy Service of the Armed Forces
It is our duty to support soldiers who constantly
risk their lives defending Ukraine. Therefore, we will continue to make efforts to develop and strengthen
our institute of military chaplaincy. After all, the spiritual support of those
who are going through the hell of war is extremely important. I believe and
pray every day for our just victory
10/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from Sermon
Dear brothers and sisters! Christ was
born!
On the Sunday after Christmas, the Church
reminds us of two sad events - the flight of the Virgin Mary with the Infant
God and the righteous Joseph to Egypt and the cruel extermination of children
in Bethlehem and its surroundings by the order of King Herod. In the midst
of the joy we have, remembering and glorifying the birth of the Savior, from
the Gospel we hear about pain, bloodshed and suffering from the action of
evil. And if in past years such memories had a greater moral and
educational significance for us, now, in the time of indescribable suffering
brought to our land by the newest Herod and his embittered servants, these
memories directly echo with pain in our souls.
After all, millions of our fellow citizens
became forced refugees due to Russian aggression, just as the Mother of God and
the Child and Elder Joseph - Her betrothed and guardian - were
refugees. Women, children, people of the older generation, escaping from
the murderers of the Kremlin dictator, are forced to leave their
Motherland, their native home and flee to another land, often far away and
foreign, in order to find safety and protection from cruelty and violence
there. And hundreds of children's lives, thousands of lives of
civilians of Ukrainian towns and villages have already been taken and continue
to be taken by the murderers sent by the Kremlin's Herod.
Mariupol and Volnovakha, Bucha, Borodyanka and
Irpin, Kharkiv and Izyum, Kherson and Bakhmut - just listing all the places of
crimes, acts of terror and genocide committed by Russian aggressors on
Ukrainian soil would require a lot of time. And behind each such name are
hundreds and thousands of lives cut off or crippled by war.
Therefore, although we celebrate now and
glorify the event of the birth of the Son of God and the Saviour of the world,
we do not forget about the great suffering that our brothers and sisters are
experiencing in these very days and hours. We remember them in prayer, we
ask for God's help and protection for them. We pray for the repose of the
souls of the innocent victims of the Russian attack. We ask for recovery,
healing of physical and mental wounds for those injured and maimed by Russian
bombs, bullets and rockets. We ask for protection and help for forced
refugees and displaced persons who, like Christ and His earthly parents, left
their native land, seeking protection from danger. May the Lord inspire
mercy in the hearts of people of good will who take care of our refugees, and
may He reward them a hundredfold for their kindness and sacrifice.
Again and again, in our prayers, we remember
our newest heroes, the brave warriors - defenders of Ukraine. Thanks to
their daily sacrifice, thanks to their steadfastness, we have the opportunity
to celebrate Christmas in relative peace. For this, for our freedom and
independence, we have to pay a high price every day and every hour. We do
not forget this and never will!
Current events and the events of the gospel
time, the suffering and death of innocents make us ask ourselves the question: why
does God allow this?
Because He gave mankind the inalienable gift of
freedom. Each person comes into being with free will and choice. This
gift is the basis of our ability to love, because it is the fruit of
freedom. At the same time, our freedom and the right to choose also mean a
person's ability to choose evil and hatred instead of love and good.
Evil and its consequences are not God's choice,
but man's choice. All the evil and suffering we see is the result of
someone using the divine gift of freedom for a selfish, unrighteous
purpose. Evil does not arise by itself - it has creators and perpetrators
who subordinated their freedom to the creation of this evil.
God does not create evil, it does not originate
from Him, but God does everything to stop this evil, so that it is defeated and
justly condemned. And that is why the Son of God, although He is Almighty,
voluntarily limited and humbled Himself, endured exile, persecution, suffering,
torment and accepted death - in order to defeat evil at its very root and open
the way to salvation and eternal life for all good, all innocent from harm to
the victims.
Because our God is patient, but also
just. He prematurely suffers the sins of people, giving them the
opportunity to repent and make amends. But He also punishes the lawless and
condemns evil, and no one will escape His righteous judgment.
The children killed by Herod's order in
Bethlehem and the surrounding area died innocently, but as martyrs they
received heavenly crowns and eternal blissful existence in heavenly
homes. And Herod and his servants inherited condemnation along with the
devil. The proud king is thrown from the throne to the hell of fire, and
the innocent children receive a blessed place near the Throne of the Most High
God.
The Son of God, together with His earthly
parents, endures unjust exile, becomes a refugee and finds protection in a
foreign land. But with this, He shows an example of great humility, which
defeats evil. This victory does not happen immediately, not in one moment,
the crossroad of suffering leads to this victory. But the end of the path
of humility, patience and sacrifice is always the victory of good.
Today, we are reminded of these two lessons by
the word of the Gospel about the escape to Egypt of the Savior's earthly
parents with the Infant God and about Herod's killing of the children in
Bethlehem. Evil can have temporary success and at times good may seem to
retreat before its onslaught. But in reality, evil is always doomed to
defeat and condemnation, and good wins.
Therefore, we too, dear brothers and sisters,
being in these difficult circumstances of the war, will not lose heart and
despair, but let the example of the victorious humility of the Son of God
inspire us. No matter how long the temporary triumph of evil lasts, the
sword of God's justice will punish it. Every unrepentant criminal, like
Herod of old, will be judged. And everyone who suffered innocent suffering
will receive a reward from the Righteous Judge, who himself suffered unjustly.
08/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpts of Speech before liturgy in the
Pechersk Lavra
There are no truly worthy and complete words
with which we can now express our gratitude to the Almighty God for His great
mercy to us, manifested in the fact that today in this House of the Most Holy
Theotokos, in the cathedral church of Pechersk Lavra, we solemnly glorified the
Nativity of our Savior, the Lord, with a divine liturgy Jesus Christ. More
than two decades ago, this shrine was restored from the ruins as a gift to the
Ukrainian people for the 2000th anniversary of the birth of Christ, and today
we are celebrating the second birth of both this cathedral and our Pechersk
Lavra itself. Because the artificial spirit of the unholy teaching of the
"Russian world" is leaving them, and the spirit of true spiritual
service to the holy Orthodoxy and the Ukrainian people is returning.
(…)
The fact
that this joyful day has come, that the Pechersk Lavra is taking confident
steps to serve again, as in the old days, to preach the peace of God, not
the "Russian Peace", to be a true house of prayer, to serve the
Ukrainian people as an example of piety, piety and good deeds - we owe it to
the broad public support. We thank all of you, dear brothers and
sisters, all who dreamed of Ukrainian prayer in this holy place, of its
liberation from the captivity of the "Russian world". Your
prayers and your civic position supported our state in a difficult but quite
right decision. Gradually, peacefully, but irreversibly, we will all work
together to ensure that the name of the Lavra is no longer disgraced among
the outsiders because of the seductive behavior of those who have forgotten
about the vocation to be humble workers in the vineyard of God, and not
arrogant boyars in the midst of their alleged fiefdom.
Today,
on this solemn day of the feast of the Nativity of Christ, when four years ago
the Tomos of autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine was first publicly
presented in Kyiv, I want to remind that the affiliation of the Orthodox
faithful in our country, Orthodox communities and monasteries to it is their
canonical duty. Therefore, just as then, so now we call: the doors of
our Church are open, we want to achieve the unity of all Orthodox around the
Kyivan Throne, around the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine - one of the
equivalent and equal autocephalous Sister Churches of Ecumenical Orthodoxy,
which on the Ukrainian land carries out its service to the native people
without any external control, interference or coercion.
As the
Holy Archimandrite of the Kyiv Cave Monastery, I appeal to the brethren of
the monastery: it is time to finally free yourself from the non-canonical rule
of Moscow and its servants, to follow the Tomos, to begin a new page of the
life of the monastery as a truly monastic monastery dedicated to the service of
the one Church of Christ and its neighbors - the Ukrainian people. Let
all the good that makes up the true millennial tradition of the Pechersk
Monastery continue its existence and flourish, multiplying the saving fruits.
And everything else that needs purification - let it be purified with the help
of God and our joint efforts.
Undoubtedly,
we owe this joyful event to the courage of the Ukrainian army, our newest
heroes. All those who are now on the battlefield resisting the invasion
of foreigners and those who gave their lives for Ukraine in this struggle.
Today, we offered our prayers for them, we asked for the approach of victory
and the establishment of a just peace for Ukraine. And we have a sincere hope
and will work to ensure that such a true and heartfelt prayer for Ukraine, for
the President and the state authorities, for the army and for the entire
Ukrainian people will be said here every day.
We are
grateful to the Head of State Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the leadership of the
government and in particular the Minister of Culture of Ukraine Oleksandr
Tkachenko, the National Reserve, as well as the relevant State Service for
their assistance in satisfying our request and making the dream of millions of
Ukrainians come true. Countering the destructive and heretical ideology of
the "Russian world", which is the cornerstone of justification of
Russian aggression against Ukraine, is our common cause. By joining efforts, we
will be able to protect our people from the Kremlin's hybrid aggression on the
spiritual front fruitfully and victoriously, as it is happening on other fronts
of the struggle - military, diplomatic, informational, economic.
07/01/2023
(Source)
Christmas meeting with soldiers
Today we ask that the next year be the year of
victory and expulsion of the aggressor. So, on the eve of Christmas, I want to
congratulate you - the soldiers - the newest heroes, and in your person all our
defenders. We all long for peace, but a just peace that will come after our
victory.
06/01/2023 (Source)
Meeting with medical sector and volunteers
The enemy seeks to act as much as possible in
the spiritual sphere, which is almost the only one that has remained under his
influence until now. Therefore, the murderous ideology of the ‘Russian world’,
sometimes veiled and hybrid, and sometimes quite openly, still continues to be
promoted. This is unacceptable during a bloody war for our God-given land,
freedom and independence. And this is by no means a question of freedom of
religion or the free opportunity to pray, because, as we see, no one forbids
this. It is a matter of national security, common sense in the face of deadly
challenges, and a matter of truth and justice. Because the Lord is always on
the side of truth, and not on the side of Pharisaic manipulations.
4/1/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from sermon
We sincerely thank God for helping our
Motherland Ukraine withstand the onslaught of the evil empire, giving strength
and courage to defeat the enemy on the battlefield, and inspiring millions of hearts with the
spirit of self-sacrificing love, support, and charity. And about the coming
year, we ask in prayer that it becomes a year of victory over the aggressor and
the establishment of a just peace for Ukraine and the world.
01/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from Christmas message
All these considerations especially echo in our
hearts at the time of the most difficult trials of the war, which the Ukrainian
people are going through. We did not want this war, as a people we sought to
live peacefully, having understanding with all our neighbors, but the enemy
cunningly and treacherously broke the peace and attacked our land, shedding
blood, sowing death, wanting to destroy our statehood and our very Ukrainian
identity.
More than three decades ago, we broke free from
centuries-old slavery, threw off the yoke, became independent, and started
building our own sovereign state. Those who held us captive could not tolerate
our achievements and our success. Devilish malice and envy prompted them to
start a war, but in it they will definitely be defeated, because the truth is
on our side. And where the truth is, there is God, and with God we will win.
With God's help, our people have already achieved many victories, destroying
the plans of the Kremlin tyrant to quickly conquer us. We have already achieved
a moral victory, because all people of good will condemn the acts of genocide,
terror and numerous war crimes committed by the evil Russian empire on our
land.
And now, on these festive days, we ask the Lord
with a special feeling to help us overcome the opponents who brought grief to
our home, to help finally expel the foreign invasion from Ukrainian land and,
thanks to the victory of truth, to establish a just and lasting peace.
Celebrating the Christmas of Christ, we
strengthen our conviction that it will be so, but at the same time we remember
those who defend the truth and freedom - our soldiers, who are now defending us
from Russian aggression. The warmest prayers and most heartfelt wishes are
heard today for our newest heroes.
Let us also remember our brothers and sisters
who are forced to celebrate holidays in captivity, on temporarily occupied
Ukrainian lands.
Let's remember our military and civilian prisoners and other unjustly
imprisoned and ask the Lord for their protection and speedy release.
Let's remember in prayer all forced migrants
and refugees. May God's mercy and help be with you, because Christ Himself was
a fugitive and hid from Herod's malice in a foreign land.
Let's remember with a grateful prayer
volunteers, donors and all people of good will who help the needy during the
severe trials of war. May the Lord bless all your good deeds with success and
reward you a hundredfold.
I congratulate the President, the government,
the Parliament of Ukraine, the leaders of local communities and all those who
are called to work for the benefit of the Ukrainian people and serve them with
a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. May the Lord inspire you with wisdom
and help you in the fight against the enemy!
"The light shines in the darkness, and the
darkness has not covered it" (John 1:5), the Gospel tells us. Christ was
born - and brought this invincible light that chases away the darkness of evil.
Despite all the difficult current trials, the
joy of Christmas fills our hearts, driving away sorrow, pain and sorrow, and
let the light of the Star of Bethlehem direct us all to the Son of God, with
whom we are able to defeat all evil.
I heartily congratulate the fullness of our
local Orthodox Church and the entire Ukrainian people!
CHRIST WAS BORN! PRAISE HIM!
29/12/2022
(Source)
Words
during visit to Bucha
The
difficult year of the war for the will of the Ukrainian state is coming to an
end. The enemy is trying to destroy us, but we are invincible. And we must continue
to be like that in order to live in freedom and build our Church. Because if we
stop defending ourselves, then there will be no Ukraine, and if the Russian
invaders are forced to stop the attack, then the war will end. Therefore,
today we prayed that the Lord would bring the time of our just victory closer,
as well as rest the souls of the fallen defenders of the Motherland and the
tortured civilians who are buried near this temple,
28/12/2022
(Source)
Address
to mayor of Lviv
In
fact, this is a war that has been going on for several centuries, and despite
the high price paid by our defenders with their lives, we have no right to give
up. Because if we do, we will pay a hundredfold, the enemy will destroy
millions, as he has done in the past through artificial famines, and destroy
everything we love and value - our faith, language, history, culture and
identity. We have a unique chance to permanently break with all the components
of the murderous "Russian peace" and, with the support of the international
community, build the kind of Ukraine we all dream of. It is extremely important not to
lose this opportunity due to internal strife and the sin of corruption,
27/12/2022
(Source)
Address
to commander-in-chief of Ukrainian Armed Forces
We
have already achieved many victories, destroying the plans of the Kremlin
tyrant to quickly conquer us. We have rallied around us dozens of
countries, the civilized world, people of good will, who stand with us against
the Russian tyrant and his terror. The protection of the native people is a God-blessed cause, and
our soldiers fulfill their vocation, sacrificially protecting their
neighbors. So may the Lord protect and bless our defenders of the
Motherland and the entire Ukrainian people!
21/12/2022
(Source)
Address
to Anglican archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa
The
enemy kills many of our people every day, not even sparing children. The
aggressor fights for his criminal imperial ambitions, because he does not see
his future without possession of Ukraine. This war has already clearly shown that
they do not care about people, life and fate. They are only interested in
our land, our ancient history and our spiritual endurance. And for us, it
is a matter of survival and a free future for future generations. We
will continue to be indomitable and strong in spirit and will continue to fight
for the truth.
19/12/2022
(Source)
Address
to vice-prime-minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine
We are a
democratic country, therefore, by definition, we cannot have any forced union
of confessions. We are not a totalitarian Russia, in which everything is
done by force, by order, regardless of the opinion and desire of the clergy and
the faithful. We are still strongly advocating the unity of the Orthodox around
the Kyiv throne. However, such a union can only be voluntary and with those who
have not tarnished themselves with devotion to the criminal ideology of the
"Russian peace"
15/12/2022
(Source)
Address
to Border Guards
I am
glad to celebrate you today, because you are putting in a lot of effort to
protect the borders of our state in this difficult time of trials with a
full-scale war on the part of Russia. Now is precisely the time when we can
break free from these Russian shackles. I believe that with God's help and
thanks to our defenders of the Motherland, Ukraine and all our Ukrainian people
will definitely win.
08/12/2022
(Source)
Words
to Archbishop Justin Welby, during his visit to Kiev
Thank you for coming to Kyiv, as planned during
our meeting in London, even though this journey is difficult. Your visit is
historic, because for the first time the Archbishop of Canterbury is visiting a
country that is experiencing foreign aggression.
We appreciate the support of Britain and the
support of the Church of England and the Anglican community, we appreciate your
prayers for the victory of truth and peace in Ukraine. The enemy is trying
to intimidate our people with shelling of civilian infrastructure and terror
against the civilian population, but he will not succeed, just as his other
plans failed. We will defeat the aggressor, because the truth is on the side of
Ukraine, and our spirit is strong and our faith is unbreakable.
23/11/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
By its very nature, all human tyranny has
its spiritual roots in the devil's rebellion and his tyrannical temporal
rule over part of the created world. To strengthen their power, tyrants use the
same means as the devil: lies and temptations, deprivation of freedom and
enslavement, evil and murder. Therefore, whether they realize it or not, all
tyrants are servants of the devil. Satanic thoughts inspire them, and the evil
spirit uses tyrants as an instrument for the multiplication of evil.
In history, we can see numerous examples of
this, but we will mention only a few of those that are closer to our time and
concern the Ukrainian people. Two tyrannies - Bolshevik and Nazi - brought
untold and terrible suffering to the Ukrainian land, as well as to many peoples
of Europe and the world. The followers of the Russian tyrants Lenin and Stalin,
as well as the followers of the German tyrant Hitler, shed rivers of blood,
destroyed tens of millions of people in a particularly cruel way, confused the
societies of many countries with systematic and deliberate lies.
Are not these tyrants the adversaries of God
among the people of their time, just as Satan and the devil were the
adversaries of God among the angels? Was it not the devil's will that they
created, as evidenced by the fruits of their crimes - mass murders, the
suffering of millions, wars and destruction?
Both regimes, on the one hand, were conscious
opponents of Christianity, but on the other hand, they sought to use church
structures for their own purposes in order, according to the words of the
Scriptures, to tempt the elect if possible. In the Soviet Union, such
structures were first the renewalists, and then the Moscow Patriarchate,
created by Stalin to lead the Orthodox. And in the Nazi Reich there were
so-called "German Christians" who falsely blessed Hitler and the
criminal activities of his accomplices.
We see all these signs of diabolical tyranny in
our time. After
all, until evil is finally overcome and bound for eternal condemnation - and this
will happen at the second coming of Christ during the Last Judgment - the devil
tempts new and new rulers so that they become tyrants, become instruments of
the spread of evil. Lenin, Stalin, Hitler and other tyrants of the past are
dead, but the devil is tempting others to take their place. The current head
of the Russian state has become such a tyrant of our time, a servant of the
devil and a guide of lies and evil.
And if we look into our own Ukrainian history,
we will see that both revolutions, the beginning and the victory of which we
commemorate today, were an uprising not only and not so much against the
sprouts of tyranny in our own state, but against the Kremlin tyrant's attempt
to take over Ukraine in the same way as he conquered Russia. After all, those
who built a tyrannical government in our country relied on his will, on his
support, on the money and influence they received thanks to Russian assistance.
Therefore, the coincidence of the two
celebrations that we are celebrating today should be seen as an indication of
the spiritual nature of our struggle: we, as the Church and as a people, are
against the latest tyranny, the inspiration of which is the devil. Therefore,
on the one hand, our struggle is difficult, but on the other hand, we are sure
of victory, as was the arch-strategist Michael, who led the fight against
the devil and won, throwing him from heaven.
We fight for dignity and freedom, understanding
them in the Christian sense as gifts of the Almighty Creator and signs of
God-like human nature. We have the freedom to multiply good and be free from
the tyranny of evil. And for this freedom we lay down our soul and body, as the
Savior says about it, urging us to value the gospel truth more than temporal
life. We have the dignity that comes from the fact that each of us is capable
of becoming a child of God, His son or daughter, an heir of the Kingdom of
Heaven.
Whoever renounces these freedoms and dignity
for the sake of being seduced by the devil is like the angels who were tempted
and fell away from God. For such, according to the word of Scripture, the devil
takes the form of an angel of light, so that they will believe him. This is
exactly what happened to many followers of the Moscow Patriarchate and their
leader, who were deceived by the devil and induced to become servants of the
Kremlin tyrant.
But there is no one like God! Therefore, even
after the struggle, evil will still be defeated, truth will prevail, and the
next tyrant will be dethroned and inherit eternal damnation along with Satan's
servants of the past ages like him.
So, dear brothers and sisters, celebrating
today, we will offer prayers to God and to His Heavenly army led by
Archstrategist Michael for the approach of this victory. So that we ourselves
can be established in true dignity and freedom, and the inspiration to protect
these gifts of God will be passed on to the next generations of our people.
23/11/2022 (Source)
Words during meeting with head of the Luhansk
OVA
Our struggle continues and with God's help it
will certainly be crowned with success. After all, we do not encroach on
other people's property, but only fight for the liberation of our Motherland
and for our own existence and the future of our descendants. Everyone must
do everything in their power to win. At the same time, it is worth clearly
understanding that this struggle is not only physical, but also
spiritual. It cannot and should not be that the body of our state is
Ukrainian, and the spirit is Russian
15/11/2022 (Source)
Words during meeting with with the head of the
Main Directorate of Intelligence
God endows a person with certain gifts and
talents. Therefore, in this difficult time, everyone must devote their
strength and abilities to defeat the Russian invaders. After all, something
depends on each of us and all of us in unity are able to achieve success in
countering the aggressor. Thank you for your selfless struggle to protect
Ukraine. The enemy is ferocious and cunning, so may the Lord protect you
and strengthen your wisdom to destroy the insidious plans of the occupiers.
08/11/2022 (Source)
During meeting with military personnel in
Vinnytsia
We will achieve this goal and after victory we
will jointly build our unified Ukrainian state, in which our single recognized
local Ukrainian Orthodox Church will continue to be established. Because the Church is the soul
of the Ukrainian people. And the body cannot be Ukrainian, and the soul Russian.
Therefore, the struggle continues on the spiritual front as well. And
it fell to our lot to put an end to this struggle: because the war does not
last for several months, but for several centuries – Russia tried to destroy us
as a separate people, as a separate nation. But we are indestructible,
unbreakable and will fight to the end. And the Lord will certainly grant us
blessed success!
03/11/2022 (Source)
During meeting with relatives of killed,
captured and missing soldiers
I understand your pain. We should pray for our
loved ones and not lose hope, because the power of prayer is effective and the
Lord hears it. Prayer is also an expression of our love for our relatives,
which they undoubtedly feel. Our losses among soldiers are a very high cost
and a great grief, but we must not give up. Those who gave their lives
protecting us would like us not to suffer for them, but on the contrary to
fight on, so that their sacrifice would not be in vain.
01/11/2022 (Source)
During meeting with military chaplains
Now we hear about the successes of our army
on the battlefield, but the enemy is treacherous and cruel, and the difficult
and bloody struggle continues. Therefore, we must intensify our efforts,
inspire our glorious defenders to liberate the Motherland from the occupiers,
and constantly use our first spiritual weapon - prayer to the All-Merciful
Lord. Let us continue to follow the path of truth, because this path is
pleasing to God and will certainly lead to victory,
01/11/2022 (Source)
During consecration of new church in Bila
Tserkva
Now we are moving along a difficult and thorny
path. However, in this difficult time of trial by war, we are even more aware
that we cannot do anything without God. Therefore, in order to hope for the
Lord's help, we ourselves must be merciful to our neighbors and show our love
to those who especially need it now. It is love that is the eternal virtue
of the Kingdom of Heaven, and where it is not, there reigns sin and evil, and
we can clearly see this on the example of the Russian occupiers. So let's
unite in love for the God-given Motherland, let's nurture a strong faith and
with God's help we will get the desired victory
31/10/2022 (Source)
During meeting with members of Ukrainian Volunteer
Army
The Lord sees the criminal and despicable
nature of what the enemy is doing. They already feel the answer for
their evil deeds and will feel it even more in the future. After all, God,
unlike the Russian population, cannot be deceived by senseless and cynical
propaganda, with which they try to justify their unprovoked attack and constant
attacks on the objects of our civil infrastructure. Thank you all for
giving a worthy rebuff to the invaders and sacrificially protecting our lives
and freedom, may the Lord protect you!
29/10/2022 (Source)
Words during meeting with Roberta Metzola,
president of the European Parliament
Ukraine has already won morally, and the help
and support we see, receive, and feel from the entire civilized world confirms
this. Because the
truth is on our side, we are defending our native land from the aggressor. But
now it is still necessary to achieve victory over the empire of evil, to cut
off the evil so that it does not spread further in Europe. And therefore, the
more and the faster help is provided to Ukraine - weapons, financial and
diplomatic support, humanitarian aid - the faster the Russian occupiers will be
expelled from Ukraine and peace will be established.
22/10/2022 (Source)
Statement on problematic issues of Church and
State relationship
In recent times, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine
twice made public statements regarding the numerous and systematic facts of preventing
religious communities from exercising their right to free exit from
subordination to the structures of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine and
joining the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Unfortunately, it was necessary to
ascertain the involvement of representatives of state authorities and local
self-government in the creation of such artificial obstacles.
However, despite these and other numerous
appeals, this practice continued. This ultimately led to a scandalous
situation, when the body responsible for state-church relations issued
recommendations that further complicated and bureaucratized the already
difficult procedure of liberating the community from the Moscow yoke. On
the basis of these recommendations, as an allegedly mandatory document, the
official of the special service made unfounded demands on representatives of
local authorities and religious communities. The angry reaction of civil
society and the quick decisions of the service leadership stopped such an
attempt. However, this situation only confirmed that the problem has acquired a
complex nature and therefore needs a fundamental solution.
For more than four months, under various formal
pretexts, the registration of the statute of the Holy Dormition Kyiv-Pechersk
Lavra as part of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine has been postponed. At the same
time, the head of the service responsible for state-church relations makes
public comments that discredit the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and defend the
existing monopoly of the structure of the Moscow Patriarchate on services in
Ukrainian shrines. The Holy Synod considers such a situation outrageous and
absolutely unacceptable.
Actions have not been taken to implement the
resolution of the parliament adopted more than half a year ago regarding the
transfer of the premises of the cathedral church in Simferopol to the ownership
of the OCU diocese, which the diocese has been demanding for many years to
protect property rights. The process of making technical changes to the Statute
of the Donetsk Eparchy of the OCU was unjustifiably continued under a false
pretext, which caused serious complications for its charitable work.
Instead, in the communication from the
leadership of the body, which was supposed to protect Ukraine from Russian
hybrid aggression in the religious sphere, narratives are systematically heard
that are completely consonant with the propaganda stamps of the Moscow
Patriarchate. In particular, this is an accusation of "capturing
temples", naming a religious association that has only 4% of public
support as "the largest", an attempt to read statements of meetings
of this association, which until now have not been officially published in
full, as an allegedly real decision to terminate the subordination of this
structure to the Moscow Patriarchate, etc.
Such actions at the state level encourage
illegal pressure on communities that want to leave the subordination to Russian
church structure. Through previous statements, the Synod tried to encourage the
resolution of the problems that had begun to accumulate. However, instead, only
their systematic deepening took place.
All of the above causes serious concern,
especially in the context of ongoing full-scale Russian aggression, in which
the structures of the Moscow Patriarchate play a significant role, justifying
and encouraging it.
If the creation of systemic obstacles is not
stopped, it will significantly complicate the situation and force the Orthodox
Church of Ukraine to defend the legitimate rights of communities and the
faithful through public protests.
For our part, we certify that we do not wish to
complicate the situation in any way. However, all previous attempts to solve
problems through direct communication with the relevant public service proved
to be fruitless. Therefore, the Holy Synod asks the Cabinet of Ministers of
Ukraine and the President of Ukraine to take measures to solve the problem and
normalize state-church relations, which have artificially introduced
misunderstanding.
18/10/2022 (Source)
Words during meeting with General Oleksandr Pavlyuk
The enemy is once again terrorizing Kyiv and
all of Ukraine, cynically trying to destroy civilian infrastructure. Losing at
the front, they seek to win back at ordinary civilians and don't even hide it
anymore. Such vile manifestations of diabolical malice are also intended to
satisfy the internal consumer, who is constantly pumped with hatred by Russian
propaganda.
However, the Lord sees everything and will certainly reward everyone for evil
deeds and intentions. For our part, we must do everything that depends on us
and defend our God-given land with faith and prayer.
17/10/2022 (Source)
Exerpt of sermon on the feast of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos
Therefore, our Cossack ancestors, and the
rebels and fighters of the Ukrainian resistance of the 20th century, and our
courageous defenders, who are now on the front line of the fight against the
Russian invaders and murderers, turned and turn to the Mother of God for help
and receive protection and strength under Her Protection for a victorious
fight.
We started our reasoning with historical
memories. But is it not a manifestation of God's mercy and the intercession
of the Most Pure Virgin that we can call the protection of our capital,
Golden-topped Kyiv, from the latest barbarian invasion? Like a raging flood,
the influx of foreigners moved from all sides, bringing destruction and death
wherever they reached. But when, based on human considerations, it seemed to
many that it would be impossible to protect Kyiv from this dirty flood – with
faith in God, with love for the native land and the Ukrainian people, our brave
defenders did the unthinkable, defending the heart of Ukraine and driving
foreigners from our land
Today, at the state level, we honour our
Cossack ancestors, and the fighters for the freedom and independence of Ukraine
in the past, and our newest heroes - the defenders of Ukraine. But as
Orthodox Christians, we also glorify the Mother of God first of all, as our
great Protector and Chosen victorious Voivode, who inspires us to go into
battle with evil and goes ahead in this fight against the devilish darkness.
So then, once the citizens of Tsargorod in the
Vlahernsky temple, so now we, with tears in thousands of temples, chapels and
under the open sky on the battlefield, cry out with faith to the Mother of God:
"Rejoice, our Joy, cover us and the whole of Ukraine from all evil with
Your righteous omophor!"
14/10/2022 (Source)
Meeting with Ukrainian military
Today we ask God for help in overcoming the
evil of Russian aggression. You, our defenders and the entire Ukrainian people,
have repeatedly proven your strength of spirit and selfless love for the
Motherland. The price of our struggle was considerable, but we do not encroach
on someone else's land and do not have another God-given land, so we will
protect our Ukraine with all our might. The enemy is fierce and insidious, but his
actions are criminal, cynical and unrighteous, and therefore displeasing to
God. That is why the aggressor is defeated, because despite the outwardly
demonstrative orthodoxy, they follow the path of the devil's lies and the
bloody sin of Cain. With God's help, we will clear our land of the invaders
and may the Protection of the Mother of God protect you from all evil.
12/10/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
Here, everyone can ask a question from their
own life experience: doesn't it often happen in our lives that we, figuratively
speaking, "don't have a choice"?
There is no doubt that external circumstances
can develop in such a way that a person feels the need to act only in a certain
way. But if we think about such examples, we will see the undeniable presence
of freedom in them. And only the person himself can give this freedom into
someone else's hands, agree to fulfill someone else's will, thus saying his
"yes" or "no".
For example, now we all live in conditions
of war. Its beginning did not depend on us, the enemy attacked our country
treacherously and without reason. We are not responsible for the suffering,
destruction, threats to life that Russian aggression has brought to our lives.
But how we react to it, what we do or what we don't do in the circumstances
that arise – depends only on us.
There is a general rule, there is a law of God
and man, that one must defend one's land and one's neighbors from the attack
of evil. But some do it, even, like our brave warriors, sacrificing their own
lives. And others make a deal with evil, become its minions. In the same
conditions, some defend Ukraine, while others continue to speak the words of
"Russian peace", some seek victory for our Motherland and a just
peace, while others seek for Ukraine to come to terms with the occupation by
enslavement to obedience to the Kremlin.
So when someone says that out of fear of the occupiers,
he went to serve evil, betrayed them as patriots, and contributed to the
establishment of their power, then there is an answer: but others in the same
circumstances did and do differently! Aren't they afraid for their lives,
aren't they in danger? But they do not betray the truth, do not make, so to
speak, "a deal with the devil."
Therefore, no external circumstances can ever
be an excuse for a person that he did not have freedom, did not have the
opportunity to express his will. Free will remains with us always, because it
is an indestructible gift of God to us. And it depends only on us, how we use it,
whether we do not give it up easily, without even understanding the value of
this gift and the consequences of our decisions.
09/10/2022 (Source)
Words during visit to Kharkiv
Today we once again prayed for our victory. Little
by little, Kharkiv region has been practically liberated and the boot of the
occupier no longer tramples this land. Here, our soldiers showed an example
of fortitude and indomitability. Even in such close proximity to the border,
defenders of Ukraine withstood the onslaught of the enemy. Although our
struggle is still ongoing, morally we have already won, because the whole world
believed in our victory. Therefore, we believe that the Lord will end the
suffering of the Ukrainian people with a just peace when we finally defeat the
aggressor.
(…)
We are convinced of our victory, because the truth is
on our side. We protect
our families and our native land - what the Lord gave us as a gift. So
we are obliged to preserve this gift. With prayer, we believe that the Lord will help us defeat the aggressor
and cut off this evil that has invaded our home.
I thank
each of you, because thanks to your sacrificial feat, Ukraine does not give up
and defeats the enemy. Kharkiv is the city of heroic defenders of
Ukraine. You persevered and set an example for others. So may the Lord give you
strength and inspiration and inspire your indomitable spirit
29/09/2022 (Source
and source)
Excerpt of Sermon on Feast of the Martyrdom of
John the Baptist
It so happened that today is the 200th day
of our successful resistance to large-scale Russian aggression. At its
beginning, both enemies and friends believed that Ukraine would be able to
withstand this onslaught for only a few days, at best – a few weeks. Before
us then, in February, at the beginning of March, we faced a choice similar to
that of John the Baptist: personal safety or truth? Cease resistance in
order to save your life at the cost of slavery to the evil empire, or fight,
knowing which way is the price of freedom?
We, as a people, chose
truth and freedom. We
do not want to exchange them for a deceptive peace – just as the prophet John
did not want to exchange his faithfulness to the call to testify to the truth
for the preservation of his own temporary life and a high position with Herod.
John's example inspires us
also as a Local Church to be witnesses of the truth. Look at Cyril of Moscow – and you will see what
the Forerunner would have turned into if he had remained silent about the
ruler's crimes or even approved of them. And how many times over
these years and decades have we been offered to come to terms with the untruth
of Moscow's rule over the Ukrainian soul. If we agreed to serve the
"Russian measure", as Cyril serves and all those who continue to consider
him their patriarch, then we were promised both church unity and support from
the powers of this world, as the Moscow Patriarchate had and even now continues
to have.
But we choose the truth. We do not want,
neither for ourselves nor for our people, the price of peace to be the
restoration of Kremlin slavery. The Lord blessed our people with independence and statehood,
blessed us to have our Local Orthodox Church. So would it be wise, correct
and worthy to renounce all this for the sake of the Cain's embrace of Moscow?
Will we all die? Yes, unfortunately,
sooner or later our time will come to leave this world. It does not depend
on us. But it depends on us whether we really live or just exist.
When we serve God, when we walk the path that
leads us to the Kingdom of Heaven – then we truly live, because only in the
Lord is the source of true life. That life that fills our existence here
with meaning and opens eternity for us. And if we choose to preserve life,
but the price of this is untruth and indulgence in evil, then we will preserve
our existence for a while, but we will lose true life, because we will lose
union with God.
Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, I wish
all of us to be inspired by the example of the saints, to hold on to the truth,
to know the will of God in order to fulfil it and through this have eternal
life.
Today, together with all our people, we rejoice
at the success of our soldiers who are liberating Ukrainian cities and villages
from occupation. We bless them, we pray for them that the Lord will help
overcome evil and lead us all to victory and a just peace.
We ask for eternal blissful life and rest in
the Kingdom of Heaven for the soldiers who gave their lives for the sake of
freedom and peace for Ukraine. We pray for healing for the wounded. May
everyone who increases truth and goodness be justly rewarded, and may God's
merciless judgment come upon the newest Herod and all his liars and
servants. Amen.
11/09/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of sermon during joint liturgy in Greece
with Ecumenical Patriarch
Your Holiness!
You dedicated your life and service to the
unity of the Church. In order to witness it, you made every effort to
successfully hold the long-planned Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox
Church, the preparation for which lasted for many decades. You have
successfully resolved issues that have troubled the Orthodox Church for a long
time, restoring communication and unity for the Church in Ukraine and for the
Church in North Macedonia.
For your courage and determination, you have to
suffer many unjust attacks from those who loved the pride of this world more
than the humility of Christ. Like the proud brother from the parable, they
themselves are ready to stay outside the parental home, if only not to be
together with their brother, who is condemned instead of rejoicing in the
restoration of unity.
So they break the sacred unity of the Church, they refuse to communicate not
for the sake of truth, but for the sake of asserting their power over other
brothers.
They rely on power, wealth, and other things of
this world. But we
can remind them of the word from the Scriptures: "You say: I am rich, I
have become rich, and I have no need of anything; but you do not know that you
are wretched and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked" (Rev. 3:17). However,
we prayed for them together today and asked the Lord for mercy for them, so
that they would leave their stubbornness and return to unity in love and truth.
(…)
Today, among other things, we prayed for a just
peace for Ukraine, for the victory of truth and the end of the war. On behalf
of the entire Church of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people, I thank Your Holiness
and Your Beatitude, I thank the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Church of
Greece for their prayers for Ukraine, for spiritual and material support, for
humanitarian aid for victims of Russian aggression, for caring for forced
refugees.
In its history, Hellas itself suffered a lot
from foreign conquerors, from those who wanted to destroy its identity, its
culture, wanted to keep the Greeks in slavery. Therefore, you understand our
desires and our feelings very well. We, Ukrainians, are fighting for our
freedom, for our Church and our state against foreign tyranny, and we believe
that with God's help we will win this fight.
04/09/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of sermon in Greece
Your invitation came to us at the beginning of
March this year – in terrible and dark days for Kyiv, for Ukraine and for
the whole world, when the Russian tyrant sent his troops to seize our capital
and destroy our state. When I was reading your invitation, I could hear from
time to time the sounds of explosions and gunshots that sounded already on the
outskirts of our city. I heard the sound of a siren warning of the danger from
Russian bombs and missiles.
And in the midst of all these signs of war,
from you, His Holiness, we received, like a ray of sunshine, an invitation to
the divine service and solemn events that will now take place here. In those days of spring, we did
not know what could happen to us in one hour or the next day, but the sign of
your brotherly love in Christ deeply touched my heart. In your invitation, I
saw a symbol of God's blessing and a sign that the enemy who came with war to
our land will not succeed in his evil plans, and we will have the opportunity
to accept your invitation and share with all of you, and especially with Your
Holiness and Your Beatitude the joy of joint prayer and worship.
03/09/2022 (Source)
Speech by representative of the Ukrainian
Orthodox Church at the World Council of Churches
Priest Rostyslav Dudarenko, 45, was the parish
priest in the village of Yasnohorodka, some 40 kilometers west of the Kyiv. He
was assisting civilian volunteers manning a checkpoint at the entrance of their
town. When Russian soldiers began to shoot at unarmed civilians, Fr. Rostyslav
raised a cross over his head as he tried to protect them. Then he was shot. It was March 5, 2022, two weeks
after Russian Federation started an unprovoked full-scale war against Ukraine.
In the last six months, thousands of civilians
were killed, including 376 children, 15 millions became refugees and the
unprovoked full-scale war continues as we speak.
Dear participants and guests of the Assembly!
Dear brothers and sisters!
First, I wish to express my gratitude for your
decision to invite representatives of various Churches of Ukraine to join you
today and to allow us to share our pain.
The Christian history of Ukraine stretches back
to the age of the Apostles, when the Apostle Andrew first brought the Gospel to
our lands – in Crimea and along the Dnipro River.
For more than a thousand years, ever since the
baptism of the inhabitants of our capital, the City of Kyiv, requested by the
ruler of the ancient Ukrainian state, by Saint Prince Volodymyr, the vast
majority of our people have held on to their Christian Faith.
According to recent sociological data, over 80
percent of Ukrainians identify themselves as Christians, and, of these, almost
two-thirds, more than 50 percent identify with the Local Orthodox Church of
Ukraine, which I have the honor to represent here today.
Unfortunately, despite this ancient and unique
Ukrainian Christian tradition, despite the variety of Christian confessions
that have long existed in Ukraine, Ukrainians have for decades not had a voice
of our own in the World Council of Churches. They talked about us without us.
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to
speak on our own behalf today and for your support!
The tragic events of the war which Russia
initiated and brutally wages against our people, clearly demand a change. The Orthodox Church of Ukraine has
already applied for full membership in the World Council of Churches, and, on
behalf of millions of Christian faithful, united in more than 7,000 parishes,
we ask you to support our request.
For more than three centuries, the Russian
Empire and then the Soviet Union tried to erase the uniqueness of the Ukrainian
people. Our language was banned for use and study, our Church was annexed and
used as an instrument of Imperial policy.
One of the themes of the current Assembly is
uniqueness and identity. For centuries, Imperial Russia wanted to deprive the
Ukrainian people of our identity. An acknowledged goal of the current war
that Russia is waging on Ukraine is the same – “de-Ukrainization of Ukraine”.
Russia continues, as it has for centuries, to use all the tools and rhetoric of
colonialism with a goal of eliminating us.
But we are successfully fighting for our
freedom, for our independent future. Truth is on the side of the Ukrainian
people. And where there is truth, there is God, and where there is God, there
is victory.
It is impossible to say everything that I want
and need to say in a short speech, but I pray that during the days we are here,
and in the years to come, there will be many opportunities to listen and
respond, to answer all questions and cooperate with everyone.
The parable of the good Samaritan came to mind
at the beginning of our gathering. This parable is a call to be merciful to
someone you don’t know, but who needs help and protection. Today, Ukrainians
are the ones attacked by robbers. Many of you do not know much about us, and to
some of you we are strangers, as the Samaritans were to the Jews. But we, the
Christians of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people in general, need and ask for
mercy, prayers, and practical help from each one of you. Do not pass by our
suffering and our pain, as the priest and the Levite of the parable!
We are deeply grateful to everyone who has already
shown and continues to show the kindness of the Samaritan to Ukrainians.
Especially, thank you for praying for just peace and the victory of truth in
Ukraine. Please – continue to pray; the prayers of the righteous can move
mountains.
We thank you for the humanitarian aid, for your
help to Ukrainian refugees. So much is needed now, and so much will be needed
in the future to rebuild after the war. We are open to cooperation and will be
grateful for any support.
And what you can do to help Ukraine now is be
witness to the truth, and fight for it. We are grateful to the leadership of
the World Council of Churches for their public support since the beginning of
Russia’s full-scale aggression, in particular through your appeals to the
Russian Patriarch Kirill. No one has the right to bless aggression, no one has
the right to justify war crimes and acts of genocide. We hope that the Assembly will be
able to find appropriate words and actions to continue to be witnesses to
truth.
We are grateful for the visit of the Council
delegation to Kyiv and believe that our more intensive dialogue will be useful,
dialogue which is not for the sake of platitudes or allowing the justification
of evil with propaganda, but for affirming those principles of truth and of
love for peace which are fundamental to this Council.
On behalf of our Primate, His Beatitude
Metropolitan Epiphaniy, and the millions of Ukrainian faithful Christians, I
convey our greetings; may God bless us all with the good fruits of our labour
in His name!
02/09/2022 (Source)
Words during memorial service
Unfortunately, this cruel and terrible war continues
to this day and daily takes many lives of our brothers and sisters who protect
us. We pray for them, showing our love for them in return for the love they
showed to us, to our God-given Ukrainian land, defending our territorial
integrity.
(…)
We must continue to pray for those who have
gone to eternity. And for those who are currently defending our land, we
offer prayers for health. And
also – for all their relatives, may the Lord strengthen them, give them the
strength to continue to work worthily and do everything to bring our victory
closer. May the Lord rest the souls of fallen heroes in the Kingdom of
Heaven. And from us to them a low bow, honour and eternal memory.
29/08/2022 (Source)
Sermon on occasion beginning of the new
academic year in the capital's theological academy
Today, with prayer, with a request for God's
blessing on work, we begin the new academic year of our Academy. In the more
than thirty years that have passed since its revival, our spiritual school has
faced many challenges. However, no one could have predicted that we would have
to organize training and work at the academy in wartime conditions.
We are grateful to God and our brave defenders
for saving Kyiv from the Russian occupation. Thanks to this, we can start the
new school year in our native walls. However, all of us, and especially you,
dear students, must not forget that every day of this year has a very high price
- the price of blood and lives that our defenders give at the front so that
Ukraine has a present and a future.
This day is also the Day of Remembrance, when
we honour the soldiers who died in the war against the Russian aggressor. The
Wall of Memory reminds us of them. They gave their lives to protect the
Ukrainian people and our future from those evil designs of enslavement and
de-Ukrainization of Ukraine, which the enemy prepared for us. What kind of
plans are these – we can clearly see from the example of the atrocities that
the invaders committed and continue to commit in the temporarily occupied
territories of Ukraine.
Among the victims of Russian aggression are our
teachers and graduates. In Buchi, our longtime colleague Oleksandr Ivanovich
Kislyuk was killed by the occupiers. Graduates of our Academy, my fellow
students Abbot Platon (Morgunov), priests Maksym Kozachyna and Rostislav
Dudarenko, as well as our graduate soldier Oleksandr Tsykun, died while
performing their pastoral duties. I propose to honor their memory and the memory of all those who died
in the struggle for freedom and independence of Ukraine, all innocent victims
of Russian aggression. We sing "Eternal Memory" to them!
In the conditions of the war, the need of both
our Church itself and society for educated, modern, responsible shepherds –
patriots of Ukraine – became particularly acute. Chaplain service, without which one cannot
imagine the new Ukrainian army, and humanitarian work in the broadest sense of
the word – moral, spiritual and material assistance to those suffering from war
– have become a daily task for almost every one of our priests. At the front
and in the rear, in free Ukraine or under temporary occupation – everywhere
there is a special need for spiritual work and a request for prayer and various
support.
We do not know exactly when the war will end.
But we believe that with God's help it will end with the victory of Ukraine. Our common task is to bring this
day closer with prayer and work, fulfilling our duties and our vocation with
dignity.
You, dear students, after completing your
studies, will perform your service already in the conditions of the new
Ukraine, which will need healing from the wounds of war. Wounds are not only
material, but also spiritual. They will turn to you for support and comfort,
for comfort and hope.
Therefore, gain knowledge and experience, increase your theological treasure
and practical skills in order to have the ability to adequately respond to
today's challenges.
The year we are about to embark on will
certainly be challenging. In order to ensure the work of the Academy, to
provide for your needs, the Kyiv Metropolitanate has to invest significant
resources at a time when opportunities for everyone have sharply decreased. But
we will do everything that depends on us, so that this academic year the
Academy will pass with dignity. At the same time, I appeal to you - the
students and the teaching corporation - with a request and appeal to take a
responsible approach to the challenges that lie ahead of us, understanding that
the Church and our pious people place great hopes on the Academy.
In addition to educational and practical
training of future pastors, the Kyiv Academy has always been and will continue
to be a center for the development of theological and church science. The
challenges of aggressive secularism, the decline of public morality, the spread
of anti-Christian and anti-natural ideologies – all this requires a worthy
theological and intellectual response. We should continue to discover the
true history of the Church and Ukraine, debunk Russian myths that have been
created and imposed for centuries. After all, it is the ideology and mythology
of the "Russian world", the distortion to the satisfaction of
Moscow's imperial delusion of both theology and the practice of church life -
all this is part of the hybrid war that evil and delusion are waging against
truth and freedom. So I wish success to the professor-teaching corporation
and to you, our students.
In conclusion, I would like to draw your
attention to one more aspect that poses new challenges for you. Despite the
efforts of our opponents to keep the Ukrainian Church in artificial external
isolation, the walls erected around us are crumbling before our eyes. Already
now, the possibilities of our interaction with other Orthodox Churches and in
general with the Christian world have changed significantly. The Orthodox
Church of Ukraine is entering a new level of inter-Orthodox and inter-Christian
contacts and work. We have already applied for full membership in the World
Council of Churches and the Conference of European Churches, and our contacts
with the Catholic and Protestant world are expanding. All this obliges our
Academy, and especially you, dear students, to pay more attention to the study
of languages and other subjects that will be useful in establishing and
conducting our foreign work.
I wish you, father rector, the entire
professor-teaching corporation and you, our dear students, a successful and
fruitful new academic year. May God's blessing, prayer and intercession of our
patrons – Archstrategist Michael, apostle and evangelist John the Theologian
and saint Peter Mohyla, Metropolitan of Kyiv, Galicia and All Russia, and all
the saints, be with you!
29/08/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from sermon on the feast of the assumption
of Our Lady
It is with special feelings that we meet this
holiday of the current year, when the enemy continues to bring grief,
suffering, ruin and death to our land. Because in the darkness of evil it is the
light of hope for victory. Among the ruins, it becomes a testimony of a
miraculous recovery. When death chooses the best, when the innocent perish –
the Assumption reminds us that separation from them is temporary, because
resurrection and eternity await us all.
Assumption also reminds us of the reward for
the righteous and the just retribution for the sinners. For those who have
shown the highest degree of love for their neighbours, sacrificing even their
lives for their sake, imperishable crowns await. And for murderers and
murderers, for enemies of the truth, according to the word of the Saviour, a
place of eternal torment has been prepared, as a just retribution for serving
the devil.
28/08/2022 (Source)
Speech at the prayer service for Ukraine
Today we celebrate the 31st anniversary of the
restoration of the state independence of Ukraine. The restoration itself –
because the foundations of our state were laid in ancient princely times, it
grew and strengthened over centuries through the struggle and work of many
generations of the Ukrainian people. More than a thousand years ago,
Ukraine-Rus accepted Baptism, completing the path of conversion to the true
faith, the beginning of which was laid by the sermon of the Apostle Andrew the First-Called
and his blessing.
So, on this day in August 1991, a new state
was not created, but the old state – Ukraine-Rus, was freed from the imperial
shackles and Kremlin tyranny.
For centuries, our people suffered in
captivity. During this time, hundreds of thousands of courageous fighters for
the freedom and independence of Ukraine died on the battlefields or were
murdered in prisons by the enemy. Millions were exterminated during the
Holodomor-genocide and repression. So our Independence was chosen at a high
price, the price of blood and martyrdom. It was chosen so that the Ukrainian
people, together with other free peoples of Europe, could build their happy
future. So that we can praise God in our native Ukrainian language. To be able
to nurture and multiply our ancient Ukrainian culture, enriching it and passing
it on to new generations. So that we know our true history, honor our real
heroes.
The same enemy who held us captive for over
three hundred years wants to take us captive again. Eight and a half years ago,
Russia started a war, temporarily seized Crimea and part of Donbas. Exactly six
months ago, a full-scale Russian aggression began, the goal of which is to
destroy our very identity, to de-Ukrainize Ukraine.
Our common duty is to fight against this evil,
to protect the truth, freedom, independence. And an integral part of this
struggle is a spiritual struggle. This is prayer and works of mercy, this is the spiritual care that the
Church provides through the chaplains to our brave soldiers-defenders, this is
support for refugees and forced migrants.
Also, our contribution to the victory over
Russian aggression consists in working for the victory over the heretical and
soul-killing ideology of the "Russian Peace". For years and decades,
this ideology was imposed on our people, including covering it with the church
robes of the Moscow Patriarchate. With God's help, almost four years ago, the
ancient injustice was abolished, the spiritual occupation of Ukraine was
finally condemned, and the single Local Orthodox Church of Ukraine was
established, which received the Tomos on autocephaly from the hands of the
Ecumenical Patriarch. Our common task is to further develop the Ukrainian
Orthodox Church and establish church unity, helping our Orthodox brothers and
sisters to finally free themselves from the delusion of the "Russian
world",
Morally, the Ukrainian people have already won,
but we still have to win victory over the aggressor, expel the invaders from
our native land, and establish a just peace. Today we will pray for this here, in the
spiritual heart of our Local Church, uniting in prayer with millions of our
brothers and sisters in Ukraine and around the world.
So let's pray to the Lord for victory, for a
just and lasting peace! Let's pray for our courageous soldiers, the newest
heroes who protect us at the front. May God protect them and help them in the
battle for truth and freedom. Let us pray for the peace of the souls of those
who gave their lives for Ukraine, for the innocent peaceful citizens of our
country, murdered by the Russian invaders.
Let's pray for the healing of the wounded, for
help and God's care for refugees and displaced persons.
Let us pray for our brothers and sisters who
meet this festive day under conditions of occupation, in the shackles of captivity
and unjust imprisonment. May the Lord guard and protect them, protect them from
the malice of soul killers and lead them to freedom.
Through the prayerful intercession of the Most
Pure Mistress of our Mother of God, Archangel Michael and all the hosts of
heaven and all the saints of the Ukrainian land, may the Lord grant us to meet
the next festive day of the restoration of Independence in peace.
God the Great, the One, save Ukraine for us!
24/08/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a letter to Metropolitan Savva of
Warsaw, of the Polish Orthodox Church
This unfortunate situation worsened in
connection with the prejudiced attitude of a significant part of the clergy
of the Church headed by Your Beatitude towards the clergy and faithful of the
OCU, who were forced to find themselves as refugees in Poland, escaping from
the suffering and threats of the war unleashed by Russia against Ukraine. With
pain, we receive evidence of numerous examples of how the hierarchs and clergy
of the PAOC not only refuse co-service to the priests of the OCU, but even
refuse them communion, treating them as non-Christians.
Therefore, being "driven in one place,
they go to another", finding fraternal help, support and understanding in
the Catholic Church, which provides them with a place for religious services
and church activities.
In this regard, we do not understand the
complaints of the hierarchs and clerics of the PAOC to the Ecumenical
Patriarchate about the contacts of the clergy of the OCU with the Catholic
Church. If Your Eminence or the clergy of the PAOC should ask us something,
we are ready for a fraternal dialogue. The Orthodox Church of Ukraine is an
autocephalous Local Church, and not a part or structure of the Ecumenical
Patriarchate, so please put all questions concerning the OCU first before us.
19/08/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of sermon on the feast of the
Exaltation of the Cross
The two main virtues that this celebration
reminds us of – sacrificial love and indomitable faith – are especially
important in the struggle of our people against the invasion of foreigners. Just like the ancient northern
king, who wanted to force the people of God to renounce the truth, the
current northern tyrant seeks to force the Ukrainian people to renounce themselves,
to renounce the truth handed down to us from our forefathers, and to worship
the idols of the "Russian world". But faith in the truth of God,
self-sacrificing love for the native land, for the neighbors, makes the spirit
of Ukrainians indomitable, and therefore our people – invincible.
Let true faith and sacrificial love be for us
the hammer that breaks the shackles of slavery to evil and untruth, that
destroys all the plans of the enemy. And as the Lord defeated the devil through the
Cross, as the Maccabees defeated the wicked king through unbreakable faith - so
we, if we preserve love and faith, will achieve victory with God's help
14/08/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of sermon on consecration of a church
in the village of Solonka
Now, in times of great sorrow and suffering
for the Ukrainian people, brought to our peaceful home by enemies, consecrating
this temple and rejoicing, we thereby also affirm our faith in the victory of
God, in the victory of goodness and truth. We believe that just as this
temple was built from stones, metal, wood and other things thanks to the work
of many, so, with God's help, we will rebuild and make our common home,
Ukraine, even better than before the war.
Although it was not easy to complete the work
of construction and at the beginning it seemed immeasurable, but now what was
once only the first brick has been completed. So is our Ukraine – although
it is not easy to build it, to win victory over the enemy and a just peace for
it, but with God's help, what our people are working on and suffering for will
be crowned with success.
So I congratulate you, dear brothers and
sisters, and I wish that until the end of the age, prayers will be offered in
this blessed place for Ukraine, for the single Local Autocephalous Orthodox
Ukrainian Church, for their peace and prosperity. And that each new generation
of parishioners of your church here is spiritually transformed, grows from the
earthly to the heavenly, is filled with the grace of God and reaches the abode
of the Heavenly Kingdom, shining with righteousness.
09/08/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of the statement on the 1034th
anniversary of the baptism of Ukraine
This true faith in God, this self-sacrificing
love for our neighbours, for our native people, inspires us and in the
present dark times, a new horde has invaded.
With great pride, with powerful weapons, with a
deluge of lies, the enemy came to our land, brought war to us. But there will
be neither success nor victory for him.
The tyrant of the Kremlin imagines himself to
be the new Volodymyr, but in fact he is the new Svyatopolk the Wicked and the
new Cain, an insidious fratricide and an envious man, whose deeds are condemned
by God, whose memory will be damned forever and whose fate is with the devil, whose
servant he is. Because
he stood not only against the Ukrainian state and against our people, but he
stood against the truth itself. As the antichrist, he sows evil and death among
the innocent, but although he has temporary success, he will be overthrown.
Because he stood together with those subject to him against God's truth and
fought with the Most High.
Ukraine is reborn in torment and pain, but if
we continue to hold to the true faith, embody in our lives God's law of
sacrificial love for our Creator and for our neighbours, then no weapon and no
deception will be able to break our spirit, which makes the Ukrainian people
invincible.
As in the past times of our ancestors, we now
stand at the forefront of the struggle for the Christian world. And on this
festive day, we turn to our father Volodymyr, to our co-apostolic ruler and
enlightener, and to all the saints of Rus-Ukraine: pray to God for Ukraine-Rus,
for your native land, pray to the Lord for us, your children! May the victory
over the enemies and their unrighteousness come near by your prayers, may a
just peace come soon in all of Ukraine.
28/07/2022 (Source)
Letter to the Patriarch of Constantinople
Your Holiness!
In accordance with the decision of the Synod of
Bishops dated May 24 of this year, I am asking you to initiate at the
pan-Orthodox level a review and condemnation of the activities of the Moscow
Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev and the ethnophyletic and racist doctrine of the
"Russian peace" that he preaches.
On February 24, 2022, the Russian Federation
insidiously, without a formal declaration of war, launched a full-scale
military aggression against Ukraine. The war, unleashed by Russia in the
center of Europe back in February 2014, is being waged with the aim of
destroying Ukrainian statehood and is striking with exceptional brutality. A
true genocide of the Ukrainian people is taking place before the eyes of the
whole world. The aggressor is destroying peaceful Ukrainian cities,
shelling hospitals and schools, raping and torturing women and minors, killing
and maiming children. Among those killed by Russian troops are clerics of the
Orthodox Church of Ukraine, religious teachers of other faiths. Almost 200
religious buildings, mainly Orthodox churches, were completely or partially
destroyed as a result of Russian shelling.
Russia is a country that for centuries linked
its identity with Orthodoxy. And yet, over the past decades, the
Christian faith in Russia has been subjected to paganization — it has been
insidiously replaced by a civil religion that is apparently based on the
Orthodox tradition, but alien to the spirit of the Gospel and the content of
the Orthodox faith of the Holy Fathers. Many soldiers of the Russian Federation
who invaded our country identify themselves with Orthodoxy. However, the
actions taken by the occupiers testify to them as criminals who have lost a
living connection with Christ and His Church.
Each murdered child, each raped woman, each
destroyed residential building and temple is not only a war crime, but also an
act of renouncing Christ, as a result of which the criminal finds himself
outside the blessed fence of the Church. However, the moral responsibility for
the committed crimes rests not only on the direct perpetrators, but also on
their ideological inspirers – Moscow Patriarch Kirill and like-minded hierarchs
who for decades propagated the ethnophyletic and racist doctrine of the
"Russian peace" and are now blessing the attack on Ukraine.
Many associated certain hopes for the revival
of church life with the election of Metropolitan Kirill (2009) to the
patriarchal chair. However, today, when twelve and a half years have passed
since Kirill took the Moscow chair, it is quite obvious that the announced
reforms did not take place, and the only real achievements of the 16th
Patriarch of Moscow were the concentration of power in the hands of one person
with the complete degradation of real church collegiality and complete
dependence of the Church on the Russian state.
Metropolitan and later Patriarch Kirill was
never a standard of the confession of the Orthodox faith. Some of the
theological statements of Bishop Kirill – for example, the identification of
the Third Hypostasis of the Holy Trinity with "Divine energy that
eternally originates from God the Father" – even caused controversy and
temptation among clerics of the Russian Church. His almost complete
indifference to theological issues prevented Kirill from completely falling
into the space of heresy. The situation changed when the hierarch, whose
attention had long been focused on geopolitical issues, decided to join the
creation of the doctrine of the "Russian peace" — a nationalist
ethnophyletic theory about the special role of the Russian nation and state in
the world and in the Church.
On March 13 of this year, on the Sunday of
Orthodoxy, the Declaration on the "Russian peace” was published, under
which more than 65 Orthodox theologians from different countries of the world
initially put their signatures, the number of which has now increased to
fifteen hundred. As stated in this Declaration, "Russian
measure" is a non-Orthodox, heretical doctrine, close to the doctrine of
ethnophiletism, which was condemned at the Council of Constantinople in 1872. "We reject the heresy of the
"Russian peace" and the shameful actions of the Russian authorities
regarding the war against Ukraine, which is caused by this despicable doctrine,
which has no justification – for the connivance of the Russian Orthodox Church,
as deeply non-Orthodox, non-Christian actions" – noted the Orthodox theologians
who signed the Declaration. Similar assessments were expressed in
another public document - the Open Address to the Heads of the Orthodox
Churches. This Appeal was
signed by 437 clerics of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine, who appealed to
the heads of the Orthodox Churches with a request to give the doctrine of the
"Russian measure" an assessment from the point of view of the
Orthodox doctrine and, in case of condemnation of this doctrine as heretical,
to bring Kyril Gundyaev to canonical responsibility, depriving his right to
occupy the patriarchal throne.
Sharing most of the statements contained in the
mentioned Addresses, we also want to draw Your Holiness' attention to
another heretical aspect of the doctrine of the "Russian world",
which significantly distorts Orthodox anthropology. It is about denying the
rights of peoples to historical self-determination or historical fatalism,
which is inherent in the doctrine of the "Russian world" in the
interpretation of Patriarch Kirill. According to the mythological
historical concept of the latter, Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians
allegedly belong to the common civilization of the "Russian world"
and as such have no moral right to further historical self-determination. The
choice made in the past allegedly obliges them to be a part of the "Russian
world" or the Russian state for life.
The denial of the freedom of entire peoples is
combined in the worldview of Patriarch Kirill and his associates with a racist
theory in its spirit, according to which Russia and the "Russian
peace" are something fundamentally better and higher than other nations,
and Russia's historical neighbors - Ukrainians and Belarusians - have the right
to existence and future exclusively as a part of Russian reality. The
principled denial of the right of the people of Ukraine to full canonical
church independence (autocephaly) and their own state existence looks quite
logical within the framework of this racist concept, which divides peoples and
states into "real" and "artificial".
At the same time, it is important to understand
that the ideology of the modern ROC contains a threat not only for Ukraine, but
also for the entire Orthodox world. "Just as Russia invaded Ukraine, so
the Moscow Patriarchate, headed by Patriarch Kirill, became an invader in the
Orthodox Church, for example, in Africa, causing splits and strife" – it
is noted in the already quoted Declaration of Orthodox theologians. It
is important to be aware of the connection between the doctrine of the
"Russian peace" and specific church decisions initiated by Patriarch
Kirill in recent years — from the severance of Eucharistic communion with the
Ecumenical Patriarchate (10/15/2018) to the creation of the "Patriarchal
Exarchate of Africa" (12/29/2021) and active support armed aggression of
the Russian Federation against Ukraine (2022). Starting at least from October
2018, all actions of Patriarch Kirill are subordinated to a specific political
goal. He seeks to radically
increase the presence of the Russian Orthodox Church outside of Russia, to
weaken the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Greek-speaking Local Churches as
much as possible, and in this way to impose hegemony and the dictates of the
Moscow Patriarch on the Orthodox world.
In the current situation, it is extremely
important that the Catholic Church properly reacts to the challenges coming
from the paganized Russian Orthodoxy. As the Gospel testifies,
"every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit"
(Mt. 7:18). Acting
according to this principle bequeathed by our Saviour, the Church should
unanimously recognize that the tree that bears the "fruits of war"
today is poisonous, that is, condemn the doctrine of the "Russian
Peace" as heretical.
We call on Your Holiness and the Heads of the
Local Orthodox Churches to also consider as soon as possible the activities of
Patriarch Kirill, related to his opposition to the Ecumenical Patriarchate and
many Local Orthodox Churches, and, if this activity is recognized as containing
signs of schism, to bring Moscow patriarch to canonical responsibility.
In view of the above, we ask Your Holiness and
the Blessed Heads of Local Orthodox Churches to canonically qualify several
decisions of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, adopted during
2018-2021, which, in our opinion, do not correspond to the principles of
Orthodox ecclesiology and threaten Pan-Orthodox unity:
the decision to break (unilaterally)
Eucharistic communication with the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the Patriarchate of
Alexandria, the Church of Cyprus and the Church of Greece;
the decision to create —
contrary to canonical tradition and the sixth rule of the First Ecumenical
Council — church structures of the Moscow Patriarchate on the canonical
territory of the ancient Patriarchate of Alexandria.
On behalf of the bishops of
our Church and the numerous victims of Russia's war against Ukraine, which the
Patriarch of Moscow openly and unequivocally publicly approves and supports, we
appeal to Your Holiness and the Heads of Local Orthodox Churches with a
request:
condemn the doctrine of "Russian
peace" and recognize it as heretical;
classify the actions of
Patriarch Kirill in the canonical territory of the Patriarchate of Alexandria
as schismatic;
to deprive Kirill Gundyaev
of the right to occupy the Moscow Patriarchate.
With sincere brotherly love in
Christ, we ask Your Holiness and the Blessed Heads of the Local Orthodox
Churches to continue to offer their prayers for the suffering people of Ukraine
and to grant the request expressed in this letter - objectively, in accordance
with the creed and sacred canons of the Holy Orthodox Church, consider the
activities of the current head of the Russian Church.
27/07/2022 (Source)
Statement of the Holy Synod regarding the
protection of the right to freedom of conscience
Confirming the immutability of the position of
the OCU, set out in the previous Statements of the Holy Synod and the Kyiv
Metropolis of the UOC (OCU), with this statement we once again wish to certify
that the right of religious communities, by the decision of their general
meetings, to change their subordination, to leave the structures subordinate to
the Moscow Patriarchate, and to enter of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine is
guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of Ukraine, and also corresponds to the
generally recognized understanding of freedom of religion.
This right cannot be limited or cancelled under
the pretext of martial law, because one of the key reasons for Russia's war
against Ukraine is the spread of the ideology of "Russian peace". The
structures of the Moscow Patriarchate have contributed to the spread of this
ideology in Ukraine for decades, so they bear part of the moral responsibility
for the consequences of their actions.
Sociological polls record a sharp drop in the
level of support for the structures of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine and a
simultaneous increase in support for the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Therefore,
the change of religious communities in their subordination, their departure
from the power of the Moscow Patriarchate is an objective and irreversible
process. More than 600 communities have voluntarily overcome this path since
the beginning of the great Russian aggression, and new ones are added to this
number every day.
The concern of representatives of the Moscow
Patriarchate over the loss of subordinate communities is understandable. But it
is strange and incomprehensible to us the efforts of a fairly significant
number of people in power, including those from bodies that should be concerned
about the law and order and security of the state, both in the centre and at
the local level, to artificially obstruct this process.
The Holy Synod considers such interference
illegal, immoral and categorically unacceptable. Ukraine should be protected
from the "Russian world", and not contribute to the preservation of
its remnants and metastases.
The Holy Synod appeals to everyone on whom it
depends, with a call to urgently take appropriate measures to stop the practice
of obstructing Orthodox communities in the matter of their exit from the power
of the structures of the Moscow Patriarchate.
We emphasize once again that any initiatives
aimed at directly or indirectly depriving religious communities of this right
and turning them into de facto serfs are known to be unacceptable to the OCU.
At the same time, we testify once again that
the Orthodox Church of Ukraine is open to dialogue with all interested parties,
including the official representatives of the religious association of the UOC
(MPvU), regarding the determination, on the basis of international norms and
the legislation of Ukraine, of specific mechanisms for the realization by
religious communities of the inalienable right to change the center of its
subordination.
27/07/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
Although more than a millennium separates us
from the time of Saint Olga's earthly life, we still enjoy the good fruits of
her work and service. And we believe that at the time of the current influx
of foreigners, she, as then, serves her native people, among the multitude of
Ukrainian saints, praying to God for the victory of truth, for the liberation
of all corners of our Motherland from the captivity of the enemy.
Therefore, on the day of her glorification, we
turn with a special feeling to our princess, to the mother of Ukrainian
statehood and to our patron saint: Equal-to-the-Apostles Olga, pray to God for
Kyiv – your capital, for Ukraine-Rus, your state, and for our people, who are
now is suffering grievously, so that we can be freed from the invasion of
foreigners and, according to God's commandment, build our home in peace and
love! Amen.
24/07/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of sermon
All of us and the whole world are now
witnessing a special kind of demonization. Because the war unleashed and waged
by Russia is not only a historical reality, a collection of evil deeds of many
people led by the Kremlin tyrant, but also a spiritual reality, which can be
evaluated as a manifestation of obsession, demonic rage and a thirst for
murder. The devil,
as the Lord Himself testifies, "has been a murderer from time immemorial
and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he
speaks a lie, he speaks of himself, because he is a liar and the father of
lies" (John 8:44). Didn't the frank, cynical, deliberate lie with which
the bloody Kremlin flooded its country and is trying to drown the whole world
in it reveal the action of the evil spirit, the state, the father of lies?
Doesn't the ferocity, cruelty, and mercilessness with which the Russian killers
destroy our people point to devilish malice as the source of these satanic
deeds?
Perhaps for non-believers or for those blinded
by fables about the "Russian measure", this connection does not seem
obvious. However, it seems quite obvious to us. And this leads us to the
conclusion that the fight against Russian aggression should consist not only in
physical resistance to the attacker, but also in spiritual resistance. This resistance is our
heartfelt, sincere prayers, our own fulfilment of the Lord's commandments,
which in their essence boil down to the call to sacrificially love God and love
our neighbour.
Not everyone can defend Mother Ukraine with a
weapon in hand. But each of us, Christians, not only can, but also is obliged
to protect it from the devilish embitterment of the Kremlin tyranny with the
weapon against the devil's race, which the Lord has given to all of us - prayer
and God-pleasing deeds.
And we believe, we are sure, that just as the
fiercest devils were cast out by the Lord, as we hear about today from the
Gospel, so the current diabolical embitterment of the Russian aggressors will
be overcome, defeated, and they themselves will be driven out of our home.
May this day come near by the will of God!
Amen.
17/07/2022 (Source)
Statement on preventing religious communities
from leaving the power of the Moscow Patriarchate
The Kyiv Metropolitanate of the Orthodox Church
of Ukraine is seriously concerned about the growing number of reports of
numerous facts of direct or covert interference by persons in power in the
issue of the exit of Orthodox religious communities from the power of the
Moscow Patriarchate.
Information is coming from many regions of
Ukraine that on the ground some civil servants and representatives of bodies
called to protect law and order and security are interfering in the process of
voluntary adoption by Orthodox communities of a decision to withdraw from the
jurisdiction of the structures of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine. They prevent
the holding of general meetings of such communities, interfere with the
registration of community statutory documents by local administrations. The
facts of direct pressure on active parishioners and priests and their
intimidation, in particular through the use of tools of criminal proceedings,
are recorded.
The right of a religious community to freely
choose the centre to which it wants to be subordinate is guaranteed by the Law
of Ukraine on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations (Article 8).
Impeding the exercise of this right is a significant violation of the basic
principles of one of the fundamental human rights – freedom of religion and
belief. Ukraine's struggle against Russian aggression cannot serve as a
justification for violating Ukrainian legislation and internationally
recognized principles of freedom of religion.
The data of sociological studies indicate a
sharp drop in the trust of our fellow citizens in the structures of the Moscow
Patriarchate – 3/4 of those who identified themselves with this religious
association at the beginning of the year have lost trust in it. Against the
background of open cynical support given to Russian aggression by the head of
the Moscow Patriarchate, Kyril Gundyaev, and the institutions subordinate to
him, taking into account the long-term broad and consistent support of the
structures of the MP in Ukraine to the ideology of "Russian peace",
the propaganda of unity with Moscow, as well as reports of numerous facts of
collaborationism on the part of clergy of the MP with the Russian occupiers -
the desire of the Orthodox faithful in Ukraine to completely and finally break
with the Russian Orthodox Church is quite understandable.
Therefore, the process of voluntary change by
Orthodox religious communities of their subordination is absolutely objective.
And numerous cases of obstruction of this process, in our opinion, are
connected both with the personal preferences of those in power, and with the
desire to save the structure of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine from the
final decline, to use its weakness and dependence in their own interests.
The decisions of the bodies of the religious
association of the UOC (MPvU) on changes to the charter, which hid the
institutional connection of this association with the Russian Orthodox Church, did
not actually change the essence of the matter. After all, in the very
first paragraph of the updated statute, the current status of the religious
association of the UOC (MPvU) is recognized as based on the letter of the
previous Moscow Patriarch Alexy II, which clearly states that the UOC is part
of the Russian Orthodox Church. So, despite the statement of the
representatives of this association and some civil servants about the alleged
"complete independence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from the Russian
Orthodox Church", in reality only masking and concealment of this
dependence took place. This state of affairs is confirmed by the consistent
refusal of the leadership of the UOC (MPvU) to dialogue with the OCU, putting
forward obviously unacceptable conditions, which is fully consistent with the
position of the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church in this matter.
It can be stated that the main current task of
the UOC religious association is to preserve the number of parishes at any
cost. Persons endowed with power are also involved in the performance of this
task through personal favour, and possibly through corruption schemes, as
evidenced by the trends mentioned above.
The Kyiv Metropolitanate of the Orthodox Church
of Ukraine appeals to everyone on whom it depends, with a call to urgently take
appropriate measures to stop the practice of obstructing Orthodox communities
in the matter of their exit from the power of the structures of the Moscow
Patriarchate.
We would like to emphasize that any initiatives
aimed at directly or indirectly depriving religious communities of this right
and turning them into de facto serfs are known to be unacceptable to the OCU.
At the same time, we certify that the Kyiv
Metropolitanate is open to a dialogue with all interested parties, including
official representatives of the religious association of the Ukrainian Orthodox
Church (MPvU), regarding the determination, on the basis of international norms
and the legislation of Ukraine, of specific mechanisms for the realization by
religious communities of the inalienable right to change the centre of their
submission
Kyiv Metropolitanate of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church (OCU)
15/07/2022 (Source)
Words during a meeting with the director of the Babi Yar memorial
The enemy seeks to cause us as much damage as possible, and not only
physical damage. But we are not a nation that will fall. We have historical
examples of mass shootings carried out by the Nazi invaders, and now we are
direct witnesses of the atrocities committed by their followers – the Russian
occupiers. However, with God's help, we will certainly endure, remaining
warriors of light and will not allow the evil of war to capture our hearts.
14/07/2022 (Source)
Address
to the International Ministerial Conference on Freedom of Religion and Belief -
London
This
morning, while we were having breakfast, Russia again fired missiles at several
cities of Ukraine. Blood has been spilled again, there are wounded and dead.
Therefore,
for me, freedom is not only a generalized theological, legal or philosophical
concept. Freedom is something for which the Ukrainian people pay a very high
price every day.
This
is the price that the people of Great Britain paid for their freedom more than
eighty years ago.
Then dark times came for the British, when the whole force of the tyranny of
Nazism fought against them. But the people of Britain, along with others who
value freedom, won. I also believe in victory for Ukraine. Because the truth is
with us. And where there is truth, there is God and victory.
In this
part of our meeting, we focused on how violations of religious freedom can
signal a deterioration in the overall state of human rights.
I
would like to remind the audience that in Russia, after a certain period of
relative religious freedom more than ten years ago, various restrictions were
gradually introduced at the level of laws. Let me remind you about the
so-called "Yarova law", according to which any religious activity
actually requires permission from the state. In fact, under the current Kremlin
regime, the system of control over religious activities that existed in the
Soviet Union was restored. Only now, instead of fighting religion, it is being
used as a tool to spread the ideology of the "Russian world".
Russia
tries to present itself as a defender of traditional religious values. In fact,
due to restrictions on freedom of religion, due to the use of religious
organizations as a tool of totalitarian policy, the Russian authorities do
not protect religious values, but compromise them.
Using
the example of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, we know very
well what the false "values" that the Kremlin carries with it are. The
communities of our Church, like the communities of most religious organizations
in occupied Crimea, in the occupied parts of eastern and southern Ukraine, are
under constant pressure. If you are not loyal to the Russian state, you will
face its opposition and persecution there.
The way
the Kremlin began to restrict religious freedom along with other freedoms is a
clear example of an early warning about the deterioration of human rights. And
we all see the bloody consequences of such a policy.
As
during the communist persecution of religion in the Soviet Union, the
international community's uncompromising attention to freedom of religion is
very important for Putin's Russia now. Monitoring, giving publicity to specific
facts of crimes against freedom, constant demands on the authorities to adhere
to generally recognized legal standards are what we can and must do together.
Thank
you for your attention and I ask all of you to continue praying for peace and
freedom for Ukraine!
05/07/2022
(Source)
Excerpt from sermon at the Cossack Tombs
And how gathered here we see, and
we pray for our native land, for our defender soldiers, that the Lord
will strengthen them in the fight against the Russian aggressor, we
pray for the prisoners and their release, we pray for the peaceful
inhabitants who suffer from the invasion of foreigners – yes the holy
lands of Ukraine unite in prayer for this!
We are gathered on earth, and they are in heaven, but we pray together
and believe that according to the word of Scripture, this prayer has
great power.
Today we also honour the new martyrs and confessors of Christ's faith,
who suffered from the ungodly during the persecutions of the last
century. We have not forgotten how hundreds and thousands of laymen and
priests, monks and hierarchs were tortured, sent to distant lands for
hard labour, and repressed. Thousands of churches and monasteries were
turned into ruins or spoiled by turning into clubs or business premises.
From the hands of the persecutors and tormentors, the martyr's blood
flowed in rivers, and the Ukrainian land was soaked with it. However, as
in the ancient times of pagan persecution, this blood of martyrs became
the seed of faith, which sprouted a religious revival, the restoration
of freedom for the people and the Church.
Like grain, these confessors of faith fell into the ground, but their
feat, like an ear that sprouted from the grain, bore great fruit. This
fruit is our church independence and our state independence.
Thanks to the feats of the best sons and daughters of our people, we
have the opportunity to pray in our native Church in our native
language, we have the opportunity to build our state, and not live in
the slave yoke of the "Russian world."
And we have gathered at this sacred place for all Ukrainians to thank
them all – those who fought for the truth, for the Orthodox faith, for
their native land on the Berestey field and on all other battlefields,
and all those who fought not with a sabre or an iron sword, but with a
spiritual sword – prayer and the word of God – he also fought against
evil and sin on the lands of Ukraine-Rus.
Our gratitude, our unity, our awareness of responsibility for the
priceless gifts that the previous generations of the Ukrainian people
have given us and that we must multiply and pass on to our successors
oblige us to gather here every year on this day.
And it is with special feelings that we do this now, when once again
rivers of Ukrainian blood are being shed by the enemy-foreigner on our
land. When the northern horde came in full force to blossoming Ukraine
to impose its yoke again, and to destroy the disobedient. Our soldiers
with weapons in their hands are defending the Motherland from this
invasion, and we have gathered here to raise the sword of God's truth,
the spiritual sword – the word of the Lord, and a prayer to direct
this sword against the devil and all those who do his evil will.
And let this prayer, the prayer of many voices, in which the living
here and the living in heaven unite, let it rise day and night to the
Throne of God.
And we believe that the Lord, who brought us out of the latest
Babylonian captivity of the "Russian world" to the promised land of
dignity and freedom – He, our Lord and King, will protect
Ukraine-Rus.
With His anger, may the righteous God strike down the regiments of
foreigners, as the fierce Egyptian pharaoh was struck down and the
proud Assyrian Sennacherib. May He send angels led by the patron of
our capital, Golden-topped Kyiv, Archangel Michael, to help the
Ukrainian army.
Russia is a colossus whose head shines like gold, but whose feet are
made of clay. Therefore, it swells with imaginary greatness, but does
not stand firmly on its feet, but wobbles and falls. And our Ukraine,
like a small David before the giant Goliath, stands strong, having
true faith in God and being inspired by love for neighbours.
The enemy is still raging, still throwing his rockets, bombs and shells
at our cities and villages.
But every such rocket, bomb and projectile, every drop of innocent
blood shed by the Russian aggressor increases the measure of his
curse. As Cain was cursed for killing his brother Abel out of
jealousy, so all those who turned their weapons against peaceful
Ukraine follow Cain's curse.
Let them know that if it is not human punishment, then God will
certainly fulfil them for all the evil that they do. And if they want
to avoid torment in the flames of hell, let them repent and stop their
murderous work and get out of our land.
And we, standing on our native land, which is soaked in the blood of
heroes and martyrs, will offer our strengthened prayers today, so that
the Lord will bring victory for Ukraine and a just peace. May he bless
our soldiers, may he help the wounded to heal, may he free the captives
from shackles, may he take care of all those who suffered from the
invasion of foreigners. We ask our God, the Father, the Son and the Holy
Spirit, we ask the Most Pure Virgin Mary the Mother of God, we ask the
entire army of angels, all the saints of the Ukrainian land and all the
saints of God – graciously provide everything that the suffering
Ukrainian people need now!
Amen!
26/06/2022 (Source)
Speech in a church which recently joined the autocephalous Ukrainian
Orthodox Church
The enemy is trying to destroy us, the enemy is trying to do everything
so that we do not exist as a separate Ukrainian nation, so that we do
not have our own independent Ukrainian state. But we all united together
and testified that we will defend the Ukrainian land given to us by God
to the end.
And when you and I are gathering here, in this holy place, in the
temple for prayer, there in the east of Ukraine, at this time, our
residents are dying, our newest heroes are dying, soldiers who defend
our peaceful sky. Therefore, today we offer prayers for our soldiers,
for our heroes, who do not spare the most precious thing – their
lives.
25/06/2022 (Source)
Speech during visit to a church
In this special time of trial by a terrible war, which daily takes away
our best sons and daughters,
we must fight for the truth to prevail. We do not seek someone
else's, but we will defend our God-given Ukrainian land to the end.
Now we are fighting not only for our future, not only for the future
of the Ukrainian state, but we are also fighting for Europe, we are fighting for those values that are characteristic of each of
us. We aspire to live in a free, independent Ukrainian state. Therefore,
we will certainly overcome the aggressor, pass these tests and become
even stronger.
25/06/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from sermon on All Saints Sunday
So even now, when our people are once again forced to defend their
homeland with weapons in their hands from invaders and murderers, we
with special feelings before this miraculous image turn to the Blessed
Virgin and ask to protect, from all evil, civilians suffering from the
invasion of strangers. We ask for gracious protection for our courageous warriors-defenders,
thanks to whose feat and sacrifice we can pray and work in relative
peace and tranquility. We ask for a speedy healing for the wounded. We ask for relief from
the shackles of captivity and a speedy release from occupation for those
over whom the enemy is temporarily in power. We ask for a speedy victory over evil and untruth for Ukraine and a
lasting just peace. Holy Mother of God, save and have mercy on all who turn to Your
intercession! Amen.
19/06/2022 (Source)
Speech by the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church at the event
"Religious Communities of Ukraine and Russia's Full-Scale War"
Dear participants of the meeting!
You have heard and know a lot about the war in Ukraine from the media,
but we, the representatives of the religious community, have come to
share our own testimony with you. We are witnessing the suffering of the Ukrainian people as a result of
unprovoked aggression. We know from our own experience how you feel when
it is unknown whether your own life will end today, the lives of those you
know personally. Will your home be destroyed, will the place of prayer and worship be
destroyed? We want the peoples of Europe not to know from their own experience
what we know, what the Ukrainian people know.
Therefore, together we must stop the evil of Russian aggression, so
that this aggression does not move further into Europe. And this threat is absolutely real, especially for the Baltic States
and Poland. Absolutely real! These countries and the whole of Europe, as
a common space of freedom, are under threat. It should be understood
that Putin's goal is not Crimea, Donbas or Kyiv. Its goal is to destroy
a united Europe, to return to the past, when our continent was divided
and part of it was under the totalitarian control of Moscow.
It is symbolic that we meet today in Berlin, a city that has
experienced in its own history both the tragedy of the totalitarian rule
of Nazism and Communism and the tragedy of the division by the Iron
Curtain. A little more than a kilometer separates us from the place where the
"Berlin Wall" passed. That is why the words about the value of democracy
and freedom sound special here.
We are fighting for democracy and freedom not only for ourselves but
for the whole of Europe. And we should not think that if Putin succeeds, the wall will pass
somewhere in our lands. This wall may reappear here in central Europe.
Only together, by joining forces, will we be able to defeat and stop
this evil and prevent a new division of Europe.
The Ukrainian people have a strong spirit and will to
fight. We were given a few days before the defeat, and we have been fighting
for more than three months - and we will continue to fight. After all,
we know what to expect from the Russian occupation - the whole territory
that Putin will seize will become "Bucha", will become "bloody land".
That is why we are asking for all possible help from the democratic
world in general and from the European Union and Germany in
particular. The more aid is provided and the sooner it arrives, the sooner we will be
able to repel the aggressor and regain sovereignty over our territory.
As religious figures, we ask all believers of all faiths to pray,
because prayer is so important. We thank you for humanitarian aid, for financial aid, for caring for our
refugees. But we also support Ukraine's request for more assistance
through increased sanctions and weapons.
We completely reject the logic of "pacification" when offering to
"give" the quality of Putin's territory in exchange for a promise of
peace. Such logic never leads to peace! The experience of the "Munich
Conspiracy", when Hitler was given the Sudetenland in exchange for a
promise of peace, shows that the aggressor's appetite for victory is
only growing. Especially since there are no uninhabited territories in
Ukraine. People live on all lands. Are we being offered to hand over our
citizens to the totalitarian rule of Russia? This approach is completely
unacceptable in today's world.
We, the representatives of the religious community of Ukraine,
demonstrate unity in the face of war and aggression, show that there are
no religious, national or other internal reasons for the conflict. The
reason is only external – Putin's desire to restore the "Russian Empire"
and restore the "Yalta system" of division of Europe and the world.
In 2013, we, as representatives of the religious community of Ukraine,
showed full support for the course of European integration of
Ukraine. And the thing we have blessed has happened: Ukraine has an Association
Agreement with the EU, has a visa-free regime, has public support for
European integration not only among our people, but also among the peoples
of Europe. The issue of granting Ukraine the status of a candidate for EU
membership will be resolved soon. We would like to show our support for
the candidate status and bless this good cause.
After all, Europe is not just a common economy or travel without
borders. First of all, Europe is a common value, a space of peace, dignity and freedom.
Ukraine is an integral part of this space, we pay a high price for the
values of peace and freedom. But the price of defeat, according to Bucha and Mariupol – is much
worse. Germany and Europe know this from their own history, from the history of
World War II.
We are open to dialogue, to communication, to cooperation in order for
the truth to prevail and for true, just peace to prevail in Ukraine.
Thank you!
12/06/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from sermon on the Seventh Sunday after Easter
As in ancient times, so now we see the struggle of truth and
untruth. And those on the side of untruth were not only outspoken pagans,
atheists or persecutors – among the false teachers were those who are
trained in theology, and monks, and church hierarchs. But when they
gather, or still gather, not to know, testify, and affirm the truth
– no matter how magnificently they call themselves – it will not make
the untruth they will tell true. Both the Pharisees and the heretics had their meetings where they
disagreed. Therefore, it is not the outward form of the assembly, but the
manifestation and fruits of the work of those gathered that show whether
such a gathering and its teachings are in accordance with the Divine
Revelation, with the truth, or distort them.
05/06/2022 (Source)
Statement of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC)
following the recent events in the jurisdiction of the Moscow
Patriarchate in Ukraine (UOC)
Having studied the information available as of May 30, 2022 on the
results of events held in Kyiv on May 27, 2022, namely – "meeting of
bishops, priests, monks and laity of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church; Holy
Synod of the UOC, the Council of Bishops of the UOC, the Council of the
UOC", not many officially published documents, the Holy Synod of the
Orthodox Church of Ukraine notes the following:
The Orthodox Church of Ukraine welcomes and supports all efforts aimed
at the final elimination of the power of the Moscow Patriarchate over
the Church in Ukraine as non-canonical, imposed by force and harmful to
Ukrainian Orthodoxy. This power is dangerous for the very existence of
Ukraine due to the Russian government's use of ROC institutions and
their influence on Ukraine as an instrument of hybrid aggression.
Unfortunately, no documents have yet been published to show that the
UOC religious association (Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine) adopted such
decisions that significantly changed its status compared to the
“independence and autonomy in governance” granted to the UOC by the ROC
in 1990. And this status of "independence and autonomy in management"
fixes the presence of the UOC in the ROC and its dependence on the
Moscow Patriarchate.
The new version of the Statute on the Administration of the UOC, as
well as the documents of the Holy Synod, the Council of Bishops of the
UOC of May 27, 2022, have not been published. The statements of the ROC representatives and the decisions of its
Synod show that from the ROC point of view the UOC religious
association remains in its composition, and changes to the UOC
Management Statute can enter into force only after their "approval" by
the ROC head.
Thus, based on publicly available documents, there is no reason to claim that following the events of May 27,
2022, the UOC religious association really ceased to be an integral
part of the Russian Orthodox Church, as it has been to this day.
Despite the mention of the Kharkiv Cathedral in 1992, the 30th
anniversary of which coincided with the date of the current
meeting, the participants in their documents did not mention in any way how
the bishops' promises to achieve "canonical autocephaly of the UOC"
are being fulfilled and will be fulfilled. Despite the canonical and moral bankruptcy of the very idea of
subordination of the Church in Ukraine to the Moscow Patriarchate,
which is quite obvious to the society and the vast majority of Orthodox
in Ukraine, the meeting on May 27, even in such a form as in Kharkiv 30
years ago, did not prove its attitude to autocephaly, much less declare
its actual achievement or even aspiration.
It should also be recalled that the UOC Council on November 1-3, 1991,
unanimously supported the need for autocephaly of the UOC. Will the
decisions of the current UOC Council in the part that contradicts Moscow
be just as forgotten and ignored? Are there any guarantees of their
implementation? The lack of official publication of documents and
conflicting statements by officials raise doubts about the real
consequences of the May 27 meeting.
The Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church expresses its joy at the
agreement in principle reached by the UOC religious association on the
need for dialogue between the two Orthodox jurisdictions in Ukraine. For
our part, we reaffirm that such a dialogue must begin without
preconditions or ultimatums. We look forward to concrete proposals from
the other side on the first steps in the dialogue and the appointment of
those responsible for the dialogue.
We regret the decision of the meeting on May 27 to approve all previous
decisions by which, following the divisive actions of the Moscow
Patriarchate, the UOC (MPVU) jurisdiction severed ties with the
Ecumenical Patriarchate, the Patriarchate of Alexandria, the Church of
Cyprus and the Church of Greece. This, as well as the form of
commemoration of the Primates at the liturgy chosen by Metropolitan
Onufriy last Sunday, de facto confirmed the dependence on the decisions
and position of the Moscow Patriarchate.
We are disappointed that the meeting on May 27 did not find enough
words to condemn Russia's aggression against Ukraine and to support the
struggle of the Ukrainian army and the people against the occupiers, did
not condemn the position of Russian Patriarch Kirill, but only
"disagreed" and demanded to change this position. The expressions chosen
in the text of the decrees are too short and soft in comparison with the
tragedy that our people are experiencing. There was also no word of
condemnation and dissociation from the ideology of the "Russian measure"
– a heretical ethnophiletic doctrine and a cornerstone in justifying
Russia's war against Ukraine.
"By their fruits ye shall know them" (Matt. 7:16), the Scriptures teach
us, so limited information and contradictory statements are not enough
for the final conclusions, as they are today. Therefore, we look forward
to the concrete good results of the decisions of the meeting on May 27
and support all those who will contribute to their achievement.
On behalf of the Holy Synod – Epiphanius, Metropolitan of Kyiv and All
Ukraine
31/05/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from sermon on sixth Sunday after Easter
Everything we have thought about today resonates with the current
events in which we live now. Does not our Church remind you of the blind man to whom the Lord has
opened his eyes? As he received the gift of healing, so we
miraculously, in spite of many circumstances and resistance, received the blessing of
our autocephaly, received the Tomos, and were proclaimed the Local
Sister Church for the whole Orthodox world. And our brothers, who also
profess the Orthodox faith, live side by side, trying in every way to
find an excuse to deny this obvious action of God. They have stuck to
their own rules and regulations, and therefore do not want to admit
things that are quite clear and obvious to many.
Instead of abandoning long-standing disputes and finding a way to
create a single Church together, as defined by Christ's teachings,
Orthodox Traditions, and canons, they repeatedly seek justification for
remaining divided.
But we, as loving brothers, must act according to the word of God: “We,
the strong, must suffer the infirmities of the weak, and not please
ourselves. Each of us must please our neighbor for good, for instruction. For even
Christ did not please Him ”(Rom. 15: 1-3). Guided by this, we call again and again on our brothers who remain subordinate to the
Russian Church to dialogue. This call was recently confirmed by our
Council of Bishops. We do not set the preconditions for such a dialogue – it should start
as if from scratch, without prior requirements or even more
ultimatums. And if our brothers have the good will to do so, we are confident that
with God's help we will succeed. For when the eyes of the heart are open to the knowledge of the
truth, the Lord always helps to know it and to be established in it.
Dear brothers and sisters!
Today we honour the restoration of St. Michael's Golden-Domed Cathedral and congratulate our capital, Kyiv. Restoration from the ruins of this church, which is destined to play an important role in the recent history of Ukraine several times, is one of the signs of God's blessing for our Church. What seemed incredible became a reality. What was only a dream came true. And this should inspire us to continue the struggle and work. After all, we believe that the current dream of achieving victory over the aggressor and a just peace, the dream of overcoming divisions among the Orthodox – also, with God's help, will become a reality.
In the special conditions of the war imposed on us by Russia, we
celebrate the current Day of Kyiv. And we thank God, we thank our courageous soldiers-defenders who saved our capital from
the invasion of the latest embittered horde. May the Lord continue to
protect our Kyiv from the invasion of foreigners, and may His Archangel
Michael be a quick helper for all who fight evil.
29/05/2022 (Source)
Sermon on the feast of St. Epiphanius of Cyprus
We have gathered today for this worship service primarily to thank God
and ask His blessing for further struggle and work. And during the war, when for three months now our courageous
warriors-defenders, all our people have been successfully resisting
the great and brutal Russian aggression – we have a special reason for
prayerful gratitude.
We thank the Lord for inspiring our hearts in the struggle. Thank you for the real historical miracle of preserving a free
Ukraine, because you all know how various experts and politicians gave
our state a maximum of three or four days to resist and predicted a
quick defeat. And we became like the people of Israel in the face of
Pharaoh's army, when before the might of arms, before the strength of
man, before the number and fury of the enemy, another, invisible, but
much greater force – the power of faith and truth, the power of
sacrifice and hope in the Lord. The words of the prophet Moses, which we say in our prayer for
Ukraine, for victory, remind us of this: "Be of good cheer, stand and
see salvation from the Lord, for the Lord is fighting for us."
And we, thanks to this inner strength of spirit, thanks to the Divine
support and inspiration, did not retreat, did not break, did not give
up. Thank God for this, and thank you to everyone who has made and
continues to make efforts to continue the struggle for the truth.
Unfortunately, every day as a nation we pay a great and terrible price
of destruction, and most importantly – the price of the lives of our
best sons and daughters, our newest heroes who sacrifice themselves at
the front for freedom and future for Ukraine. Innocent civilians and children are suffering and dying. Millions
of people became exiles, forced to leave everything to escape the
onslaught of Russian assassins.
During these months, Western correspondents have repeatedly asked me:
isn't it better to stop the resistance, reach an agreement with Russia,
give in?
The answer to this is in the bombed Borodyanka, in the torn Bucha, in
the destroyed villages and towns of Kyiv and Chernihiv regions. The
answer is in the ruins of Mariupol, a peaceful, prosperous, beautiful
city that Russian murderers have turned into hell, into a mass grave.
The answer is in bombed Kharkiv, in the erased Volnovakha land, the
answer is in the bloody square of the Kramatorsk railway station, where
Russian barbarians killed civilians fleeing the war. The answer is in
the eyes of children who have lost their parents and parents whose
children's lives have been taken away by Russian weapons.
We are paying a terrible price now, but the historical experience of
the Ukrainian people shows that Russian captivity and occupation will
turn into an even worse catastrophe for us. The massacre in Bucha is a
modern proof of this. Millions of Holodomor victims are a reminder of
that. If we do not fight the "Russian peace" to victory now, it will
kill, maim, destroy, and enslave everything and everyone to whom and
where it reaches. And the price of captivity, defeat will be
incomparably greater.
Yes, in fact, every day we hear the sirens of the air alarm, two months
ago we directly heard here, albeit distant, but loud explosions on the
northern outskirts of Kiev. And today the sunrise was marked by the
howling of sirens. But the Lord did not give us this day to live in fear
or captivity, but for good deeds, for prayer, for mutual support.
Yesterday in St. Sophia we had a meeting of the Council of Bishops and
offered a prayer of thanksgiving in front of the image of the Virgin
Oranta, the Prayer Book, the Immovable Wall. It would seem that this is
a common thing for us, we regularly go to the Councils and joint
services. But our Council, our common worship yesterday and today - in
fact it is another sign of God's blessing, His blessing, His miracle!
Those who survived the first weeks of the war in Kyiv, who saw how
instantly the capital became empty, who started the morning and did not
know if it would live until the evening – is it no wonder that we again
have the opportunity to gather, pray, communicate right here in the
heart of Ukraine, in our spiritual shrines?
We thank God for this miracle and this mercy! We thank our soldiers for
their protection and victory in the defence of Kyiv! Realizing all this,
we must understand that every day of our lives and work under a peaceful
sky, no matter where we are in Ukraine, is paid a high price. Our
defenders are fighting for this now at the front, and we have a duty to
fight for freedom, for truth, for freedom, each in his place, where we
are and because of the service to which we are called.
One of the main directions of this struggle now is the opposition to
the ideology of the "Russian measure", the fascist, murderous doctrine,
wrapped in a brilliant feud of sermons by Kirill Gundyaev and his
associates. Yesterday at the Council we ourselves condemned this
ideology, which through the Moscow Patriarchate is already spreading as
a heretical doctrine of ethnophiletism, ie the division of the Church on
the basis of nationality, which is placed above all else. For the sake
of the Russian spirit, Kirill is ready to renounce even the Holy Spirit
and blaspheme Him, denying the action of grace, breaking political unity
in the Eucharist solely for political reasons. We ourselves condemn this
and appeal to the Ecumenical Patriarch and the Primates of the Local
Autocephalous Churches to condemn the spiritual crimes of Kirill and
deprive him of his throne. For he cannot hold the chalice with the
Eucharist and the shepherd's staff
We have called on our brothers and sisters, who remain under the Moscow
Patriarchate here in Ukraine, to engage in dialogue and unity. How much
more blood must be shed, how many temples destroyed, how many lies
uttered by their "master and father" Kirill to understand: Moscow you do
not have! She is an evil stepmother, she is a slave owner, a bloody lady
who tortures slaves for pleasure!
Leave uncanonical subordination to her! Follow the truth, the church
order, hear the voice of God's people, who demand to break the shackles
of spiritual slavery "Russian measure"! Our hearts are open to you, we
are ready and willing to build a single Local Ukrainian Orthodox Church
together with you! Both the Synod and the Council of Bishops addressed a
corresponding appeal to our brothers – I urge them to listen, not so
much even to us, but to the voice of truth!
Dear bishops, fathers, brothers and sisters! God has helped us to come
to this day, to receive this joy of spiritual communion and unity in the
Eucharist. We believe and pray that he will help us continue to defend
Ukraine until victory, when a real, just peace prevails. We pray and
will do everything in our power to establish the unity of the Local
Church. I thank each of you for your support, for your love, for your
joint work. I am especially grateful to those who now continue to work
in the church field under occupation, living, as Christians once did
among pagans, under daily threat.
I believe that as we were able to reach this day, so we will reach the
day of victory. After all, we can say about ourselves in the words of
the Apostle Paul: “We are oppressed everywhere, but we are not
oppressed; we are in hopeless circumstances, but we do not lose hope; we
are persecuted, but we are not forsaken; overthrown but not destroyed
”(2 Cor. 4: 8-9). For the power of grace that overcomes our human
exhaustion, inspires us to work and struggle - we thank God, to whom be
glory forever!
25/05/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from the report at an extended meeting of the Council of
Bishops
The Orthodox Church of Ukraine was and remains the largest religious
association in our country, primarily in terms of the level of
self-identification with it of our fellow citizens and public trust.
Taking into account the data of various opinion polls, we can say that
about 75% of Ukrainians identify themselves as Orthodox believers, the
vast majority of whom recognize their affiliation with the Orthodox
Church of Ukraine. This was the case before the great Russian invasion.
The tragic events of the war significantly affected the
self-consciousness of the Ukrainian people, opened the eyes of many to
what the ideology of the "Russian measure" really is, which was imposed
from Russia for years to justify aggressive plans.
Unfortunately, we do not yet have a more complete sociological picture,
but we can already say about the main trend: during the war, the
self-identification of the Orthodox in Ukraine changed
dramatically. If before the open offensive 38% of respondents belonged to the PCU,
15% to the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine, and 22% called themselves
"just Orthodox" – such is usually the majority in eastern and southern
Ukraine – then in March 52% identified with the Orthodox Church of
Ukraine, 11% as "just Orthodox" and only 4% as followers of the Moscow
Patriarchate. In other words, three-quarters of those who considered
the Moscow Patriarchate their Church at the beginning of the year
rejected it in March.
Sociology also shows that in the first month after the widespread
attack, more than two-thirds of respondents called for a complete
severance of church ties between Ukraine and Moscow. There is every
reason to believe that this trend has only intensified in the coming
months.
So, if we take into account the above facts, the Orthodox Church of
Ukraine is already 13 times bigger than the Moscow Patriarchate in our
country in terms of support and self-identification of the faithful.
This, and not the mythical "persecution" that MP spokesmen in Ukraine
have been talking about for many years, is the main reason why
communities are leaving the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate and
joining a single Local Church.
(…)
Since the great aggression of Russia against Ukraine, about 400 religious communities, 120 clergy and 2 monasteries from
the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate have joined the UOC. Why
do I say "approximately"? In preparing this report, we have collected
relevant data in the dioceses, but they are constantly changing:
meetings of religious communities are reported daily and their
decision to break away from dependence on the Russian Church.
So far, the total number of UOC communities is about 7,600, and the
number of clergy is about 4,900.
Unification process
To the extent that this depends on us, we must do everything possible
to ensure that the unification process in Ukrainian Orthodoxy takes
place consciously, in accordance with the law, with the prevention of
possible provocations. We do not support violence against the clergy,
the faithful, or the property of the Moscow Patriarchate communities
solely on the basis of their jurisdiction. At the same time, when one of the supporters of this religious association is guilty of
collaborating with the aggressor, in the service of the interests of
the enemy – such should be prosecuted in accordance with the law for
specific violations.
Here I believe it is necessary to quote the words from the statement of
the Holy Synod of 16 January 2022: "Considering the particular
importance of church matters for the security of Ukraine, we appeal to
the state and local authorities and to the civil society for support in
the process of achieving church loyalty among the Orthodox, To
contribute to a quick response to the influence of the fascist ideology
of the "Russian world" and to the inevitable adoption of necessary
decisions that would put an end to the use of the MP in Ukraine as a
tool of hybrid aggression.
We are convinced that church unity and the independence of the Orthodox
from Moscow's influence are an integral part of Ukraine's victory in the
current war for its freedom and independence. So, we should act now, not
sometime in the future, make decisions, not make vague promises, take
responsibility, and not expect steps from someone else."
Opposition to the heresy of the "Russian measure"
In light of this, we support initiatives aimed at eliminating Russia's
direct influence on religious associations in Ukraine. What is it about?
Russia's war against Ukraine is a hybrid, it has different dimensions.
Ukraine is defending its territory, protecting its economy, energy,
information sphere, and political space. We ban the activities of
pro-Russian parties, TV channels, banks with Russian capital, etc. A
logical question arises: isn't the religious sphere a space of Russian
hybrid aggression against Ukraine? The answer is obvious: not only is it
such a space, but it has been a priority target for the Kremlin's hybrid
attacks for decades.
People should not be forbidden to believe, because by doing so the
state would violate the foundations of democracy, which includes freedom
of religion. However, the state can and should limit, at least until the
time of complete deoccupation of the territory of Ukraine, the
possibility of the Moscow Patriarchate's influence on church life in
Ukraine.
We are all witnesses of how the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church,
Kirill Gundyaev, deceitfully "blessed" the Russian army for the war
against Ukraine. There is no doubt that the Moscow Patriarchate and its
head are fully integrated into the Kremlin's system of power and
propaganda, its instruments. Therefore, it would be absolutely right for
the state to protect our fellow citizens who remain under the
jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate from being used by Russia as an
instrument of hybrid aggression. Just last night, he once again discussed this with the deputies
of the Verkhovna Rada, where the relevant hearings are to take place at
the end of the month. He stressed in the conversation that we should not
violate the basic principles of religious freedom. But Ukraine should
not wait for the challenges that arise in the religious sphere in the
conditions of war, to expect that everything will be resolved as if by
itself.
In connection with this topic, I would like to submit two proposals to
the Council and ask for your support.
The first. You know that under the terms of the Tomos on Autocephaly,
it is the duty of the Primate to commemorate the names of other Primates
of the Orthodox Churches after the Diptych. I have faithfully performed
this duty since receiving Tomos. But Russia's open attack, the numerous
sacrifices and sufferings of our people, and the deceptive blessings and
support given to Kremlin war crimes by ROC leader Kirill Gundyaev made
it impossible to commemorate his name. If even among the Moscow
Patriarchate in Ukraine a certain number of bishops and hundreds of
priests refused to do so, it is all the more incomprehensible to mention
the name of Kirill as the Primate of the ROC. So, from the first service
after the beginning of the open Russian aggression, I stopped doing this
and ask for the support of the Council in my decision.
The second proposal. The reason for my earlier decision is not only
moral but also theological. Patriarch Kirill is one of the creators of the ideology of the
"Russian world", its propagandist and popularizer. This ideology
itself, in my opinion, falls under the condemnation of the Council of
Constantinople in 1872 of ethnophiletism as a heresy. Accordingly,
Kirill Gundyaev, as its co-creator and propagandist, should be
condemned if he does not renounce this heresy and does not find the
fruits of repentance.
That is why in my letters to the Primates of the Churches on the
occasion of Easter, I wrote: “I am convinced that not only [Russian war]
crimes, but also the words and actions of Moscow Patriarch Kirill, who
supported the war against Ukraine from the pulpit. those who considered
him their pastor should be condemned by the fullness of Orthodoxy. You
cannot hold the Chalice and the shepherd's staff with your hands on
which there is blood."
Therefore, I propose on behalf of the Council of Bishops to appeal to the
Ecumenical Patriarch and the Primates of the Local Churches to bring
Kirill Gundyaev to canonical responsibility and deprivation of his
throne, in particular on the basis of spreading heretical
ethnophiletic doctrine of "Russian peace" and spreading schism among
Orthodox creation of dioceses of the ROC within the Patriarchate of
Alexandria.
The state of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine
It is reported that in the near future the Moscow Patriarchate in
Ukraine plans to hold a meeting to discuss its own future. This meeting
does not even have their internal status of a council. However, it is
envisaged that it may be declared a council and try to change the status
of its religious association in order to distance itself from the
ROC.
Is this possible and in what form? We will not guess and wait for this
meeting and its decision. There were high hopes for the meeting of the
UOC Synod, which took place in Kyiv two weeks ago. Everyone knows that
no significant decisions were expected there. Therefore, the announced
meeting on the fruits of labour may resemble the proverb: "from a big
cloud – a little rain."
It is symbolic that exactly three decades ago a meeting of UOC
hierarchs took place in Kharkiv. Then they also promised to seek
"canonical autocephaly." At the same time, Moscow promised to "consider
these requests." All these promises have remained words, moreover –
empty. Therefore, both believers and Ukrainian society expect from the
representatives of the UOC-MP not the next promises, references to
bizarre plans to ask for autocephaly in Moscow – it was already asked
thirty years ago, where is it? – and not the expectation of
"proclamation of autocephaly by all Primates", because it is impossible
to realize this desire.
Orthodox and society, as confirmed by opinion polls, expect from the
UOC-MP real steps to separate from the non-canonical power of the Moscow
Patriarchate and achieve unity with the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
I suggest that our Council address the hierarchs, clergy and faithful
in the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate, who will gather in Kiev,
with the following proposals:
1. Start a formal dialogue without proclaiming preconditions. During the service of the blessed memory of Metropolitan
Volodymyr (Sabodan) there was a dialogue between the UOC-MP on the one
hand and the UAOC and the UOC-KP on the other, although there was no
Tomos and its fruits at that time. Now nothing but subjective reluctance
on the part of the UOC-MP can explain the lack of dialogue.
2. To call on the UOC-MP to recognize the decision of the Ecumenical
Patriarchate of October 2018 in the case of appeals from Ukraine
regarding non-canonical decisions of the ROC. By this decision, the hierarchs and clergy of the UOC-KP and UAOC
were recognized in canonical dignity. A similar decision was recently
made by the Ecumenical Patriarchate regarding the hierarchy of the Ohrid
Archbishopric in Northern Macedonia. On the basis of this decision, the
Eucharistic communion between the Ohrid Archbishopric and the Serbian
Patriarchate, which was interrupted 55 years ago, was resumed through
co-operation, although issues of jurisdiction remain the subject of
dialogue.
The UOC-MP should revoke the decision to sever its communication with
the Ecumenical Patriarchate and a number of Local Churches, and to
follow the decision of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to recognize the
canonicity of the OCU hierarchy, following the example of its longtime
sympathizer, the Serbian Patriarchate. It has been repeatedly pointed
out that the current lack of agreement between us on matters of
jurisdiction should not be an obstacle to co-operation and unity in the
Eucharist.
3. Encourage our confreres to follow the Tomos on Autocephaly, which
stipulates that all dioceses, monasteries, parishes and other Orthodox
church institutions must be under the jurisdiction of the
Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The existence of the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate in
Ukraine, as well as any other way that provides separate from the PCU
existence of Orthodox church structures in our country – a canonical
anomaly, a violation that must sooner or later be corrected.
All bishops of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine in 2018 were invited
to participate in the Unification Council. Unfortunately, only two
accepted the call of the Ecumenical Patriarch. However, the Council has
taken place, and now those who wish can join in its decisions and
benefit from its good fruits. If before 2018 there was no single Local
Church in Ukraine and recognized by the Universal Orthodoxy, now it is,
it is impossible to "re-create", but we must proceed from what is
forever engraved in history.
The Ecumenical Patriarchate has the same position. During this time we
have discussed these issues many times, and we have always heard the
answer: the Unification Council took place, the Orthodox Church of
Ukraine received a Tomos on autocephaly, so all those who want to follow
the canonical order should not seek an alternative but unite with it.
The Ecumenical Patriarchate does not intend and will not create any
alternative jurisdiction in the canonical territory of the OCU.
I propose to spread the Appeal of such content from our Council so that
the hierarchs, clergy and faithful of the UOC-MP know our position.
(…)
Challenges of wartime
Returning to the Church's response to the effects of the war, two
important tasks need to be emphasized. The first is to continue to
support the Ukrainian people in the fight against Russian aggression and
to help its victims. May the Lord give a hundredfold to all benefactors
and donors for the mercy shown to the needy.
Despite the objective hardship, which we ourselves feel well, the
Metropolitan Fund of the OCU has launched a program of assistance in
rebuilding and rebuilding destroyed housing. Assistance in the form of
construction materials for a significant amount for the affected
residents of Chernihiv will be provided in the coming days. It is clear
that this is small compared to the scale of the destruction, but it is
our duty to do what we can in the best of circumstances.
The second task is to take care of the spiritual care of refugees,
especially those who have found themselves abroad. We have taken some
steps in cooperation with the hierarchs of the Ecumenical Patriarchate
and the Church of Greece, but there are many difficulties. So where the
local competent Orthodox church hierarchy responds to the needs of
Orthodox Ukrainians, we solve problems together. But there are sad
examples of our priests and faithful who have been in exile being
despised by local representatives of the Orthodox Church, who are
treated according to Moscow standards. We do not intend to interfere in
their canonical competence, but we also consider it wrong to leave our
flock unattended, so we will look for ways to solve this problem.
(…)
24/05/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from the sermon on the fifth Sunday after Easter
All these considerations are not only of general importance, but also a
very modern and practical dimension. You all know that in addition to
the grief and suffering brought to us by the war, the current tragic events have prompted and encouraged many Orthodox in
Ukraine to seek unity, abandon former prejudice and enmity, forgive
insults and unite in the Local Orthodox Church for the truth and good
of the people of Ukraine as defined by the Tradition, canons and Tomos
on autocephaly. For decades, we, brothers and sisters in the Orthodox
faith, as if those Jews and Samaritans, were separated. But Christ
calls us to seek understanding, peace and unity, not to be biased, but
open and loving.
Therefore, we call on all our Orthodox believers in Ukraine to
dialogue, to unite around Christ and around Kyiv – the mother of
Ukrainian-Russian cities, to jointly build a single Local Church, whose
autocephaly is proclaimed throughout the Orthodox world through the
Ecumenical Patriarch's Tomos.
Our doors are open to all Orthodox who have good will and desire to
serve God and the Ukrainian people. Our hearts are open, we want past misunderstandings not to determine
our future. And we believe that with God's help and joint efforts we
will be able to achieve the unity of the Church in Ukraine. Let us pray
for this, let us work for it - and may the Lord bless our good work with
success!
22/05/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from sermon on Fourth Sunday after Easter
It is useful for Christians to remember this truth always and at all
times, but especially in this time of war, sorrow and suffering. Now the
Ukrainian people are suffering. But if we do not lose faith in God, if we fight for freedom, for truth,
for good and freedom – then we will definitely win. Our enemy is
strong, insidious and ruthless. But is there a greater power in the
world than the power of God? Is there a trick in the world that can
surpass the Wisdom of God? Are there impudence and ruthlessness that
would not allow God's will to be done?
Therefore, understanding this, we will continue to fight, to do what is
up to us, to achieve the victory of truth and good, and the Lord will do
the rest then and in the best way.
15/05/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of sermon on the third Sunday after Easter
We call again and again for God's blessing on all volunteers, donors,
and benefactors who, in difficult times for the Ukrainian people,
serve the needy and care for their neighbours. Even a donated bottle
of drinking water or a hryvnia [Ukrainian currency unit] will not go
unnoticed by God when done with love.
However, as always, where there are good deeds, there is a devilish temptation.
We know that not everyone involved in humanitarian aid, its collection,
customs clearance, transfer and distribution, does so honestly.
Unfortunately, we have heard about the theft or misappropriation of aid,
extortion, etc.
Therefore, on behalf of the Church, I want to warn everyone: God sees
every deed, sees the heart of every person. And if He gives a great
reward even for a small sacrifice, then for appropriation, theft,
deception, the Lord will surely punish the guilty.
Marauding and embezzling aid are grave sins, and even if human law
cannot detect all criminals, everyone should remember that God's
justice will be achieved by retaliating against everyone guilty of
such evil. Therefore, whoever is tempted by the devil with such gain, beware, avoid this sin,
because the retribution for it will be difficult.
Dear brothers and sisters!
Today, together with the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition and
the entire civilized world, we honour the victory over Nazism in World
War II, remember the fallen soldiers and killed civilians. For decades, it seemed to us that an evil like Nazism could not be
repeated in Europe. But next to us, in the neighbouring country, whose
people suffered a lot in that war - now the evil of Nazism has
grown. Covered with false propaganda, grown on a grapevine, nurtured by a fierce hatred of truth and freedom, a desire for war and
bloodshed, Russian fascism is now doing the devil's work, sowing ruin
and death.
Our grandfathers and great-grandfathers fought against Nazism in that
great war and defeated it. We are convinced that even now our people and the entire civilized
world, which is struggling with Russian aggression, will defeat the
Kremlin's empire of evil with God's help.
So today, on the day of remembrance and commemoration of the victory over Nazism,
we will offer prayers for the peace of the souls of those killed in the
last war. But we will also pray for our soldiers and for all those who
suffer from and fight against the latest Kremlin fascism. To those who perished in the current war for the freedom of
Ukraine, we wish the Kingdom of Heaven, and to our defenders – success
in the struggle and a speedy victory over the aggressor.
08/05/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of sermon on the feast of St. George
God and the great martyr George also support us in this struggle, of
which we shall emerge victorious. And these trials will make us
stronger spiritually. That is why we need to fight, pray and do
everything in our power to preserve this great gift of freedom, to
establish it and pass it on to the next generations.
With God's help, we will defeat the enemy, we will defeat the newest
antichrist Putin, who decided to destroy our Ukrainian people, to commit
another Nazism against it. But our hands must not fall, we must continue to be spiritually
strong.
Therefore, knowing the history, analysing it, taking lessons from
it, we must fight to the end at this time. We will defeat the enemy, we
will restore our territorial integrity, we will return the occupied
territories and in our united, independent, Ukrainian, democratic,
European Ukraine we will build a common future. And this future is now in our hands
06/05/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from sermon of second Sunday after Easter
The task before us is to continue the work of affirming the unity of
the Orthodox Church in Ukraine. You and I, as faithful to the Local
Church, know that grace works in it, that it is the true Church, an
integral and equivalent part of the body of the One, Holy, Conciliar and
Apostolic Church with other Local Churches. And among our Orthodox brothers and sisters in Ukraine, who are not
yet in church communion with us, there are doubts - are we really the
Church? Does grace work here? Are the sacraments performed here
saving?
How should we deal with these doubts? We must follow the example of the
Saviour. For those who have a sincere intention to know the truth and
doubt for the sake of truth, not betrayal of pride or self-confidence,
we must help to know the truth just as the Lord helped Thomas to know
the truth. The Saviour did not condemn him for his doubts, but spoke to
him, giving explanations and evidence that convinced Thomas.
But for those who, like the leaders of the people of Israel, Pharisees
and scribes, have doubts about the truth of the Orthodox Church of
Ukraine, not because of the truth, but because of stubbornness,
self-deception and pride – we do not intend to prove or try to convince
them at any cost.
Those who want to know the truth – we are always open to them, we are
ready for dialogue, explanations, exchange of views and search for
understanding. And whoever seeks only numerous excuses to reject the
truth, let the will of God be done over them, as over modern scribes and
Pharisees.
01/05/2022 (Source)
Excerpts of Message to Primates and Hierarchs of Orthodox Churches on
Easter
Christ is Risen!
(…)
This year, Orthodox Christians in Ukraine celebrate the Resurrection of
Christ under extraordinary circumstances, immersed in the pain, grief,
tears, suffering, destruction, violence, and death brought to our
peaceful land by the army of Russia. On the Eve of the Great Fast, the
ruler of that country issued orders to attack Ukrainian cities and
villages, to kill our brothers and sisters.
These crimes against the peaceful people of Ukraine continued into and
through Great Lent and to this day. Their now infamous symbols include
Bucha, a thriving peaceful suburb of Kyiv where hundreds of civilians
were executed in the weeks of Russian occupation, and Mariupol, a large,
beautiful city named after the Mother of God, which Russia has turned
into twisted ruins and graves for thousands of innocents slain.
I am convinced that not only these crimes, but also the words and
actions of Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow, who from the ambon supported the
war against Ukraine and consequently led those who trusted him as their
shepherd to their deaths, should be condemned by the Fullness of
Orthodoxy. No one with blood on their hands may hold the Chalice or the
shepherd’s staff.
However, amid the darkness and suffering of war, the light of Christ’s
Resurrection gives us confidence in the victory of truth, of life, and
of love. We are grateful to all those who, through prayers for peace in
Ukraine, humanitarian aid, care for refugees, or words and actions
condemning Russian aggression, have shown and continue to show their
fraternal love.
(…)
24/04/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from Good Friday sermon
These days, the tomb with the image of the Saviour's body cannot but remind us of
other tombs, over which here in St. Michael's Cathedral, and in all
corners of Ukraine with tears and mourning, we bow, offering prayers
for soldiers who gave their lives defending the homeland from Russian
aggression, escorting civilians killed by alien murderers to their
last earthly journey. Thousands of these graves, and how many more – without a grave, in
mass graves, in the yards of their own houses destroyed by Russian
shelling, under the rubble or in torture chambers… Above all of them
we shed our tears, for them the heart beats. But this Shroud, this tomb, this symbol of the Saviour's sacrificial
voluntary death, which we now bring to the midst of the temple for
worship, is a sign of our conviction that every death we mourn now is
only temporary.
Christ overcame death by His death, and all we mourn today have eternal
life through that victory. Neither the tombs nor the mass graves will hold them when the time of
resurrection comes – like the stone and the seal they did not hold in
the tomb of the risen Son of God.
Therefore, by mourning the Saviour before the Shroud, mourning thousands of
innocent victims, mourning our fallen heroes-defenders, we will
overcome sorrow and grief with hope for the approaching resurrection
and eternal life that Christ, who died on the cross and rose from the
grave, gives us.
22/4/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from Easter Message
Today, when we greet each other with the Lord's Passover, with
Easter, the enemy continues to shed the blood of the innocent on our earth.
Despite the sanctity of Holy Week and the Resurrection of Christ for
all Christians, Russian troops not only did not stop their crimes, but
they, as if inspired by Satan himself, multiplied bloodshed.
Throughout Lent, Russia, which considers itself a stronghold of true
Christianity, has destroyed our cities and villages, killed innocent
people, and destroyed everything it could. Isn't this alone, aren't
all these poisonous, deadly fruits of the "Russian measure" sufficient
evidence that it is not God's blessing but the curse on the cause of
Russia, its rulers, its troops, its inhabitants poisoned by lies?
For us, for all those who suffer innocently from the empire of evil even
today, on the day of Easter, the resurrection of Christ is a joyful
reminder of God's imminent victory over sin and lawlessness, of the
victory of good and truth. And for the enemies who broke into our
Ukrainian home, for the murderers and murderers who not only did not
stop the bloodshed, but only increased it, even in these holy days,
Christ's resurrection is a reminder of just retribution and merciless
punishment for all the unmerciful.
When the Saviour was crucified and buried in the tomb, the hearts of
the faithful were filled with suffering and pain, but the resurrection
of Christ turned weeping into joy, drove away sorrow, and strengthened
hope. So it was in ancient times, so it is today – by celebrating the
Passover of Christ, glorifying the risen Lord, we receive spiritual
strengthening in the midst of the sufferings and horrors of war with
confidence in the victory of truth and goodness, in the victory of
eternal life over hell.
On this day of glorification of the great, eternal victory with special
feelings, we send Easter greetings our courageous warriors-defenders,
prayerfully wishing them blessings from the Risen Christ, victory in the
fight against enemies, God's help in service and gracious protection. We
ask the Lord for protection and protection for all civilians suffering
from Russian shelling. We pray for all the wounded in the war who are
suffering in body and soul, and we ask the Lord to heal them.
May God's blessing be upon those who sacrificially and lovingly serve
their neighbours, who help the needy, care for the exiles, who speak out
against untruth and in various ways, but do one thing: fight darkness
and evil.
On this holy day, heartfelt congratulations and wishes of indomitable
spirit, state wisdom and strengthening of strength in work for Ukraine -
for our President, Government and parliamentarians, for community
leaders, for all those who with dignity bear their responsibilities to
the Ukrainian people in this time of challenges and tests.
In our celebration, we remember in prayer our enslaved brothers and sisters, those who
now live under the rule of the occupiers, and those who are in the
chains of captivity or unjust imprisonment. May the Lord help you in
this difficult time and bring the day of your deliverance and freedom
closer.
With the Resurrection of Christ, I cordially greet all Orthodox Christians of Ukraine – the fullness
of the local Ukrainian Orthodox Church – and those who are temporarily
out of communion with it. Let the war, the main cause of which was the
poisonous idea of the "Russian measure", urge those who still
hesitate to reject the Moscow spiritual yoke, follow the Thomos and
the canonical order, and unite around the Kyivan throne in a single
local Orthodox Church.
Congratulations on Easter to all who believe in the risen Christ, and
all the world’s Ukrainians!
Despite the pain and suffering, destruction and sorrow that the war has
brought to our home, nothing can take away the common joy that the
Resurrection of Christ brings us today in the darkness of night and at
the dawn of a new day in the new Ukraine. From heart to heart we share this joy, multiply it, announcing the
great victory over sin, evil and death, because truly
Christ is risen!
22/4/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of sermon on Palm Sunday
Dear brothers and sisters!
Our time, when we live among the sufferings and dangers brought to the Ukrainian
land by enemies from the north, is a special opportunity to feel the importance of the truth. After
all, the war that Russia has imposed on us and the whole world did not
begin with the use of weapons, not with missiles and bombs – it began
with deception, untruth, lies. For years, decades, this delusion
sounded, the untruth about the past and present spread. Some
multiplied and spread this delusion, others either agreed with it or
stood aside, believing that it did not concern them.
You know, dear brothers and sisters, that our Church, as the Local Church of the Ukrainian people, has for
years and decades witnessed the truth about the evil intentions behind
the ideology of the "Russian measure." From our own past and from the
experience of the present, we knew very well that behind the veils of
beautiful words, great services, and loud initiatives, Moscow hides
evil plans to restore the tyranny of a rotten and overthrown
empire.
That is why, despite opposition from all sides, we fought firmly and
uncompromisingly for the church independence of Ukraine. Because we have
seen and know well how Moscow has used and continues to use its
ecclesiastical influence as an instrument of spreading untruths, as a
way of spiritual enslavement.
She herself made the Church of her own people a servant, deceptively
blessing lies, enslavement, murder, and all the other evils of war
through the leader. But the evil empire did not stop there, because with
its delusion, like a web, it has for decades confused everyone it can
reach. Politicians and even entire states, religious figures,
intellectuals and artists, journalists and business people – everywhere
we can see those who have fallen into the web of Moscow's untruth.
How can we resist this? The Lord is setting an example for us: we must fight through the testimony of truth. Evil is called evil,
not an alternative point of view. War is war, not conflict. Rapists,
looters and murderers are criminals, and what they do is genocide of
the Ukrainian people, for which there should be responsibility without
statute of limitations.
Christ came to bear witness to the truth, not to reconcile truth with
untruth. He commanded us to love our enemies – but He did not command us to
love the evil they do, or to close our eyes and look away, by our
inaction giving evil the opportunity to spread.
And of those who see the mission of Christians only in correcting the
consequences of evil, without confronting its true causes, the Saviour
said well: “I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot; oh, if you
were cold or hot! But because you are warm and not hot or cold, I will
cast you out of my mouth” (Rev. 3: 15-16).
Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, both the present remembrance of
the Lord's entry into Jerusalem and all the trials brought to our home
by the war motivate us to know the truth, to follow the truth, to
witness the truth, to be hot and not warm or even warmer. spiritually
cold. For otherwise darkness will envelop us, untruth will catch us in
its net, evil will poison the soul. But knowing all these tricks, we
will courageously fight temptations – and as Christ overcame evil and
death, so we will be victorious with His help.
17/04/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of prayers offered during visit to Makarov
We have just offered our prayers to God for victory in this terrible
war. We believe that the Lord supports and helps us. And during this
time, we felt His mercy, despite the fact that we experienced many
sorrows. But we pray that He will give us the strength to continue to
fight and resist the enemy, we pray that the Lord will rest the souls of His resting servants in
the Kingdom of Heaven, those who gave their lives for the faith, for the
will of Ukraine.
It is difficult, of course, but there is consolation in God,
consolation in prayer, so we must continue to pray and become more
spiritually strong and move forward to complete victory in this terrible war on the part of Russia - the aggressor who is trying to
enslave us not only physically, but also spiritually, because the
Church stands in the way of spreading the ideas of the so-called
"Russian measure". But we will fight and become a stronger, united Ukrainian nation,
which will continue to rebuild its independent Ukrainian state on the principles of truth, justice,
democracy, freedom.
15/04/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of words to members of the territorial defence
Unprincipled evil has come to Ukraine – an insidious enemy who,
justifying himself by completely fictional and absurd reasons, is
committing terrible aggression. Russian invaders spare neither women nor
children, leaving only destruction and death. And it was to prevent them and stop this bloody evil that you joined
the ranks of defenders of the Motherland. So, I wish you courage,
strength and steadfastness, may the Lord bless and preserve each of you.
The whole world was convinced that Ukrainians had taken up arms to
protect their neighbours and their homes. So, our struggle is forced, legal and true. And the Lord sees this and
will certainly help us.
12/04/2022 (Source)
Sermon on fifth Sunday of Lent
Dear brothers and sisters!
Today I came to Chernihiv to share with you the joy of common prayer
and worship. After terrible weeks of siege by Russian troops, daily shelling and
bombing, you have returned to this ancient and glorious city and to
the entire Seversky Krai, if not to final peace – because an
embittered and insidious enemy remains close – then to freedom. Chernihiv paid the terrible price of hundreds of lives taken by
Russian murderers, the price of great destruction and suffering, for
preserving its freedom. But your victory, the victory of the defenders of Chernihiv and its
inhabitants, who bravely defended this princely and Cossack city,
saved many more lives, stopped the onslaught of the enemy horde in its
movement to the capital, broke the Kremlin's plan to quickly destroy
our statehood. The enemy was preparing both Chernihiv and Kyiv, and still prepares
for the whole Ukrainian people the fate of Mariupol, the fate of
Bucha, the fate of Yagidny and Novoselivka and other cities, towns and
villages of our Motherland, where he entered. Seeing the suffering,
destruction, brutal violence and spread of death that Russia brings to
every corner of Ukraine that can still reach, we understand even
better that only the fight against the aggressor, his expulsion from
our land can bring us a just peace.
As a sign that in this struggle with us, with the Ukrainian people, not
only the strength of weapons, not only the courage and sacrifice of our
heroe-defenders, not only the support of all people of good will, but
also the strength and mercy of God, we perceive the signs revealed at
this terrible time here in your city, in this temple. Through the
miraculous preservation of the icons of His Blessed Mother and the
saints, the Lord is a confirmation of what we always believe: He is with us in this struggle, because we fight for truth and
goodness against demonic resentment and tyranny. And if the Lord is
with us, then who can resist Him? Therefore, we believe that our people will overcome all current
challenges and Ukraine will achieve victory.
For this we offer our prayers, for this we fight and work. And may God
bless us all with success!
10/04/2022 (Source)
Sermon on the Feast of the Annunciation
Yesterday I was where hell seems to have opened its doors. Bucha,
Irpin, Gostomel – the suburbs of our Golden-Domed Kyiv, which for many
generations were synonymous with natural beauty and comfort, a place of
rest, a place of comfortable life – have now become a place of horror, full of ruin, pain and signs of
death.
In the midst of all this, the strength of this spiritual struggle is
felt with particular sharpness. Because what you see around you is not only the fruit of the anger of the
Russian barbarians, the dark hordes that came to our peaceful land to
sow destruction and death. What the Russian invaders of Bucha, Gostomel, Borodyanka turned them
into, what the until recently prosperous Mariupol and peaceful
Volnovakha, majestic Kharkiv, ancient Chernihiv, dozens of cities and
hundreds of villages of our Ukraine have been turned and continue to be
transformed into – all these devastation and ruins and all shed torn
lives are a manifestation of demonic resentment.
Our people are not only fighting with the Russian army today for their
will, for their freedom, for their future. This war is part of a greater
struggle – we are fighting demonic evil, the darkness of slavery and
death. And our realization that at the moment of the Annunciation He came
into the world, the One who became the conqueror of the devil, Who
Himself overcame death and gives all who believe in Him the power to
overcome and overcome evil and the head of evil – this realization gives
us the ability to celebrate today.
After all, we know that no matter how powerfully evil manifests itself, it will
surely be defeated by the power of truth and love! Life will defeat
death. Even the dead will be resurrected, because the Lord will
resurrect them, giving them eternal life. Ruin, suffering and pain – although severe and terrible, are
temporary. And the victory that the Son of God gives us when we believe
in Him and follow Him is an eternal victory, it is an infinite life, it
is a joy that no one and nothing can take away.
This is the Good News, the Gospel, which is proclaimed by the very
incarnation, the coming into the world of the God of the Word – this is
the message of victory over evil. And this message gives us the strength
to continue to fight, live, create, resist evil. It gives us strength by
the light of hope, love, good deeds – to drive away the darkness that
the devil and his servants, the invisible and visible servants, bring
into this world.
The Annunciation is only the beginning of salvation. And the liberation
of Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Sumy regions is only the beginning of Ukraine's
victory.
The Son of God, incarnated by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, has
passed his way of sacrificial service – and our people still have a way of struggle and trials ahead of them.
That is why we are now praying with special compassion for the places
where this struggle is going on and for those who are fighting evil.
We pray for Mariupol – the city of the Virgin Mary, for its
inhabitants, living and dead, for its courageous defenders, and we wish
them all mercy from God and everything that each of them needs. We ask the Lord to protect and bless the victory of our defenders,
courageous Ukrainian soldiers, so that they can bring peace to Donbas,
Kharkiv and Kherson regions and to all corners of our Motherland as
soon as possible. And we, trusting in God, believe that as the Savior walked the path
of suffering but won, so we, the Ukrainian people, will win. Because our struggle is for truth, freedom, for good, against
tyranny, against delusion and evil. And where there is truth, there is
God and victory.
And may the realization of these truths inspire us in these dark times
to overcome pain, fear, despair and defeat the devil and all his
wiles.
Amen.
07/04/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of speech to representatives of parishes in Kyiv
Today, Ukraine is defending itself on all fronts from Russian aggression.
Therefore, it is necessary to break all the shackles, including the
spiritual ones, which are connected with the aggressor. Almost every day, communities decide to join the local Ukrainian
Orthodox Church. This process is inevitable. We have an indisputable
canonical right to have our own autocephalous Church in our independent
state. And when Ukrainians continue to belong to the Moscow Patriarchate
this is an anomaly, both according to the canons and the regulations of
Tomos, to the structure, whose bless them to kill.
04/04/2022 (Source)
Sermon on the fourth Sunday of Lent
(…)
our reflections could be completed, if not for the special
circumstances of the time that motivate us to continue. Apparently, the
vast majority of you have already heard and know about yesterday's
announcement, which is undoubtedly joyful for us: thanks to the courageous defenders of Ukraine and with God's help,
the whole Kyiv region was cleansed of the enemy, Russian aggressors
were expelled from it. At the same time, yesterday brought us terrible
news that we are not yet able to fully comprehend – in the liberated
towns and villages of northern Kyiv, Irpen, Bucha, Gostomel and other,
until recently flourishing and cozy corners of our region, were found
the bodies of many victims of Russian violence. The killed civilians
lie near their homes and in mass graves. People with tied hands. Men,
women, children. Those who tried to escape and who remained in their
homes. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of innocent people were tortured
in the weeks of Russian occupation. No military necessity could
motivate this, as the civilians did not pose a threat to the
occupiers.
Mass killings of civilians are a sign of genocide. The Russians did not
come to release the Ukrainians. Everything that can be seen now in Kyiv region, Mariupol, cities and
villages of Chernihiv region, Sumy region, Kharkiv region, Donbass,
southern Ukraine, testifies: the Russian tyrant, people who support him and their army came to our
land to "liberate" Ukraine from Ukrainians. They continue the black,
diabolical work of Tsar Peter's troops, which cut and burned Baturyn.
They are doing the same thing as the Russian-Bolshevik gangs that shed
rivers of blood during the so-called "red terror." They are the
successors of Stalin's crimes, the perpetrators of repression and the
Holodomor genocide, which were planned in the same blood-red Kremlin
to destroy the Ukrainian people.
Therefore, on behalf of millions of our faithful, on behalf of our
suffering people, on behalf of the raped, tortured, shot by Russian
invaders, whose blood cries out to Heaven, we raise our voices again and
again, calling on the international community to do everything
immediately to stop and to punish the tyrant and the state that became
in his hands an instrument of genocide of the Ukrainian people. You
have the power, you have the weapons, you have the moral duty to do
so, to help the Ukrainian people defend themselves – and to protect
you! Protect humanity itself!
In conclusion, I would like to address once again those who,
unfortunately, have not yet understood the truth or do not want to
understand it: the ideology of the "Russian measure" is the same as the ideology of
Nazism. It justifies violence, murder, war and genocide, and must
therefore be rejected and condemned in the same way as condemned
Nazism, its ideologues and its crimes. The co-creators and leaders of
this criminal ideology are the head of the Moscow Patriarchate Kirill
Gundyaev and his associates. Together with his subordinates, he not
only kindled this fire in every possible way, but also openly blessed
the executioners and murderers with false lips on behalf of God and
the Church for their dirty work.
To condemn these crimes, to condemn the violation of human and divine
laws is not just a right, but a moral duty of every person, and
especially of Orthodox Christians. After all, this is not about
discussing the intricacies of canon law, theological controversy or
historical discussions. It is about good and evil as such and about
everyone's own choice: are you with God or with the devil? Kirill Gundyaev has already made
his choice in favor of the affairs of the antichrist. I urge those who
still have him as their shepherd – open your eyes, look at the
poisonous fruits of his teachings, stay away from the lawless, do not
be his accomplices!
Yesterday we prayed for the peace of all who have died, and especially
for the peace of the souls of our fallen defenders and civilians killed
by the Russians. Today, remembering the horrific testimonies of crimes
in Mariupol, Bucha, Irpen and other until recently peaceful parts of
Ukraine, we again ask for the dead Kingdom of Heaven and blessed repose
in the homes of the righteous. Amen.
3/04/2022 (Source)
Sermon on third Sunday of Lent
All these reflections, all these meanings and images that the Church
gives us every year in the middle of the fasting path – because next
week we will have the middle of Lent and time is running fast! – All
this resonates in our hearts with special force now that the war is
going on.
Have we, as a state and a people, done something against Russia that
deserves the cruelty and murder we suffer from the troops of the
neighbouring people? We did not do anything like that, we did not have
any evil plans against our neighbours, we just wanted to live in our
own house as free people. Do our heroic warriors, who are now giving
their lives for Ukraine and its better future, deserve to die? Did the
civilians of Mariupol, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Bucha and Gostomel, Sumy
and Volnovakha, and tens and hundreds of other towns and villages in
Ukraine, who are now being tortured and killed by Russian aggressors,
sowing destruction and death, do something evil and worthy of
punishment against Moscow? They didn't do anything like that! But they
are suffering. They suffer as the martyrs, persecuted by pagans and
atheists, suffered. Suffering like the Saviour on the cross is
unjust.
Without faith in God, without faith in eternal life, in the victory of
good over evil, such suffering, such injustice is difficult and
impossible to survive without breaking. But our faith in Christ
crucified and risen gives us, gives the Ukrainian people the strength to
overcome these sufferings. We took our cross, we took the common cross
of Ukraine –and we carry it to the Calvary of Suffering to defeat evil
and achieve the Resurrection.
Therefore, our heroes do not die, but go to eternity with glory! Therefore, the
shed blood of the innocent is not in vain, but like the blood of the
martyrs, it gives eternal crowns to those who have not betrayed love
of neighbour. And on the heads of the tormentors this blood gathers, according to
the figurative expression of the Scriptures, like burning coals,
overflowing the cup of the Lord's wrath, which will be poured out on the
wicked.
Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, although the heavy cross has fallen on us, we must bear it with
dignity, follow Christ – and then we will achieve victory. Spiritual victories and victories over the evil brought to our home by the Russian
aggressor. Victory, the proof of which is that the crucified Christ is
risen. We believe that by the power of God's truth and mercy, by the power
of love, sacrifice and faith of our people, Ukraine, which is still
wounded, tortured and crucified by its enemies, will be
resurrected.
28/3/2022 (Source)
Statement on the 1 month anniversary of the war
Our successful resistance to open Russian aggression has been going on
for a month now. But in fact this is part of a struggle against Russian
imperial tyranny, which began more than a century ago. We are completing the work we started back then - we are creating a
Ukraine free from the shackles of Moscow. Ideological shackles,
political shackles, religious shackles.
(…)
During this month of open aggression, as well as all the previous eight
years of Russia's undeclared war against Ukraine, our Church has constantly emphasized that the truth is on the side of
our people and our state. And where there is truth, there is the Lord.
And where the Lord is, there is victory!
We believe in God, so we believe in victory, we bring it closer to
unity, mutual support, sacrifice, which is manifested in the defence of
the state with weapons in hand and in the service of others. We are also
approaching victory with fervent prayer, which flows every day, every
hour, in our temples, pouring from hundreds of thousands and millions of
hearts to God and the saints. This prayer is for the Ukrainian army and
our state, for those who suffer from the shelling of Russian murderers,
for refugees. Our prayer is for victory and a just peace for Ukraine.
Our prayer is for eternal peace in the Kingdom of Heaven for the souls
of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians whose lives were taken by Russian
assassins.
Our prayer is also for the unity of the Orthodox Church. I reiterate the call of the Holy Synod to the brothers and sisters
who are still subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate: let us unite
around Kyiv, let us unite in the Local Orthodox Church of Ukraine!
Don't wait until you are given permission or instruction from Moscow -
the missiles and bombs that the Russian military is now dropping on
you with the deceptive blessing of Russian Orthodox Church leader
Kirill are already the answer to the "Russian measure." This answer is
your shelled, burned, destroyed temples. This answer is Kirill's
silence on the crimes of the Russian army in Mariupol, Kharkiv,
Chernihiv, and dozens of other cities and villages in Ukraine.
Dozens of communities, a number of monasteries in different regions of
Ukraine have already voluntarily and consciously fulfilled their
canonical duty and followed the Thomos of autocephaly. Make your choice
in favour of the Church and Ukraine, in favour of the truth. The doors
of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and our hearts are open to all of
you!
Dear brothers and sisters! Morally, the Ukrainians have already won. And thanks to the
indomitable spirit and support of the free world, we will expel the
enemy from our land. I call on the courageous Ukrainian army, on the President and the
government, on the state and local authorities, on all the heroic
Ukrainian people, God's blessing!
God the Great, the One, save Ukraine for us!
24/3/2022 (Source)
Sermon on the Second Sunday of Lent
What is happening now in Ukraine is not just a war, an armed conflict
between the two countries, as outsiders sometimes think. Here is the
struggle of darkness against light, death – with life, slavery – against
freedom. Russia as a state became the personification of darkness, the
empire of evil, the tyranny of slavery. And the proof of this is the
destruction and murder that Russia has brought to us. Is there light in
these works? Are all the words with which Russia justifies its crimes
true? No.
And from this we can be convinced once again that the evil planned by
Moscow will not succeed. For the Russian state and the Russian army do not receive blessings,
but the curses and condemnations that the Lord promises for the
servants of the devil. Condemnation and curse, merciless punishment from the Almighty await
murderers and murderers, because they love evil and darkness.
We, dear brothers and sisters, must take care to preserve and multiply the light of truth, love, mercy and goodness.
Because that's the only way we can win this war. And I believe that
with God's blessing and help we will win.
20/03/2022 (Source)
Sermon on 19 March
Dear brothers and sisters!
In these dark and terrible times of war, when death is literally at
hand, when we do not know from the beginning whether a Russian bullet,
bomb, rocket will take our lives or the lives of our neighbours – we
will overcome this fear by understanding God's victory over death. For,
in fact, death should be terrible only for sinners, for criminals, for
murderers.
After all, for those who believe in God and live by keeping His
commandments, who sacrifice themselves for the sake of others, after
death comes blissful eternal peace. But for criminals and murderers, death opens the door to hell, to
condemnation and eternal torment.
So today we offer prayers for the peace of souls of all those who gave
their lives defending Ukraine from enemies, for the eternal and
blissful peace of all civilians who died in the Russian shelling. May our faith help us to overcome the natural grief of loss, and may
the fervent prayer for the dead be for their benefit and for our
benefit, soothing our pain and healing our emotional wounds.
May the Kingdom of Heaven, forgiveness of sins of free and unfree and
blissful eternal life be given by the Lord to all our fallen soldiers
who gave their lives for Ukraine and for their neighbours, all civilians
who died at the hands of foreigners and all those we remember in prayer
today!
19/03/2022 (Source)
Dear brothers and sisters! Ukrainian people!
Our successful resistance to Russian aggression has been going on for
three weeks now. Resistance with weapons in hand at the front and work in the rear.
Resistance through volunteer help and information work. Opposition on
the diplomatic front and through rallies and loyalty to Ukraine in the
temporarily occupied territories. Resistance to evil through faith and
prayer.
For our freedom and a dignified future, we pay a very high price every
day – the price of human lives. At the front for Ukraine, our newest heroe-defenders are sacrificing
themselves. In Mariupol, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, in the cities and villages of the north,
east, and south of Ukraine, civilians are subjected to barbaric attacks,
bombings, and shelling on a daily basis.
It is impossible to see and hear, without tears and heartache, what a
hell Russian troops have turned the lives of civilians in these besieged
or partially occupied cities.
Every day we pray for the salvation and protection of our brothers and sisters
at the hands of murderers. This prayer, the prayer for the Ukrainian army, for the state, for
victory, is constantly heard here, in the St. Michael's Golden-Domed
Monastery, the spiritual center of our Local Church. It is heard in
thousands of churches, in millions of hearts in Ukraine and around the
world. And we believe that with God's help, thanks to our joint efforts, every
hour of the fight against evil brings us closer to the much-desired
victory and peace.
Dear brothers and sisters!
Undoubtedly, it is difficult to bear the tension and fear of these dark
times, especially for those who really stand between life and death
every day. But in spite of everything, we must preserve our common
heritage, which has already surprised the world – our unity, mutual
support, mercy and sacrifice for each other.
From the beginning, the enemy hoped for divisions and disputes among
Ukrainians, hoping that we would not be able to stand together against
the aggressor. As in many other calculations, Russia was very wrong.
So let us keep in the future what gives us strength and despite all the
difficulties will lead to victory: faith in God, steadfastness of
spirit, unity in love for Ukraine and neighbors.
May the Lord bless us all on this path of struggle for truth and
freedom!
God the Great, the One, save Ukraine for us!
16/03/2022 (Source)
Sermon on Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy
(…)
From these words of Scripture, we can once again be convinced that
history - not only the past but also the present, the time in which we
live - has not only a human, visible dimension, but also a spiritual,
eternal meaning. The struggle against enemies, wars, armed resistance to the invasion
of foreigners existed both in ancient times and now, and is an
important struggle between good and evil, the struggle against sinful
darkness, against the power of the devil in this world.
In the words of the Scriptures we have heard, Moses, Gideon, and David
are mentioned - those who stood up against an enemy much stronger than
them. Against the enemy, which in human reason was difficult to defeat, because
he was numerous, strong, armed and powerful. All this the Old Testament
righteous opposed the power of faith in God - and with the help of the
Lord achieved victory over the enemy.
We must understand that in the war that our people are waging against
the invaders, we are resisting not only the Russian army. As in biblical times, now on our earth there is also a struggle between
good and evil, truth and untruth, love and murder.
We know well from the Scriptures that the signs of man's subordination
to the devil are untruth and murder. To those who have committed such sins, the Savior Himself says, “Your
father is the devil; and you want to fulfill the lusts of your father. He
has been a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth,
because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of himself: for he is a liar, and
the father of it” (John 8:44). Taking these biblical signs and applying them to the present day, we
can clearly see that the enemies who came to our land with the war are
quite consistent with them.
After all, the very reason for the attack on Ukraine is false, and the lie
justifies the continuation of this aggression. The consequence of such a great lie is cruelty, ruthlessness, murder,
which we see in the actions of the Russian occupiers. Under the slogans
of defending the faith - they destroy temples, kill priests and the
faithful. Under the guise of caring for human rights, they create
intolerable living conditions, destroy cities and villages, ruthlessly
torture people and kill them without guilt. Speaking of the desire for
peace, more and more people are fomenting war.
What can we oppose to the devil, how can we defeat his
servants? The word of Scripture that we hear today gives us the answer: we can overcome through faith in God, by opposing sin to virtue.
After all, faith in God gives us the same power that Moses directed
against Pharaoh and all his power, freeing his people from
slavery. Faith helps us to overcome the enemy, just as it helped Gideon with only
three hundred soldiers to defeat the Midianite army of many thousands.
Just as young David defeated the giant Goliath by virtue of his faith,
which freed the people of Israel from Philistine rule, so we, having faith, can drive the Russian aggressors out of our
land.
What virtues should we show especially in this dark time for
humanity? Love, mercy, sacrifice, steadfastness in truth - these are the virtues
that oppose the lies, greed, cruelty and selfishness of the servants of
the devil. And in the various manifestations of virtue we see the triumph of our
faith, which is embodied in concrete good deeds.
Every year, dear brothers and sisters, on this first Sunday of Lent, we
traditionally commemorate the historical events of the victory of the
true faith over heretical falsehood, especially honoring the ascetics,
preachers and defenders of the truth. Today, not forgetting the events of the past, we are more focused on the
present, on the struggle against sin and injustice that gave rise to and
nourishes the Russian war with Ukraine. That is why instead of the traditional prayer of the Triumph of Orthodoxy, today we
offer prayers with special feelings for the Ukrainian soldiers, for our
native state, its protection and victory over the invaders. We offer
prayers for all those who suffer from barbaric attacks by the enemy of
our cities and villages, who need salvation and care. We also pray for
the peace of the souls of our fallen defenders and civilians, that the
Lord may settle them in His Kingdom.
In these prayers and deeds of love, sacrifice and charity, the triumph
of true faith is for us right now. Faith in God, in whom, like Moses, Gideon, David, and other righteous
people, we place our hope, to whom we turn with tears and tenderness of
heart: protect all those who need Your care today. We believe that just as in ancient times You, Lord, strengthened your people in the
fight against oppressors, so today you will help us to protect Ukraine
from the invasion of foreigners.
13/03/2022 (Source. Edited for clarity)
Prayer for liberation from the invasion of foreigners
Lord God of strength, God of our salvation, You alone work
miracles. Look in mercy and compassion on the humility of Your servants and listen
to us humanely and have mercy on us: for our enemies have gathered against us to destroy us and destroy our
state and our sanctuary. Help us, God our Saviour, and deliver us for the glory of Your name,
and may the words spoken by Moses come true for us: be of good cheer,
stand fast and see salvation from the Lord, for the Lord is fighting
for us.
Yes, Lord God our Saviour, do not remember the iniquities and
iniquities of Your people and do not turn away from us with Your wrath,
but in mercy and mercy visit Your humble servants who belong to You:
stand to our aid and give to our army with Him to win over
you. Destroy the intentions and unjust courage of those who go to war
against us.
We pray to You, Lord of our peace and tranquillity, that as the smoke disappears, so may our enemies disappear, and as the
dust falls from the face of the wind, so may their evil thoughts
dissipate from our Ukrainian state. O Lord, keep quiet those who oppose Your commandments and
ordinances. Restore to them the memory of Your commandment: Blessed are the
peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. And for those who oppose this commandment of yours, send wrath, sorrow
and angels of fury, who will instil in them fear and memory of what they call themselves Christians.
May the Lord be Your will over us, and if Your Providence is such as to
lay down our lives of our soldiers in the battle for Faith and Ukraine,
forgive them their sins, and on the day of Your righteous Judgment give
them the crown of immortality. But we believe and pray to You, Most Gifted Lord, that You will protect,
calm down and warn and bring everyone to peace.
For You are the protection and the victory and the salvation of those
who hope in You, and we send glory to You, Father, and Son, and Holy
Spirit, now and always, and forever and ever. Amen!
Prayer for warriors and those who suffer from war
God the Great, God Almighty! We, Your
sinful children, come to You in humility of our hearts and bow our heads.
Father! Forgive our guilt and the guilt of our parents, grandparents and
great-grandparents. Accept today, we beseech You, our sincere prayer and
our gratitude for Your infinite mercy to us. Hear our prayers and accept
the prayers of our hearts. Bless our Motherland Ukraine, victory over the enemy, give her destiny
and happiness. Merciful Lord, grant Your mercy to all who turn to You with
supplication. We pray to You, God, for the Soldiers and Defenders, for our brothers
and sisters, for the widows, for the orphans, for the crippled and the
weak, for those who are in occupation and captivity, for those who are
in difficult circumstances, for refugees and for all those who need Your
mercy and help. Unite us all into one great family of Christ, that all the people of
Ukraine may glorify Your majestic name with our unity and victories
always, and now, and always, and forever and ever. Amen.
13/03/2022 (Source)
Dear brothers and sisters, Ukrainian people!
Our resistance to the enemy has been going on for fifteen
days. Thanks to the courage of our defenders, our unity and mutual support,
thanks to the help of our allies and people of good will around the
world, Ukraine has already morally defeated the aggressor.
Because only those who have a stony heart and have lost their conscience can
find excuses for Russia's barbaric bombing of Ukrainian towns and
villages, for the conscious war crimes committed by the aggressor.
Such a crime against humanity is all that the enemy is doing to
Mariupol now. Yesterday's bombing of the maternity hospital was an abyss of murder
and cynicism, which terrified the whole world. The deliberate destruction of the infrastructure of a large city,
bringing its population to unbearable conditions of survival – for all
this, Russian criminals will inevitably be punished by human law and the
law of God.
I ask the world community to do everything possible immediately to stop
the Russian terror against the inhabitants of Mariupol, Kharkiv,
Chernihiv, and other cities and villages of Ukraine! And I ask Christians and all people of good will to pray for those who
now especially need God's protection and help.
Dear brothers and sisters!
In the conditions of war, the question of how to combine God's
commandment "Thou shalt not kill" with the armed resistance of the enemy
is especially acute. An explanation can be found in the Epistle of the
Apostle Paul to the Romans: “If you do evil, fear [the one who bears the
sword], for it is not in vain that he bears the sword; he is a servant
of God, an avenger to punish those who do evil” (Rom. 13: 4).
Therefore, the use of weapons to protect our neighbours and the Motherland
from the enemy, to protect against the destruction and evil that the
aggressor brings to our common home, is not a violation of God's will,
but on the contrary – its implementation. Witnessing this truth, the Church sincerely and again sincerely blesses
the Ukrainian army and all our people for the resistance of the enemy and
prays for victory and peace for Ukraine!
In times of severe suffering of the people, every citizen of our state
must be aware of his personal responsibility for bringing peace.
And if Ukraine calls for its defence, responding to this call is not only
a civic but also a Christian duty. With weapons in hand at the front or work in the rear, decent
performance of official duties or volunteer assistance to the victims –
everyone must now make efforts to defend Ukraine. And all the faithful
must also pray – for the Ukrainian army, for the civilians who suffer
from the aggressor, for victory and peace for Ukraine! For prayer,
according to the Scriptures, is a powerful weapon against the devil and
his servants, and for the faithful – help and inspiration.
I call on our defenders, on the President and the state, on all the
Ukrainian people, God's blessing!
God the Great, the One, save Ukraine for us!
10/3/2022 (Source)
Dear Brothers and Sisters!
My appeal today is dedicated to the bleeding, painful and severe wound
on the body of our Nation – the peaceful population, which is suffering
due to the Russian aggression.
Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Irpin, Bucha, Hostomel and many other cities and
villages in the Kyiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Donets and Luhansk oblasts, in
Kherson, Zhytomyr, Mykolaiv and other regions of Ukraine, are under the
barbaric daily attack of the Russian armed forces. They are utilizing rocket and bomb attacks from the air as well as
conventional artillery.
The enemy is intentionally ruining the infrastructure, destroying
civilian dwellings and is killing and terrorizing the peaceful
population. Recent announcements and agreements have only today begun to allow
for so-called “green corridors” in certain cities to allow for the
movement of refugees and allow the delivery of products, medicine and
water.
Especially awful is the situation in Mariupol, which is blocked by
Russian forces.
I understand that there is no practical sense in addressing the Russian
occupiers, so I only wish to inform them, for all of the spilled blood,
for the suffering and tears, for the ruined lives, each of them will
personally have to answer before God and will receive as promised by
God, no mercy and eternal suffering for their crimes and unmerciful
actions.
So today, I am reaching out to our international circle of
friends: the Ukrainian people would like to understand, why is there a system
of international law, why do the United Nations, Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe exist, why are the words “Never
Again” reiterated every May 8th? Today the legal forms are being trampled, Russia is intentionally
mocking the mechanisms of the U.N. and OSCE, and all that we have read
and heard from the witnesses of World War II in Europe is occurring
again.
Therefore, I on behalf of the thousands of people living in Mariupol,
Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Hostomel, Irpin, Bucha and others, who are continue
to be murdered by Russian armed forces, am raising my voice and I call upon all nations and international institutions to: TAKE
ACTION! Take action so that Russia immediately stops the barbaric ruination of
Ukrainian cities, villages and their population.
With pain in my heart, I raise prayers for the casualties of Russian national terrorism, I ask that God, His Mother the Virgin Mary and all the saints,
provide them help, protection and defence. I pray for the souls of the innocent who have perished. I ask that all
people of good will join in these prayers.
Let Almighty God, as The Righteous Judge, look at the suffering
Ukrainian Nation and bring his judgement on the unmerciful
murderers! Let the anger of God and inescapable retribution that is promised to
these lost souls be upon them!
I wish the Ukrainian armed forces, The President our Nation and all of
its people, with the help of God, to reach victory over the aggressor
and true peace.
O Great God Eternal! For us Ukraine do protect!
08/03/2022 (Source)
Statement of the Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine
In course of Russian aggression against Ukraine the aggressor’s
shelling aim at, alongside with peaceful infrastructure and residential
buildings, the temples. Even the greatest spiritual sanctuary, the St
Sophia Cathedral, appears under the threat of attack. From the whole
Ukraine we receive the reports of hitting the churches, even those,
where the refugees found shelter.
As a Primate, I appeal to the Russian murderers: do not aggravate
your crimes with destroying the sanctuaries, especially as you
hypocritically justify yourself with “defending the Church”.
I appeal to the international community and especially to the religious
leaders: raise your voice in opposing this crime of Russia. With the
word and the deed do all the possible to stop the shelling and
bombardments.
I appeal especially to the leaders of the Moscow Patriarchate in
Ukraine: do you not see how the cities and towns in Northern, East,
and Southern Ukraine are being shelled, and the blasts kill, among
others, those who see you as their shepherds? Demand loudly from
Russia, from the Patriarch of Moscow to stop these barbaric shelling!
Do not hide behind general wishes of peace, but tell the Truth, as Our
Lord bequeathed.
I want once again to join my voice to millions of voices of the
Ukrainians, appealing to the free world: close the sky over Ukraine! Putin thinks anyway that he wages the war “with America and NATO”
on our soil. The Russian dictator already is at war with you, has already attacked
you. Thus, defending Ukraine, our people, children, our homes and
temples, you defend yourselves.
06/3/2022 (Source. Edited for clarity)
Excerpt of primate’s sermon on Forgiveness Sunday
If in recent years such reflections during Lent were spiritual and
allegorical for us, today we, the entire Ukrainian people, literally
suffer every hour in the terrible realities of war. These sufferings are
innocent. The Ukrainian people have not done any harm to Russia, which
has attacked and tortured, whipped and crucified us. Therefore, what we are suffering now is, from a spiritual point
of view, compassion for Christ, that is, innocent suffering.
These sufferings are difficult, but among them let us be comforted by
the realization that our innocent sufferings will inevitably be crowned with victory and
eternal glory, just as the sufferings of Christ were crowned with
them. The Saviour was shamed and crucified on the cross - but He rose from
the dead and defeated evil. We are suffering in the same way now, but with God's help we will
win. And Ukraine, which is now being crucified by the Russian
occupiers, will be resurrected.
Therefore, now, on the path of Lent, amid the grief and torment of the
war imposed on us by Russia, we must strengthen our resolve and be
inspired by the awareness of the inevitability of the victory of truth, goodness and light. We are now suffering innocently as our Saviour, but we will soon be
glorified as victors, as our Lord is risen and glorified.
However, until this blessed time comes, we must work spiritually and
physically. During the liturgy, I have already drawn your attention to
the peculiarities of the current fast, when sacrifice, mutual aid, and charity for others will indeed be a
greater feat than restrictions on food. So where possible, let us fast
according to tradition, and where it is impossible, let sacrificial
service to our neighbours be our fasting feat.
06/03/2022 (Source. Edited for clarity)
Dear brothers and sisters!
Our courageous resistance to Russian aggression has been going on for
ten days now. The enemy cannot understand why the Ukrainian people are
so resisting.
The answer is very simple: because we know our own history. Now our
suffering is measured in hours and days. Under the yoke of Kremlin
tyranny, the Ukrainian people have lived for decades at the cost of
millions tortured by hunger and repression. Therefore, we have no choice
but to fight. After all, this is a struggle for freedom, for the future,
for the opportunity for us and for new generations to live in our own
free state.
And now I want to address our Orthodox fellow believers from the Moscow
Patriarchate.
Dear bishops, fathers, brothers and sisters! You, like all of us,
suffer from the Russian invasion. Every Russian bomb, rocket, and shell on Ukrainian soil finally kills
the myths of "Holy Russia" and the "Triune People."
Many of you are already thinking about the fact that it is no longer
possible to be under the jurisdiction of the Russian patriarch. You have
always declared your devotion to the canons, and the canons stipulate that there should be a single Local Church in
Ukraine. We urge you to take the canonical path – the path of unity.
We understand that for many it will not be easy to follow this
path. Therefore, I suggest: those who are ready and willing to join the
Orthodox Church of Ukraine – our doors and our hearts are open to you!
Both individual communities and entire dioceses can do this, become part of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Those who are not ready for such a step can show their good
intentions to serve together with us, as is customary among the clergy
of different jurisdictions, such as in the diaspora. Who can not dare to do so – at least declare publicly a demand to your leadership not just to
stop mentioning the name of the Moscow Patriarch, but to have full
independence from Moscow with the earliest changes to the Statute.
"Russian Peace" has brought terrible grief to our land, so it is
necessary to break forever with this bloody chauvinistic ideology.
To the faithful of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and to our
supporters, I would like to renew my request, expressed earlier: do not
succumb to emotions, give our brothers the opportunity to walk the path
to unity. We need a truly conscious unity, because only then will it be
true and strong.
Today I offer my prayers for the Ukrainian soldiers, for the President
and the state, for all of you and I call on the Lord's blessing!
God the Great, the One, save Ukraine for us!
05/03/2022 (Source. Edited for clarity)
Dear brothers and sisters!
Ukraine's resistance to Russian aggression has been going on for a week
now, although every hour of this time seems like a long time to
many. Russia continues to act as a terrorist, attacking our cities,
shelling civilians, destroying public infrastructure.
Our struggle against the enemy is difficult, but we believe in our victory, because the truth and God's help are on
our side. Evidence of this assistance is the destruction of the enemy's plan to
achieve the goal in a few days of rapid progress – to destroy the
statehood of Ukraine.
That is why the aggressor is looking for new reserves for the invasion,
inclining Belarus to crime. I appeal to the Belarusians, our neighbours – you know what it's like
to live under a dictatorship, you protested against it. They want to
bring the same, even worse, dictatorship to us in Ukraine. Fight with
all your might to ensure that your country is not involved in vile and
criminal Russian aggression, and that your soldiers are sent to their
death for Putin's imperial fantasies.
As hierarch and Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, I would also like to warn every Ukrainian citizen who hopes to gain
power and positions in occupied Ukraine from bloody Russian hands:
eternal shame and curses will fall on you from people and from God as
those who fell on the traitor Judas. Hell will be prepared for you
together with Judas.
Dear brothers and sisters!
The suffering caused by the war, the tension from numerous
announcements about the air attack, concern for the future, for family
and friends – all this cannot help but be depressing. Fear and anxiety turn into the temptation to pour out emotions,
anger, condemnation of those around. Fight it! Do not let darkness
take over your heart.
The best way to do this is to pray. A sincere appeal to God calms the
soul, gives purification and strengthens resolve. Read the prayers from
the Prayer Book, read the book of Psalms from the Bible, pray in your
own words – the most important are the sincerity and feelings with which
you speak to God.
Today I had the joy of praying in St. Michael's Golden-Domed Cathedral
for our defenders, for the President and for all our people. Also at
noon, representatives of the entire religious community of Ukraine,
united in the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches, gathered for prayer in
St. Sophia.
Today I received a letter of condolences and support from the Primate
of the Church of Greece, Archbishop Jerome of Athens. He condemns the
Russian aggression against Ukraine and assures prayer and humanitarian
aid provided by the Greek Church. We are sincerely grateful to our
brothers for this.
In conclusion, I would like to mention once again our sanctuary, St.
Sophia, which, as you know, is also under threat of Russian attack. A
symbolic event took place today: a cross was erected on the
south-eastern dome of the cathedral, which had previously fallen during
the storm. I believe that the integrity of our state will be restored as
this cross. By joint efforts we will achieve, with God's help, victory
over the aggressor.
To fight for this, I call on the Lord's blessing and help on all of
you!
God the Great, the One, save Ukraine for us!
2/3/2022 (Source. Edited for clarity)
Dear brothers and sisters!
On the fourth day, our heroic people are defending themselves from
the attack of Russia, which throws its soldiers and weapons at our villages and cities, strikes us
with artillery. Ukraine withstands this frantic blow thanks to
its well-trained military, proper leadership, and the help of
allies, but the main reason is an indomitable, and therefore
invincible spirit.
The spirit of love for the Motherland, for freedom, for
neighbour. This spirit of love and truth, which are on our side, testify that
with God's help we will achieve victory. Every hour of resistance
to aggression brings us closer to this.
We pray and act – each in his own place, in the way
that is possible in specific circumstances. And every hour of our resistance
inspires more and more people around the world to support
Ukraine. Tens and hundreds of thousands gather in the squares
of the world's capitals and rallies in support. Our blue and
yellow flag of freedom has become a symbol of resistance to tyranny,
and the slogan "Glory to Ukraine!" does not require
translation.
Among the calls for an immediate end to Russia's aggression against
Ukraine is the voice of my brothers, the Primates of the Local Orthodox Churches. I
thank Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, Romanian Patriarch Daniel,
Georgian Patriarch Elijah, Archbishop Jerome of Athens and all my hierarchical
brothers, clergy, faithful, Christians and all people of good will
for praying and supporting the world.
Today, the Russian president ordered the increase of the level of
readiness of nuclear weapons. Is this not confirmation of a
fact that the head of our state Volodymyr Zelensky and many others
have said from the beginning: not only is Ukraine in danger, the
whole world is in danger. The spirit of the antichrist operates in the leader of Russia, the signs of which are revealed to us in Scriptures:
pride, devotion to evil, ruthlessness, false
religiosity. This was Hitler during World War II. This
is what Putin has become today.
Therefore, the task not only of our country, but of all countries of the world, of all people of good will, is to stop Putin now. Act, and act
immediately. I urge world leaders to do so!
Separately, I would like to address our faithful and fellow
citizens. Interfaith peace is one of the main achievements of independent
Ukraine. The feelings that are now evoked in the souls of Ukrainians by
the name "Moscow" are quite understandable. But I beg you – do not succumb to
anger, especially the provocations of the enemy. If you know specific true information about someone's help
to the aggressor, provide it to law enforcement or the
military. But I already see and know about many clergy and faithful of the Moscow Patriarchate that have reconsidered their attitude to the
leadership in Russia and stand by everyone in defense of
Ukraine.
Therefore, we will postpone all issues of achieving understanding and church
unity in Ukraine until victory. I am convinced that many hierarchs, priests, and laity of the
Moscow Patriarchate are already asking themselves about their future, which they do not associate with the discredited Patriarch
Kirill. I hope that in fraternal communication, as Orthodox
believers and children of one nation, we will find a solution to disputes. But now let's postpone them
all, because nothing is worth more today than the victory of Ukraine!
We pray to Almighty God and ask Him, the Blessed Virgin and
all the saints for help, protection, defense, strength, courage and most
importantly – victory and peace.
I call on the defenders of Ukraine and on all our people God's
blessing!
God the Great, the One, save Ukraine for us!
27/2/2022 (Source. Edited for clarity)
Despite the long, sincere, persistent efforts of Ukraine and the entire international community, there was an unprovoked, insidious, cynical attack by Russia and Belarus on Ukraine.
Our common task is to repel the enemy, to protect our homeland, our
future and the future of new generations from the tyranny that the
aggressor seeks to bring on his bayonets.
The truth is on our side. Therefore, the
enemy, with God's help and with the support of the entire civilized
world, will be defeated.
Our task now is to unite, to withstand the first blow, not to
panic. We believe in God's providence and the victory of truth. We trust our
Armed Forces, our defenders. We pray with all those who are at the
forefront of the fight against the aggressor.
It is extremely important not to succumb to possible internal
provocations, to maintain order, to carry out orders of the state and
military authorities of Ukraine.
Wherever possible, I ask the clergy and the faithful to regularly offer
their prayers for Ukraine, for victory, for our soldiers. I bless you to read the Akathist to the Intercession of the Blessed
Virgin Mary and other relevant prayer requests.
I appeal to the international community, to all the world's religious
leaders, to support Ukraine, to force Russia and Belarus to stop the aggression immediately. I ask all people of good will to do this.
Those who have started and are waging an aggressive war against Ukraine
should know that according to God's law and human laws, they are
murderers and criminals. And they will answer for their crime
before the Most High and before mankind, without escaping condemnation and
punishment.
Dear brothers and sisters!
As Primate, I am with you, performing my duties. As events unfold, I will keep you informed.
"Do not be afraid, stand still - and you will see the Lord's salvation
that He will create for you today […]; The Lord will fight for you, and
you will be calm ”(Exodus 14: 13-14).
Ukrainians are a peaceful people, but strong in spirit and
faith. We believe that the violence and weapons that are being unlawfully
directed against us today will turn into the wrath of God and the sword
against the aggressor. For all criminal intentions are known to God, as it is said: “Consider
plans, but they are destroyed; speak the word, but it will not come to
pass: for God is with us. (Isa. 8:10). Let the words of the Savior be
fulfilled in the instigators of war and invaders: "All they that take the
sword shall perish by the sword" (Matt. 26:52).
With prayer on our lips, with love for God, for Ukraine, for our
neighbours, we fight against evil - and we will see victory.
I invoke upon the Ukrainian state, on the soldiers who defend Ukraine,
and on all our people, God's blessing!
God the Great, the One, save Ukraine for us!
24-2-2024 (Source. Edited for clarity)
Appeal to the Head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill
Bishop!
For the fourth day, the unprovoked full-scale aggression of Russia, the
state whose Orthodox Church you lead, against Ukraine continues. As a
result of the war unleashed by the leadership of your country, millions of
people are suffering, hundreds of thousands of children, women, and the
elderly have been forced to seek a safer place, thus leaving their homes.
Every day, our fellow citizens are forced to shelter for hours during the
shelling of our cities by Russian troops. Soldiers and civilians are
dying.
Unfortunately, it has become clear from your previous public statements
that maintaining the goodwill of Putin and the leadership of the Russian
Federation is much more important to you than caring for the people in
Ukraine, some of whom considered you their shepherd before the war.
Therefore, it hardly makes sense to ask you to do something effective to
stop Russia’s aggression against Ukraine immediately.
However, I still remain hopeful that at least in relation to your own
fellow citizens, most of whom are Orthodox Christians, your flock, you
will find the spiritual strength to show humanity and care.
We are talking about more than three thousand dead Russian servicemen,
whose bodies are on the soil of Ukraine. The leadership of our country has already appealed to the International
Red Cross to facilitate the return of the bodies of the Russian military
to their homeland, so that relatives and friends can say goodbye to them
and give them burial. Unfortunately, no response has been received from
the Russian side so far.
Therefore, I appeal to you, as the head of the Russian Orthodox Church,
to please show mercy to your fellow citizens and flock. If you cannot
raise your voice against aggression, at least take the bodies of Russian
soldiers whose lives have become the price for the ideas of the “Russian
world” – yours and your president.
May the Lord give you spiritual strength at least for this, especially
today, on Sunday that commemorates the Last Judgment!
27/2/2022 (Source)
Speech to meeting of military chaplains
I congratulate you on the start of the meetings
of the military clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church!
First of all, I would like to thank those
pastors who, in the current time of national disaster caused by the military
aggression of the Russian Federation, are taking spiritual and pastoral care of
our faithful in the Armed Forces and other military formations of Ukraine.
Today, our Holy Church is going through extremely difficult trials, but clergymen
continue to carry the word of Christ to the places where blood is shed, where
tears and despair fill hearts, where Ukrainian soldiers courageously and
selflessly perform their sacrificial service - in the war zone. With prayer
and daily bread, our pastors help the destitute residents of the destroyed
settlements of Donbas, Kharkiv Region and southern Ukraine, embodying the
Gospel example of the Good Samaritan. Priests of our Church take care of
wounded soldiers in hospitals, providing, along with medicine for the health of
the body, medicine for the salvation of the soul. Sincere thanks to all fathers
who show an example of true shepherding, tirelessly serve and work for victory
and longed-for peace.
It is known that believers have always
treated the defenders of the Motherland with special respect and love, and the
connection between the Church and the military has always been inseparable.
Unfortunately, we have to admit that the priests of the Ukrainian Orthodox
Church, who have the obedience of spiritual and pastoral care of military
personnel and law enforcement officers, today are extremely limited in their
ability to properly perform their pastoral duties both in the rear and at the
front. Obviously, this situation will not change in the near future, so we must
focus our attention on the continuation and strengthening of humanitarian
activities, the care of families of military personnel, work with veterans and
military personnel who suffered as a result of various hostilities.
The unique experience gained by chaplains in
modern conditions requires a new analysis and understanding. After all, due
to unkind rhetoric in the mass media and illegal actions of certain authorities
against the clergy and faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, you and all
those clergymen who continue to take care of the military flock have to bear
the cross of their service under conditions of moral and legal pressure.
I call on you, venerable fathers, to continue
to obey faithfully and courageously, with sincere faith and hope for God's
mercy and help. That your military spiritual children, thanks to your service,
will cultivate in themselves the virtues of loyalty to God, the Orthodox faith,
the Motherland and the Ukrainian people, as well as Christian humility,
patience and love for one's neighbour.
I sincerely wish all participants of the
meeting God's help and protection of the Holy Mother of God in their further
efforts and exploits. I hope that the results of the meetings will be fruitful
and useful for everyone who is related to the spiritual and pastoral mission of
the Orthodox Church in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other military
formations. I invoke God's blessing on all of you!
08/02/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
The Lord brought peace to the earth, but
unfortunately, people often reject this peace and seek the path of war. And we
pray that those who attack, who fight against us, that they come to their
senses, that they do not do this. (…) We pray that the Lord will stop the war, that peace will come, the
blessed peace that God brought to earth in His Christmas, that God's favor will
be upon each of us, that each person will see his star, the wonderful star that
leads man to Christ.
22/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from sermon on the feast of Epiphany
Today is a difficult time – people are
shooting, killing each other. This is certainly our shame. This is not something that a
person can boast about. If a person does not know how to live in peace, but
looks for an enemy and kills him, then this person is not in the state in which
the Lord wants to see him. God created people so that we can live in peace with
God and each other, if we raise the sword and kill each other, it is a shame
for us. The Lord wants those people who raise the sword to calm down, repent
and stop doing so.
Even if I conquered the whole earth with a
sword, when I leave this world for the next life, I cannot take anything with
me – neither big nor small. As a person came into the world with nothing, so he
leaves this world with nothing. A person goes to God only with his deeds – good
or bad – this is what a person takes with him into eternity.
That's why we should try to live in peace. And
we must love God and love each other in God. There is no other way to love your
neighbor than through God. God is love, and the person who lives in God, with
God, becomes capable of sacrificially loving his neighbor,
19/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
I appeal to the leadership of the Russian
Federation and ask: for Christ's sake, stop shooting at our people. God gave us life, it is not
necessary to take it from us, because the one who takes someone else's life,
will be subjected to the same measure by God – he will lose his own life. You
will have to answer to God for even one drop of blood. Therefore, for Christ's
sake, stop shooting at our people, killing them! God did not create us to
kill each other, but to live peacefully with each other. We are children of the
same Father and God wants us to bear with each other, to help each other, so
that we do not bomb, but support each other. I think that our voice will be
heard, I pray and ask God for this.
15/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
During this year shots rang out, people died,
Russia's war against Ukraine continued.
Many of us suffered in this war literally – many
of our men gave their lives for their land and for their people, many were
wounded.
The city of Dnipro was particularly affected,
where a rocket destroyed a residential building. As a result, people died, and
even more were injured, who were left without a home, without a roof over their
heads. I express my condolences to those families whose relatives died. May the
Lord rest those who died in the homes of the righteous, and may the Lord heal
those who remained alive and restore their inner peace.
God is with us, and the power of God preserves
us. We believe that we will not be broken by those who want to break us, and we
will live and glorify God, we will enjoy peace, joy and a peaceful life.
15/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
I want, dear brothers and sisters, to wish you
all strength of spirit, because we are going through difficult times and
trials... There is an ongoing foreign war. And someone is trying to
make a religious war within the state to weaken the state, to weaken us, to
make us vulnerable. That Kingdom, which is divided within itself, cannot
stand—these are the words of God. If someone doesn't like something, it's not a
reason to fight inside the country against each other
15/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
May God's peace and God's favor, which was sung
on the Bethlehem night, rest in our hearts, in our Ukrainian land and
throughout the world. Let the guns stop firing and let peace prevail. May
the Lord heal those injured in the war, and rest the dead. May the Star of
Bethlehem shine above each of us and show us the way that leads to Christ
14/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpts from the Conclusions of the Holy Synod
of 20 December 2022
It was noted that the year 2022 has become one
of the most difficult in the recent history of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. On
February 24, 2022, the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against
Ukraine began, which brought death and destruction to Ukrainian land.
Regrettably, during the armed conflict there were casualties among the clergy
and monastics of our Church, and many churches and monasteries of the Ukrainian
Orthodox Church were destroyed.
The war made adjustments to the activities of
the Church, and therefore many of the plans could not be implemented. However,
even in the difficult circumstances that developed during the reporting year,
the Ukrainian Orthodox Church did not abandon its people, but was and always
remains together with its flock. Due to the possibilities, the activities of
the Synodal institutions of our Church continued.
(…)
Sharing the sorrows of its people, since the
first day of the war, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has provided comprehensive
assistance to all people, regardless of their religion. Ukrainian parishes abroad and
Local Orthodox Churches, which have already sent hundreds of tons of
humanitarian aid, food products, and individual aid to the dioceses of our
Church, also joined the aid.
One of the priorities of our Church in the past
year was the provision of assistance to civilians affected by the
war. During the ten months of the war, more than 50,000
displaced persons received housing and evacuation assistance in our
dioceses. Almost
3.5 thousand tons of humanitarian aid was given to victims of
military operations and more than 25 million hryvnias of financial
aid was allocated. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church provided assistance for
the purchase of medical drugs in the amount of over 1.5 million hryvnias. More
than 550,000 portions of lunches were distributed to needy and
low-income people.
More than 180 tons of humanitarian
aid were handed over to the Armed Forces of Ukraine and Territorial
Defense soldiers. In addition, medical aid in the amount of almost 4
million hryvnias was provided to wounded servicemen. Bishops, clergy,
students of theological schools and lay people regularly donate blood for the
wounded and injured.
80 cars were purchased and handed over to
our defenders.
The total amount of aid for the Armed Forces is
almost 30 million hryvnias.
Of course, this is far from all the help that
the Ukrainian Orthodox Church provides every day to our defenders and injured
civilians.
However, the real help of the Ukrainian
Orthodox Church in overcoming the war, unfortunately, remains almost invisible
in society. On the contrary, the raiding of churches of the Ukrainian
Orthodox Church intensified, including with the help of local self-government
bodies, artificially increased enmity towards the Ukrainian Orthodox
Church. Representatives of other denominations, individual deputies and
civil servants, abusing their power and official position, make illegal and
unfounded accusations against our Church. In diocesan administrations,
churches and monasteries of our Church, as well as bishops and clerics,
searches are conducted, as a result of which some postcards appear that have
never been there, or symbols that can discredit the Ukrainian Orthodox
Church. For the first time in the history of our state,
"personal" sanctions were illegally and unjustifiably applied against
clergymen. As a result, the activities of entire dioceses are
blocked. In fact, these restrictions violate not so much the personal
rights of clergymen, but the rights of almost a thousand religious
communities. All this and other things serve as a basis for political
slogans and even legislative initiatives to ban the activities of the Ukrainian
Orthodox Church.
20/12/2022 (Source)
Open appeal to President Zelenskyi
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church has more than a
thousand years of history. Since the baptism of Equal-to-the-Apostles
Prince Volodymyr, it was our Church that stood at the origins of Ukrainian
statehood. The rise of creative thought, science and high art was
connected with its beneficial educational and educational influence. In
the most critical periods of our nation's existence, the Holy Church was the
force that preserved its identity and gave us the strength to get up from our
knees and move on. We see numerous examples of this from the pages of
history during the Mongol invasion, the Lithuanian-Polish era, the Cossacks,
the Soviet period and until today.
With the beginning of the invasion of the
Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church
was the first among other religious organizations to strongly condemn this
military aggression and expressed its unconditional support for the territorial
integrity of our Motherland. From the very beginning of hostilities, our
believers have been defending their country, sacrificing their lives for the
liberation of their native land. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church constantly
offers prayers and provides material assistance to military personnel, forced
migrants and other categories of population affected by the war.
Against this background, the numerous slanders,
insults and baseless accusations that are being leveled at the Ukrainian
Orthodox Church are a great regret. They not only form negative public
opinion, but also inflame religious enmity, which sets some citizens of Ukraine
against others, divides our people, who so need unity in the conditions of
war. The flurry of filth that spills over the Church generates anger and
intolerance towards each other in Ukrainian society, which, in turn, leads to
spiritual decline and loss of moral values. This leads to the beating of
believers and priests, the seizure and destruction of temples, and the banning
of the Church itself. In addition, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is still
deliberately called "Russian" and "Moscow", and believers
who are citizens of Ukraine are unjustifiably considered enemies just because
they belong to this Church.
Currently, draft laws are being prepared for
adoption in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine: register. No. 7403 dated
05/24/2022, author I.R. Sovsun; register. No. 8012 dated September 8,
2022, author A.V. Bohdanets; register. No. 8221 dated November 23,
2022, author M.L. Knyazhytskyi. and other; register. No. 8262
dated 05.12.2022, author Konstankevich I.M. and other. The specified
draft laws do not comply with international law and the Constitution of
Ukraine, establish advantages and limitations, which violate the principle of
equality of religious organizations and are aimed at discrimination of
believing citizens of Ukraine and the liquidation of the Ukrainian Orthodox
Church.
Moreover, for the first time in the history of
our country, "personal" sanctions were illegally and unjustifiably
applied against clerics who are citizens of Ukraine. This is a gross
interference in the activities of religious organizations. As a result,
the activities of entire dioceses, which cover tens of thousands of believers
and provide large-scale social and humanitarian assistance to the military,
forced migrants and many other needy sections of the population, are
blocked. In fact, these restrictions violate not so much the personal
rights of clergymen, but the rights of almost a thousand religious communities.
The systematic violation of the right to
freedom of religion, the rhetoric of hatred and religious enmity against the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is cultivated with impunity in Ukrainian
society, leads to such negative manifestations in the mass media, as happened
on December 7, 2022. On this day, the video of the program "Bayraktar
New #104" produced by the studio "Kvartal 95" was released on
the television and YouTube channel called "Official Channel Chisto
News". For almost 14 minutes, the program contained blasphemy,
mockery and blasphemy against God and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, as well as
false and unreliable information, insults and insults to the religious feelings
of believers and inciting religious enmity.
However, the blasphemous words, which cannot be
repeated, became shocking. This is a cynical mockery of the Holy
Scriptures, the Triune God and the Lord Jesus Christ, for whom thousands of
people sacrificed themselves and were martyred.
Giving commandments to the prophet Moses on
Mount Sinai, the Lord emphasized that His holy name should not be used in vain,
because "the Lord your God will not leave unpunished the one who
uses His name in vain " (Deuteronomy 5:11; cf. . Exodus
20:7). Blasphemy against God and His name entailed serious consequences,
up to the death penalty: "Whoever slanders his God will bear his
sin; and the blasphemer of the Lord's name must die" (Lev.
24:15–16). "I am the Lord, your God, a jealous God who punishes
children for the sins of their parents to the third and fourth generation of
those who hate Me" (Ex. 20:5). However, the greatest harm is
experienced by a person not in this world. In the Gospel, the Lord says:
"If anyone speaks against the Holy Spirit, he will not be forgiven
either in this age or in the future” (Matthew 12:32).
In this regard, the clergy and laity of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church appealed to the management of the TV channel
"1+1" and the author's team of the studio "Kvartal 95" with
the demand to make a public apology for the program and remove it from the
information space, as well as to law enforcement agencies for proper
investigation of this shameful plot. We expect that the authors of the
script of the specified program, its presenters and actors will draw
appropriate conclusions and apologize to the Christian community of Ukraine.
Today our State needs God's help more than
ever. Public insult to God is unacceptable. We respect the freedom of
other citizens to practice their chosen religion or not to practice any
religion, but in this case we are talking about insulting the religious
feelings of believing citizens of Ukraine, many of whom are now sacrificing
themselves to protect its territorial integrity and sovereignty.
The current war is our joint struggle for
universal human values: freedom, dignity, human rights. And we believe
that Ukraine will emerge from the flames of war as a country in which the
constitutional rights of every citizen are respected. That is why there is
no place in our state for those means and technologies that offend and despise
the Church and cynically offend the religious feelings of millions of
believers. These are the methods that were used by the God-fighting
authorities during the times of Soviet totalitarianism. At that time, hundreds of
thousands of clergymen, monks and laymen, whom we honor today as martyrs and
heroes, were deprived of their human rights, exiled and killed. Today,
Ukraine is trying once and for all to overcome the totalitarian past for the
sake of the future. But real decommunization must take place in the sphere
of human consciousness. Overcoming the remnants of the communist system is
impossible, if we allow its methods to be used, especially in the legal,
public and information space. Under no circumstances should you wage war
against God, because this is the road to self-destruction.
Honorable Mr. President! In your
person, we see a guarantor of compliance with the Constitution of
Ukraine. In the 2019 elections, you showed yourself as a charismatic
personality, a person uncorrupted by the bureaucratic system. With this,
you earned the trust of the believers of our Church, who voted for you en
masse. You managed to consolidate the Ukrainian people in all regions of
Ukraine around the values of democracy, freedom and dignity. That is why
the whole world respects and supports you.
And today we respectfully appeal to you to
ensure the right to freedom of conscience and religion for the faithful of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church. To protect Ukrainian society from the rhetoric
of hatred and intolerance on religious grounds, which incites religious enmity
in the country. Unblock the activities of religious organizations that
have been sanctioned together with their archpastors. To prevent the
adoption of anti-constitutional laws against the Church that are under consideration
in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. We hope that you will be able to prevent
the artificial division of the Ukrainian people on religious grounds, which is
vitally necessary in the conditions of external aggression. Let the
spiritual values that we profess and defend really come to life, and their
implementation will be a real measure of our national maturity.
20/12/2022 (Source)
Statement
by the synod
The full-scale war of the Russian Federation
against Ukraine has been going on for more than 270 days. From the first day of the
invasion of Russian troops, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church condemned this war
and consistently advocates for the preservation of the sovereignty,
independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine. Our believers, with
God's help and the prayers of their fellow believers, courageously defend the
Motherland in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other military
formations. We rejoice in the victories of our military, watching how life is
restored in the liberated cities and villages. At the same time, with deep
pain, we continue to receive news about the death of our defenders and
civilians. Eternal memory to all victims of this terrible war!
Unfortunately, today some clergymen of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church are being accused of collaborative activities.
For our part, taking into account the various circumstances that arose as a
result of the military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, we
declare that these artificial accusations are unproven and groundless. Those
bishops and priests who remained in the occupied territory of Ukraine and
continue to exercise their pastoral ministry there are not collaborators. On
the contrary, many of them are real heroes of the Ukrainian people. In the
difficult circumstances that arose as a result of the war, they did not leave
their flock. Risking their reputation, the clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox
Church do everything possible to ensure that our Ukrainian people survive where
war destroys the chances for human life.
We are concerned that in many regions of
Ukraine, the illegal practice of re-registration of parishes and forceful
seizure of churches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church continues. In our opinion,
it is a great shame that unconcealed raiding, which is often accompanied by
swearing and fights, takes place not only with the consent, but also at the
initiative of representatives of local authorities. It is a shame that some
civil servants allow themselves to make provocative statements openly directed
against our Church. We have already emphasized that such actions divide
society, and this is a particularly serious crime in the conditions of martial
law.
The fact that some monasteries and clergymen of
the Ukrainian Orthodox Church have recently been searched is also a source of
concern. Unfortunately, some have already faced serious charges. In this regard, we insist on the
objectivity of law enforcement officers' actions. The investigation must be
impartial and not accompanied by unsubstantiated accusations. Once again, we
respectfully urge you not to start an internal war, but to all unite in order
to survive and defeat the evil that is before us. Only our joint work without
internal strife will be able to stop the bloodshed.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church not only in
words, but also in deeds supports our defenders, provides shelter to forced
migrants, helps all those who were deprived of the most necessary things for
life during the war. We are deeply convinced that, by performing acts of
kindness and mercy, the clergy, monastics and lay people make a significant
contribution to ensuring that our Motherland endures in times of severe trials.
Almost every day, we receive a large number of requests from military personnel
who are parishioners of our Church regarding the possibility of performing
various sacraments at their place of stay, especially Confession and Holy
Communion. We hope that in the near future the prejudiced attitude towards the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church will be put an end to, our clergy will be included in
the quotas of the religious representation of military chaplains and will
receive admission wherever our believing soldiers are.
We pray that, according to the words of the
Supreme Apostle Peter, everyone will be "like-minded, merciful, brotherly,
merciful..." (1 Pet. 3:8-9), that the Lord will keep everyone healthy and
unharmed, and that peace will reign on our Ukrainian land!
23/11/2022 (Source)
These difficult days – days when the war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine continues, when people suffer and die, when our soldiers die, when the necessary means are destroyed for earthly life, power plants, heating plants break down (…) I know that you are with your people. The grief of the people is our grief. Thank you for your worthy service in these difficult conditions. (…) For humanitarian assistance provided to soldiers, displaced persons, refugees, and all victims who need it.
We pray for this war to stop, for people to
stop dying and for everything to be adjusted, for everything to fall into
place, and for peace to reign on our land. For this, we must pray and do what
we can do, and hope for God's mercy.”
23/11/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
Divine love differs from all other types of
love in its sacrifice. If I have spiritual love, then I sacrifice myself for
the benefit of my neighbour. If my neighbour has offended me or done something
else, and I do not take revenge on him, I forgive and love him as he is – this
is the essence of spiritual love.
If we had perfect spiritual love between
people, there would be no wars, because if I want to kill someone, I put myself
in his place and ask: “Would I want someone to kill me?” It is natural that
even the biggest criminal will say: "I don't want someone to kill
me." (…) Spiritual love always asks the question: "do I like what I
want to do to the other?" and in this way we always get the right answer:
"one must forgive both the thief and the criminal. Because I, being in his
place, would also like to be forgiven.
Each person has an idea about himself, about
his dignity, and if he is insulted, the questions arise: "for what?",
"what did I do to him?", "why is he doing this to me?". But
a person must find the courage to decide: "let him offend me, but I
forgive him, because God has forgiven us all." We have offended God in
reality, and we are offended notionally, because we are not completely
innocent. Maybe at this moment we are innocent, but maybe we committed another
sin earlier and for that the Lord allows us to suffer.
16/10/2022
(Source)
Excerpt
from a sermon
May
the Lord, through the prayers of the monks, bless our land with peace and help us live in such a way that
we are worthy of eternal salvation in Heaven in Christ Jesus our Lord.
12/10/2022
(Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
War,
murder and oppression of each other are incompatible with love. Love always
gives man true freedom, the freedom that God promised man. Only love frees a person from sin
and makes him free in the true sense of the word.
09/10/2022
(Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
We
pray today that Reverend Sergius asked God for peace to reign on our land, for
people to stop killing each other, because human life is the greatest gift and
no one has the right to take this gift away from a person, except for the One
who gave this a gift, and the gift of life is given to every person by God.
God
created us and settled us on this earth not so that we fight against each
other, that we offend each other, but so that we live in peace, harmony, that
we love God and love each other one.
May
the Lord bless our land with peace through the prayers of Saint Sergius, so
that people can return to normal life again, so that a mother can see her son
healthy and happy, so that a sister can see her brother, so that a wife can see
her husband, children can see their father, so that everyone lives in health
with God's blessing,
fulfilling the Divine commandments that lead a person to eternal salvation in
heaven in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
08/10/2022
(Source)
Statement
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church has repeatedly
and clearly emphasized its complete and unquestionable support for the
sovereignty and integrity of the Ukrainian state.
The actions of individual representatives of
the clergy, which do not correspond to the official position of the Church, are
a manifestation of their personal political choice, for which they bear full
responsibility as citizens of Ukraine.
The Church calls on its flock to help the
Motherland to maintain peace in all its territories by prayer and good deeds,
strongly condemning the aggression of the Russian army towards the Ukrainian
people.
30/09/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
We pray that the Lord will fill the hearts of
all people with love, and especially those who today kill our people, destroy
our cities, villages, so that they remember that God did not put us on earth to
kill each other, to take something from each other that we like, and in order
for us to live in peace, in love for God and for each other.
25/09/2022 (Source)
Excerpt
of sermon
May
the prayers of Saint Theodosius and all the Pechersk fathers, whose memory we
celebrate today, help us overcome all the trials in this earthly life, so that
the Lord may send peace to our land, so that people will come to their senses
and stop killing each other, may the Lord send us all that is needed to overcome all the trials,
all the temptations that a person encounters in his earthly life, so that we
may reach a blessed life in Heaven together with the saints, glorifying the
Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
10/09/2022
(Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
Today, dear brothers and sisters, we ask the
Mother of God in front of Her Pochaiv Icon to protect our land from war, from
the fact that blood is spilled on our land, so that She will protect us from
every enemy, so that no one encroaches on our people, on our land, so that we
can live in spiritual freedom, glorifying God with our lives, with our mouths,
with our souls, with our minds, so that the blessing of God is upon us and that
it helps us, strengthens us on the way of our earthly journey.
05/08/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from sermon on the anniversary of the
baptism of Ukraine
Many tens of thousands of people came to
Christ. From wicked people they became pious, from corruptible people they became
bright, from cruel people they became good.
(…)
Saint Volodymyr himself before Baptism was
quite a tough person, warlike, licentious, as it was established in paganism,
but when he was baptized, he changed – he became completely good, kind, bright,
and they began to call him "krasne sonechko" (beautiful sun).
(…)
We, dear brothers and sisters, are also
celebrating a state holiday today – Statehood Day, because Prince Volodymyr
founded such a great state, which was called Kyivan Rus. Today, Russia's
successor is Ukraine.
(…)
We pray to the holy Prince Volodymyr to bless
our land, to bless our people, to stop the bloodshed that is on our land with
his prayers.
28/07/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from Sunday Sermon
Peaceful people who are generally not guilty of anything die - this is
the greatest sorrow that oppresses not only me, but all of you today. We
pray that the Lord will warn those who attack, that the Lord will warn
them, because war is not what God blesses. My greatest wish is to end
the bloody war.
25/06/2022 (Source)
Resolutions of the Council held on May 27
The Council of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (hereinafter - the
Council), held on May 27, 2022 in Kyiv, considered issues of church life that
arose as a result of the military aggression of the Russian Federation
against Ukraine. Based on the results of the work, the Council approved the
following:
1 - The Council condemns war as a violation of God's commandment
"Thou shalt not kill!" (Exodus 20:13) and expresses condolences to all those who
suffered in the war.
2 - The Council appeals to the authorities of Ukraine and the authorities of the
Russian Federation to continue the negotiation process and search for a strong and sensible word that could stop the
bloodshed.
3 - We disagree with the position of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and
All Russia on the war in Ukraine.
4 - The Council adopted appropriate amendments to the Statute on the
Administration of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which testify to the
full independence and autonomy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
5 - The Council approves the resolutions of the Councils of Bishops of
the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the decisions of the Holy Synods of
the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which met after the last Council of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church (July 8, 2011). The Council approves the
activities of the Department of Affairs and Synodal Institutions of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
6 - The Council was considering the restoration of peace-making in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
7 - During the period of martial law, when the relations between the
dioceses and the ecclesiastical center are complicated or absent, the
Council considers it expedient to give eparchial bishops the right to
decide on certain issues of eparchial life within the competence of the
Holy Synod or the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. further,
while restoring opportunities, informing the clergy.
8 - Recently, a new pastoral challenge has been particularly acute for
our Church. During the three months of the war, more than 6 million
Ukrainian citizens were forced to go abroad. Mostly Ukrainians from
the southern, eastern and central regions of Ukraine. Many of them
are faithful to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. That is why the Kyiv
Metropolitanate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church receives appeals from
various countries with a request to open Ukrainian Orthodox
parishes. It is obvious that many of our compatriots will return to
their homeland, but many will stay for permanent residence
abroad. In this regard, the Council expresses its deep conviction
that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church cannot leave its faithful without
spiritual care, must be with them in their trials and organize church
communities in the diaspora.
9 - Aware of the special responsibility before God, the Council expresses its deep regret over the lack of unity in
Ukrainian Orthodoxy. The Council perceives the existence of a
schism as a deep painful wound on the church body. It is
especially unfortunate that the recent actions of the Patriarch of
Constantinople in Ukraine, which resulted in the formation of the
"Orthodox Church of Ukraine", only deepened misunderstandings and led
to physical confrontation. But even in such crisis situations, the Council does not lose
hope of resuming dialogue. In order for the dialogue to take place,
the PCU representatives need to:
- to stop the seizure of churches and forced transfers of parishes of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
- to realize that their canonical status, as enshrined in the "Statute of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine", is in fact non-autocephalous and significantly inferior to the freedoms and opportunities in the implementation of church activities provided by the Statute of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
- to resolve the issue of canonicity of the hierarchy of the PCU, because for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, as for most Local Orthodox Churches, it is quite obvious that to recognize the canonicity of the hierarchy of the PCU it is necessary to restore the apostolic succession of its bishops.
The Council expresses its deep conviction that the key to the success
of the dialogue must be not only the desire to restore church unity, but
also the sincere desire to build one's life on the principles of
Christian conscience and moral purity.
Summing up the results of the work done, the Council offers a prayer of
thanksgiving to the Merciful Lord for the opportunity for fraternal
communication and expresses hope for an end to the war and
reconciliation of enemies. According to the Holy Apostle and
Evangelist John the Theologian, may "grace, mercy and peace from God the
Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son the Father, in truth and
love" be with all of us, especially brothers and sisters in the Risen
Christ. 1: 3).
27/05/2022 (Source)
Statement of the Holy Synod, of May 12, 2022
For almost three months now, the Ukrainian people have been courageously defending themselves
against a military attack by the Russian Federation, which has invaded
the territory of our sovereign and independent state. Every day, this brutal war takes the lives of Ukraine's sons and
daughters. The flames of war pierced the heart of every citizen,
thousands of families felt the burning pain of this terrible
tragedy. More than five and a half million Ukrainians have been
forced to become migrants.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church immediately condemned the Russian
Federation's military aggression against Ukraine and insisted that war
was a great sin. That is why our Church has repeatedly called for
an end to the bloodshed and, by starting the negotiation process, to
resolve the conflict with words, not weapons. Unfortunately,
attempts at peace talks did not yield the desired result. On the
contrary, today rocket attacks and bombings have covered almost the
entire territory of our country. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church
fully shares the pain and suffering of the Ukrainian people. 14 of the 53 dioceses of our Church are suffering from
hostilities. There are more than 3,000 parishes and 62 monasteries in
these dioceses, where, even at the risk of their lives, 3,500 priests and
almost 2,000 monks and nuns continue to serve. But, despite such
difficult circumstances, we are confident that Ukraine will survive and maintain its
statehood. Intensified prayers of our bishopric, clergy, monks and
laity are offered in all churches and monasteries. The Ukrainian
Orthodox Church supports and will continue to support the defenders of
Ukraine and provide charitable assistance to the needy. We sincerely
believe that the Lord will bless the Ukrainian land and its God-loving
people with peace.
However, we cannot but express concern that, despite the wise and deliberate appeals of the President of Ukraine and
other statesmen, there are frequent instances of religious hatred and
discord in some regions. Instead of uniting the people in the
pursuit of victory and the restoration of peaceful life, the country is
igniting an internal, religious front. Thus, a group of people's
deputies of Ukraine, due to contrived and knowingly false accusations,
submitted to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine bills banning the activities
of our Church. In addition, in various regions of Ukraine there are
cases of local governments making illegal decisions to ban or restrict
the activities of local religious communities of the Ukrainian Orthodox
Church.
We note with sadness that all these facts are the result of erroneous
religious policy during the presidency of P.O. Poroshenko and
the destructive ideology of the so-called Orthodox Church of Ukraine. We are convinced that such activities of the previous government and
the PCU became one of the reasons for the military invasion of
Ukraine. We believe that criminal actions against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church
are signs of subversive activities and are also a consequence of
inaction of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom
of Conscience, which aims to regulate interreligious relations in
Ukraine. We consider inadmissible attempts to ban the activities of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Any decisions to ban our Church and
restrict the rights of its believers are criminal and violate the
Constitution of Ukraine. Such actions can be described as an act of national suicide.
In this regard, we appeal to the President of Ukraine Volodymyr
Oleksandrovych Zelensky as a guarantor of the Constitution of Ukraine to
intervene in this difficult situation, stop religious hostility in
Ukrainian society and take necessary measures against illegal actions
against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
Another issue that has worried many lately concerns the future of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The Holy Synod states that today this issue is the subject of
church discussion. In some dioceses there are meetings of the clergy,
who express their position. The information comes to the Primate of
the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The Holy Synod, in general, welcomes the possibility of a thorough and
comprehensive discussion of any issues of church life, as this is the
manifestation of the conciliar nature of the Orthodox Church. But
this process must take place without disturbing the church order.
In the near future, a meeting will be convened with the participation of bishops, priests,
monks and laity to discuss the problems of church life that have arisen
as a result of the war and which concern us all. At the same time,
we emphasize that we must do everything possible so that the discussion
on this or that issue does not take us out of the canonical field and
does not lead to new divisions in the Church.
At this difficult time, when our Motherland and our Church are suffering
from war, and our courageous soldiers are defending the statehood of
Ukraine, we must all unite for victory. We call on all to
intensify prayer for Ukraine and its authorities, for our servicemen and
for the long-suffering people. May the All-Merciful Lord bless our
earthly homeland with peace, so that all of us may unanimously and with one mouth glorify God and the Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ (Rom. 15: 6).
12/05/2022 (Source)
Appeal to Vladimir Putin in connection with Mariupol
Mr. President!
On these Easter days, when the celebration of the triumph of life over
death is complemented by Victory Day over Nazism, I am writing to you in
connection with the situation around the city of Mariupol.
The difficult situation in which the inhabitants and defenders of Mariupol
found themselves prompts me to ask you as a person whose family survived
the siege of Leningrad, and whose elder brother Viktor died in
1942. Your relatives have fully felt what life is like in isolation
from the mainland, under incessant bombardments, without food, water and
medicines, when death can occur at any moment from the impact of
super-powerful weapons, starvation or lack of medical care. You
remember this when you talk about the Great Patriotic War and when you
visit Piskarevskoye Cemetery, a place of mass graves for residents of
besieged Leningrad and its defenders.
The residents of Mariupol and its defenders are in the same position
today. It is my pastoral duty to ask you to provide an opportunity
for all whoever wants it, to leave the city of
Mariupol - both civilians and the military. At all times in different
wars, the opposing sides found it possible to manifest humanism. We
know that the Russian Federation has repeatedly acted as an intermediary
in Syria in the evacuation of encircled combatants. In this regard,
we hope that you will, in a Christian way, agree to the Extraction
procedure for the Ukrainian garrison in Mariupol, and give the encircled
civilians, policemen, border guards and military an opportunity to enter
the territory controlled by Ukraine or the territory of third
countries. Many countries will consider it an honor to mediate this
operation. I ask you to choose any of them in the Name of the Risen
Christ.
In hope
08/05/2022 (Source)
Easter Sunday Message
Christ is Risen!
(…)
This year the Lord has visited us with special trials and tribulations.
The forces of evil have thickened over us. But we do not complain or
despair, because by His Resurrection Christ the Saviour overcame
evil.
24/04/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from sermon on the feast of the Lord’s entry into
Jerusalem
May we all humble ourselves in our own way, that we may be bearers of
God’s grace, and that God’s peace come to our land, that our people, we
may meet in peace and joy the Great and Glorious Feast of the
Resurrection of our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ
18/4/2022 (Source)
Letter of thanks to all who are helping Ukrainian refugees
On behalf of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, I would like to express my
sincere gratitude to all those who are helping Ukrainians during the
terrible war that broke out in our Ukraine.
As a result of the Russian invasion, more than four million of our
compatriots have been forced to flee their homes, leave their lands and seek refuge, mainly in Western Europe and the
rest of the world.
As the Primate of the largest and most numerous Church of Ukraine – the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church, whose faithful in large numbers have left
the war zones, I want to thank the Primates, the episcopate, the
clergy and the faithful of the Georgian, Serbian, Romanian, Bulgarian,
Polish Local Orthodox Churches and Czech lands and Slovakia. Your fraternal support is very important for our people today,
because, in the words of St. John Chrysostom, "there is nothing stronger
than the Church of Christ" This is true. We testify to this and humbly
ask the Lord God to reward you a hundredfold for your bounties and
mercies.
I also thank all the heads of European states and their peoples, the
heads of other countries of the world, international organizations and
all those who welcomed Ukrainians into their homes, I thank people of different views and religions. By this you fulfil
the most important commandment of God – love of God and neighbour. The
Holy Fathers teach us that by helping our neighbour, we help Christ,
because He was also a "refugee" when he and His Mother fled from Herod
to Egypt. Your help will forever remain in the memory and hearts of the
long-suffering Ukrainian people.
May the All-Merciful Lord reward you all instead of the temporary –
eternal, instead of perishable – imperishable, instead of earthly –
heavenly, for all the good you do!
With sincere respect and gratitude
08/04/2022 (Source)
Statement by the UOC Legal Department regarding bills aimed at
banning the UOC's activities
On March 22, 2022, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine registered Bill
20 7204 “On Prohibition of the Moscow Patriarchate on the
Territory of Ukraine”, and on March 26, 2022, the Verkhovna Rada of
Ukraine also registered Bill № 7213 “On Amendments to the
Law of Ukraine on Freedom of Conscience and religious organizations ”on
the prohibition of the activities of religious organizations
(associations) that are part of the structure (is part of) a religious
organization (association), the governing center (management) of which
is located outside Ukraine in a state recognized by law as military
aggression against Ukraine and / or temporarily occupied part of the
territory of Ukraine."
Given the content of the bills, the main purpose of their adoption is
allegedly "protection of national security, sovereignty and territorial
integrity of Ukraine" and "protection of public safety and order", which
according to the legislator can be achieved by banning the activities of
the Moscow Patriarchate – Russia Orthodox Church ", including the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
Despite the fact that President V.O. Zelensky has not incited religious
hatred during the war, Ukrainian MPs decided through legislative
initiatives to brazenly and cynically ban the activities of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church and deprive millions of Ukrainians of the
right to freedom of religion.
Although law enforcement agencies have made no complaints to the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church about the violation of Ukraine's national
security, sovereignty and territorial integrity, deputies in their explanatory note to the bill deliberately make
false allegations against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in an attempt
to mislead Ukrainian MPs.
Despite all the pathos, these bills see a continuation of the religious policy of
Poroshenko's time, which became one of the reasons for the terrible
times we are experiencing now, because the ban on the
multimillion-strong Ukrainian Orthodox Church cannot but affect our
state.
In addition, banning people from belonging to the Ukrainian Orthodox
Church violates their right to freedom of religion, which is contrary to
the European Convention on Human Rights and the Constitution of
Ukraine.
Please note that the religious center of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv
Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is located in Kyiv,
registered in accordance with Ukrainian law, and its founder is the Council of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church,
which includes clergy and believers living in Ukraine.
The Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, His Beatitude Onufriy, Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine, called
on all the faithful to defend our state and defend its territorial
integrity and sovereignty.
From the first days of the war, people have shown the unity of our
people in the fight against the enemy. But as we see today, they are
trying to break this unity by provoking controversy on political,
linguistic and religious grounds. After all, due to the impossibility of
winning the battles, the occupiers are trying to sabotage through such
bills to split Ukrainian society and weaken our state.
In this regard, we declare that the legislative initiative to ban the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church is illegal, violates the right to freedom of
religion and in no way contributes to "protection of national security,
sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine" and "protection of
public safety and order", as stated in the bills, and on the contrary,
in wartime will open a religious front in the peaceful territory of
Ukraine and divide our country on religious grounds.
31/3/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from sermon on Crucifixion Sunday
Today we have a common Cross, the Lord visited us all with a cross –
they raised a hand against us with a sword, but we must not complain, we
must patiently endure everything. The Church has always prayed, prays
and will pray for people to remember that we are children of God and
that the Lord does not want us to raise our swords against each
other.
(…)
We pray today that the Lord will stop what we feel today, when people
are dying, human blood is being shed, children are dying, helpless
people are dying, old people, young people are innocent human beings
27/3/2022 (Source)
Words following prayer for peace
Today we celebrated the Divine Liturgy and now we have prayed – for
peace in our country, for peace in Ukraine. We ask the Blessed Virgin
Mary, we ask the Venerable Fathers Anthony and Theodosius, and all the
Pechersk, to ask God for forgiveness of our sins and for the Lord to
give us peace.
[The negotiations are] not easy, but it is the first step, which is
already a humane step, when one uses a reasonable word to try and solve
problems that arise between people. I want these negotiations to
continue well, to have sensible, well-considered decisions, and for love
to overcome the malice that reigns over the people.
May the Lord bless our land, our government, our army and all our
Ukrainian people
20/03/2022 (Source)
Excerpts of the sermon on Triumph of Orthodoxy Sunday
Our Church has always said and still says today that all problems that
arise between people should be solved not by weapons, not by force, but
by words, because we are people, intelligent creatures of God, God is
ours. gave reason, gave us the word – this is a great power, the word
has great power.
(…)
God did not create us on earth to attack each other and kill each
other. He created us to live in love. And if we do not have this
agreement, it is necessary to reach it not with the help of weapons, but
with the help of words. And again, and again we call on all those on
whom this depends, that the problems that exist today in the world and
on our earth, that they be solved with a reasonable word
13/03/2022 (Source)
Statement on Wednesday, 10 March
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is the Church of the Ukrainian
people. It unites believers in the East and West, North and South of our country.
It consists of people of different nationalities and different political
persuasions. But we are all one in Christ. For more than 1000 years of
history, our Church has always been and remains with its people.
Today, our country is going through a difficult ordeal caused by the
attack on our country by the troops of the Russian
Federation. In all churches and monasteries of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church,
intensified prayers for the earliest possible peace and cessation of
bloodshed continue. We consistently call for a peaceful settlement of
conflicts through dialogue. War is the worst sin in the world. It forces us to look at another
person not as an image of God, but as an enemy to be killed. Therefore,
there is no excuse for those who start wars.
Unfortunately, a large number of civilians died during these few days,
including the elderly, women and children; humanitarian infrastructure
was destroyed – hospitals, maternity hospitals, schools, orphanages; and
the survivors are forced to leave their homes and even the country to
save their lives, becoming refugees and displaced persons.
In this regard, in order to prevent even greater sacrifices and
suffering for our people, we call on all those who depend on them to provide real
humanitarian corridors for the immediate evacuation of civilians from
settlements on the line of fire and to ensure their safety.
Due to the fighting, some Ukrainian servicemen, in carrying out their
oath and duty to defend the Motherland, were unfortunately wounded or
taken prisoner. Therefore, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, caring for its fellow
citizens, asks to show human compassion and Christian charity, to
organize the extradition of the wounded and to exchange prisoners of
war.
We believe that our Lord Jesus Christ, through the intercession of His
Immaculate Mother, will preserve our country and its God-loving people,
and give us the long-awaited peace.
10/03/2022 (Source)
Words spoken after a special prayer for peace in Ukraine
Prayer for peace on Ukrainian soil is being offered throughout our
Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Unfortunately, it is the 9th day of the war on our land. Russian
troops entered Ukraine. Our hearts are filled with sorrow. People are
dying – civilians are dying, children are dying. The earth is filled
with weeping and sorrow. Refugees have nowhere to bow their heads. We
pray that the Lord will have mercy on us.
Our Holy Ukrainian Orthodox Church has always preached love between
nations. We especially wanted peace and harmony between the Russian and
Ukrainian peoples. We wanted these peoples to live as good neighbours:
in respect for each other, patience with each other and in love. We
have been, and still are insulted for this, they call us all sorts of
obscene words and expressions. But we do not pay attention to it. Even
today, we want the Russian people and the Ukrainian people to live
peacefully with each other.
Therefore, I appeal to the President of the Russian Federation, I ask
Putin: “Vladimir Vladimirovich, do everything to end the war on Ukrainian
soil! War does not bring good to the people. War sheds blood, and
blood divides people. You can do it, and we believe and want you to do
it. We ask that the days of Lent be peaceful for us, that we may gladly
celebrate the bright holiday of life – the holiday of the Holy
Resurrection of Christ. "
We know that there are problems between nations, there always have
been, and will be. But we have always held the view that we, as God's
creatures, endowed with reason and speech, must solve these problems
with the help of common sense.
We call on both sides, the Russian side and the Ukrainian side, to sit
down at the negotiating table and solve all the problems that exist
between us, and not with the help of the sword. The sword divides, and love unites. We will tolerate each other,
respect each other, love God and be one in God. This is a unity that
no one and nothing can destroy. But the unity achieved by the sword is
short-lived and unreliable. This is human unity and it is falling apart. And the unity that
is in God is eternal. I would like there to be unity in God among our
peoples, to love one another and to be one in God.
May the Lord bless us all!
4/3/2022 (Source. Edited for clarity)
(The following statement is from the synod of the Church headed by metropolitan Onofriy)
Beloved in Christ, Most Reverend Bishops, Fathers, Brothers and
Sisters!
Dear Ukrainian people!
We grieve with great sorrow and pain that the war has come to our
native Ukrainian land. We are all having a hard time. Fighting between
the troops of the Russian Federation and the Armed Forces of Ukraine
continues almost throughout Ukraine, soldiers and civilians are dying,
and the number of refugees is growing. Bringing nuclear weapons to a state of heightened combat readiness in
general sharply calls into question the prospect of the continued
existence of humanity and the world. In such a difficult situation, we call on everyone to be courageous,
to strengthen prayer and to unite around the defence of our
Motherland.
Addressing all our defenders today, we want to show that we honour
and pray for you, because you, sacrificing your life, effectively
testify to how you can directly fulfil the words of our Lord Jesus
Christ: There is no greater love than this, if anyone will lay down
his life for his neighbours (John 15:13).
For our part, we reiterate that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has always supported
and continues to support the state sovereignty and territorial
integrity of Ukraine. We fully share the pain and suffering of our people. On these
important days, all the churches and monasteries of our Church have
especially intensified prayers for an end to the war and the restoration
of peace in Ukraine. With the blessing of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy, the dioceses
and monasteries provide comprehensive assistance to refugees and all
those affected by the fighting. Our temples are open 24 hours a day
for those who need protection during the shelling. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is expanding its mission every day to
help all those in need.
Aware of our special spiritual responsibility, today we turn to His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All
Russia. Your Holiness! We ask you to intensify your prayers for the
long-suffering Ukrainian people, to speak out for the cessation of
fratricidal bloodshed on Ukrainian soil, and to call on the leadership
of the Russian Federation to immediately cease hostilities that threaten to turn into a world war.
We also appeal to the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Oleksandrovych
Zelensky and the President of the Russian Federation Volodymyr
Volodymyrovych Putin. On behalf of the multi-million flock of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church, we ask you to do everything possible to put
an end to the sin of armed confrontation between our two fraternal
peoples and to begin the negotiation process. This terrible war has already dealt a severe blow to relations
between the Ukrainian and Russian peoples. If the bloodshed is not
stopped immediately, the chasm between our peoples may remain
forever.
Ukrainian People, brothers and sisters! We hope that common sense will
prevail and this war will end soon. We ask each of you to keep peace
with each other and not succumb to provocations. Help each other, take
care of each other. It is also important not to incite enmity between us. Only in unity is our strength. We ask the Lord to enlighten the
rulers with the light of His grace. We believe that the man-loving Lord
will accept our prayers and forgive us our sins. And in the near future
the peace of God will reign again on our blessed Ukrainian land!
28/2/2022 (Source. Edited for clarity)
Unfortunately, Russia has launched military operations against Ukraine, and at this fateful time, I urge you not to panic, be courageous and show love for your homeland and for each other. First, I call on you to pray hard for Ukraine, for our army and our people, I ask you to forget mutual strife and misunderstandings and unite with love for God and for our homeland.
At this tragic time, we extend our special love and support to our soldiers who stand
guard and protect and protect our land and our people. May God bless and protect them!
Defending the sovereignty and integrity of Ukraine, we also appeal to the Russian President and ask him to immediately stop the
fratricidal war. The Ukrainian and Russian peoples came out of the Dnieper baptismal font
and the war between these peoples is a repetition of Cain's sin, who out of envy killed his own brother. Such a war has no justification either from God or from people.
I call on everyone to use common sense, which teaches us to solve our
earthly problems in mutual dialogue and mutual understanding, and
sincerely hope that God will forgive us our sins and God's peace will
reign on our earth and around the world!
[Metropolitan Hilarion was replaced in his role as head of External Relations for the Russian Orthodox Church in June, and his title was changed from Volokolamsk to Budapest and Hungary]
Comment on the decision of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (MP)
The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church had a judgment on the
Council of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church held on May 27 in Kiev and
expressed its full support to its arch-pastors, pastors, monastics and
laity due to the fact that it is subjected to unprecedented pressure from various sides: from
extremist groups, on the part of schismatic structures, on the part of
local authorities, who sometimes simply prohibit the activities of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church in specific regions of Ukraine, as well as
on the part of nationalist-minded circles of the Ukrainian public.
The Synod stated that the status of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was
determined by the Diploma of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow
and All Russia of 1990. It is this Diploma that is the canonical
foundation on which the building of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is
being built.
It was noted that the amendments adopted by the Council of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church and introduced into its Statute require
consideration by the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. We have
not considered these amendments now, as they have not yet been made
public.
The Holy Synod expressed regret over the fact that in a number of
dioceses of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church the prayer commemoration of
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia is being discontinued, which
has already led to divisions within the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
Commenting on these decisions of the Holy Synod, I would like to say not about what happened in Kyiv, but about what
did not happen there. There is an opinion that the Ukrainian Orthodox
Church separated from the Russian Orthodox Church. This is not true.
There was no statement about separation from the Russian Orthodox
Church. No statement was made that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church would
have any new status; on the contrary, it once again confirmed that it
has the status of independence and self-sufficiency, which was given
to it back in 1990.
We must understand the context within which these decisions were made
in Kyiv. It is connected with the fact that for many years the Ukrainian
Orthodox Church has been denied the right to be called as it calls
itself. They are trying to force it to be called the “Russian Orthodox
Church in Ukraine”, and the goal of this is to re-register all parishes
of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and alienate them in favor of a
schismatic structure.
In the context of everything that is happening today in Ukraine, in the
context of the unprecedented pressure that is being exerted on the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church, one should perceive what is happening.
The entirety of the Russian Orthodox Church prays and will continue to
pray for the suffering and persecuted Ukrainian Orthodox Church. We
believe that the Lord takes care of His Church and, according to His
promise, the gates of hell will not prevail against her.
29/05/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from an interview
E. Gracheva: The current news, which is now being discussed by all the media,
concerns possible sanctions against the head of the Russian Orthodox
Church, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia. The European
Union proposes to impose sanctions against him. White House press
secretary Jen Psaki does not rule out that sanctions are possible from
the United States of America. Earlier, the Lithuanian Foreign
Ministry has already spoken out for such a possibility. Let me
remind you that the Verkhovna Rada already has Decree No. 7332,
according to which sanctions have been imposed not only against the
Patriarch, but also against you. How can you comment on the fact
that these restrictions of the West have already reached the
non-secular people of the Russian Federation?
Metropolitan Hilarion: Firstly, it is not a draft law that has been submitted to the
Verkhovna Rada, but only a proposal that has been made. As for me, I have long been deprived of the right to enter
Ukraine. As for His Holiness the Patriarch, I think that no
sanctions will prevent him from continuing his activities, which are
aimed at consolidating Russian society, at the pastoral care of the
entire multi-million flock of the Russian Orthodox Church and at the
speedy achievement of peace between the fraternal Slavic peoples.
It must be understood, of course, that in the West the statements of the Patriarch are viewed through the
prism of propaganda carried out in the media, and Western politicians
cannot adequately assess these statements. Therefore, if they impose sanctions, this, of course, is their
right, we cannot influence this in any way, but these sanctions will not
affect the life of the Russian Orthodox Church in any way.
E. Gracheva: A question from a viewer: “Dear Metropolitan Hilarion, please tell
me, have the sanctions already affected you personally?” For my
part, I can only concretize this question, as I see it. If the
Patriarch, being in Russia, can perform his immediate functions, then
you, as the head of the Department for External Church Relations, the
Church Ministry of Foreign Affairs, need direct communication with the
leaders of the Local Churches: you must travel, communicate. You
are an ecclesiastical diplomat. How do you carry out your
functions now?
Metropolitan Hilarion: First, not all countries are closed. There are many
countries where you can travel freely, and if necessary, we use this
opportunity. Secondly, the opportunities for guests from the Local
Orthodox Churches, as well as from non-Orthodox Churches and Christian
associations to come to Russia are not closed. Thirdly, there are
many ways to communicate remotely, which are used, among other things,
by the Patriarch and other heads of the Churches, that is, now the
technical capabilities make it possible to communicate directly without
leaving the borders of their country.
E. Gracheva: Here is another important piece of news from Italy. The Pope gave an interview to Corriere della sera. Speaking about
his communication with Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, the
Pope commented on the results of the conversation that took
place on March 16: “I spoke with Kirill for 40 minutes via Zoom. For the first 20
minutes, with a piece of paper in his hand, he read to me all sorts of
justifications for the special operation. I listened and said:
Brother, I don't understand anything about this. We are shepherds
of the same holy people of God and cannot use the language of politics,
but only the language of Jesus.” Regarding the meeting with the
Patriarch, the Pope said: “We were supposed to meet in Jerusalem on June
14th. This would be our second personal meeting, in no way
connected with the events, but now he also agrees: it’s better to stop,
this may be a dubious signal.” How would you comment on this
interview with Pope Francis? As head of the Department for External
Church Relations, do you agree that now any meeting between the Pope and
the Patriarch, even virtual via videoconference, could be perceived as a
dubious signal? Why?
Metropolitan Hilarion:I, too, with a piece of paper in my hand, will
comment on this issue, since it is very delicate. I must say that the conversation between the Pope and the
Patriarch took place on March 16, that is, a month and a half has
already passed. We had this conversation recorded, and after it took place, we did
not publish the details of this conversation, because it was not
supposed that it would be some kind of public conversation. But
after the Pope presented this conversation in this vein, we decided to
publish its details. The Patriarch told the Pope something like this: You are
receiving certain information from the Western media about what is
happening in Ukraine. I will tell you something that you may not
know. Then he spoke about the background of the current conflict,
about the events in the Donbass in 2014. He especially dwelled on
the events in Odessa, which led to mass discontent among the
Russian-speaking population and provoked, in turn, the events in the
Donbass. Then he spoke about the expansion of NATO to the East:
that NATO approached St. Petersburg within a few minutes of flight time,
and if Ukraine joined NATO, then it would approach Moscow at a distance
of several minutes of flight time warheads, nuclear or
otherwise). Finally, he spoke about the most important thing: that
his flock is on both sides of the conflict, that his heart aches for
what is happening. Approximately in this spirit, the Patriarch
stated his vision of the events taking place. To which the Pope
replied in the way that the Vatican news service at that time correctly
presented.
As a witness and participant in that conversation, I remember well that
the atmosphere was very friendly, there was no disagreement between the
Pope and the Patriarch or dissatisfaction from one side or
another. It was a brotherly conversation. Although, perhaps,
the parties remained at their views.
E. Gracheva: In an interview with Corriere della sera, Pope Francis says that he
urged the Patriarch to speak not the language of politicians, but the
language of Jesus. Is it possible in the current acute
circumstances, in the context of the special operation taking place in
Ukraine, to discuss these events in the language of Jesus?
Metropolitan Hilarion: A pastor always perceives events from a Christian point of view,
through the prism of the Holy Gospel. That is why the assessments
given by the pastor always differ from those given by
politicians. After all, the scenario of political events and the scenario of military actions
are written without the participation of the Church. What the
Church can do, she does, first of all, to help people.
We see what tremendous work the Russian Orthodox Church has launched
under the leadership of the Patriarch to help the suffering, primarily
to help those refugees who are now on the territory of Russia, and
there are already more than a million of them. We see what a huge work the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is doing with internally displaced persons on the territory
of Ukraine. We see how the Local Orthodox Churches, in particular in Poland
and Romania, respond to the misfortune that befell people who turned out
to be refugees, and how they help the refugees. Here, in fact, is
the work that the Church can do, must do and is doing in the conditions
of political confrontation. And the Church, of course, cannot directly influence the course of
negotiations or the course of hostilities.
13/05/2022 (Source)
Statements on Church and World television programme
Pope Francis of Rome is speaking out about the Ukrainian topic in a
very balanced way because he is aware of not only the present history
of the conflict but also its pre-history, which goes back to the events of 2014
11/04/2022 (Source)
Response to letter from the Comission of the Bishop's Conferences of the European Union
These days, prayers and thoughts of millions of Christians across the
world are concerned with the dramatic developments in the longsuffering
land of Ukraine. It is completely obvious that the current conflict
cannot be resolved through yet another public statement, already made in
large numbers.
The relationship between the West and Russia have reached a deadlock,
resulting in the loss of mutual trust and capacity to hear each other.
In this situation, it is essential to renounce the rhetoric of
ultimatum, establish channels of dialogue and organise official and
unofficial negotiations that can help achieve a just peace. As Christians we are called to further this cause by our prayers and
work.
For eight years now, during every Liturgy, the Russian Orthodox
Church has been offering a prayer for the cessation of the conflict in
the Ukrainian land. In view of the recent developments, a special prayer for the soonest
restoration of peace has been included in the Divine Liturgy.
(…)
Today His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia does
much to restore peace and trust, in the Ukrainian land in particular,
working hard every day to make this happen. The most important thing in this situation is to do everything in our
power to make sure that the direct negotiations continue, producing a
result in the shortest possible time, and that the relationships between
the West and Russia still have a potential for dialogue.
(…)
17/3/2022 (Source)
During an interview
There are different views. Some people believe that we are one people, while others believe that
we are two peoples. But whatever the answer to this issue, we are fraternal peoples,
we have been born in one baptismal font of St. Prince Vladimir
Equal-to-the-Apostle. Nothing would ever break down this
unity. Therefore, the forces acting against our unity are acting against the Church and
against God.
14/3/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from a speech on “the invasion of the Patriarchate of Constantinople into Ukraine”
The invasion of the Patriarchate of Constantinople into
Ukraine has become one of the most acute and dangerous challenges for
the Russian Orthodox Church in recent decades. It is providential that it was precisely at this difficult moment that
such an experienced and strong-willed leader as His Holiness Patriarch
Kirill of Moscow and All Russia turned out to be at the helm of our
Church. The theme of preserving the unity of the Church was a
priority for him even when he was chairman of the Department for
External Church Relations, and it remains so throughout all the years of
his Patriarchate.
It cannot be said that the actions of the Patriarchate of Constantinople
in Ukraine in 2018 came as a complete surprise to the Russian
Church. We knew about Constantinople’s plans to tear Ukraine away from the
Russian Orthodox Church even before the Synod of the Patriarchate of
Constantinople announced the start of preparations for granting
autocephaly in April 2018. Our Church tried to resist this intention, including as part of
the preparations for the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church,
which continued in those years.
(…)
2017 was remembered for a remarkable episode related to the appeal of the
leader of the Ukrainian schism, Filaret Denisenko, to His Holiness
Patriarch Kirill and the episcopate of the Russian Orthodox Church with a
request to lift the bans and restore church communion. It should be
noted that from the very beginning of the schism in Ukraine, the Russian Church has repeatedly appealed to the schismatics with
calls to repentance, maintained contacts, and constantly looked for
opportunities for negotiations. And when he was the chairman of the
DECR, and having already ascended the Patriarchal cathedra, His Holiness
the Patriarch personally led this process and took the liveliest and
most active part in it. This work in Ukraine was carried out in
extremely unfavorable and sometimes dangerous political conditions. For example, in 2010, on the eve of the visit of His Holiness
the Patriarch to Ukraine, two prominent schismatic "hierarchs" died under
unclear circumstances – "Metropolitan of Lvov and Sokal" Andrey Horak and
"Archbishop of Drogobych and Sambir" Theodosius Petsina, with whom
agreements were reached on their return to the Church, which could be the
beginning of the abolition of the split in Ukraine. Many experts
openly expressed doubts about the natural nature of their deaths. The
appeal of Filaret Denisenko gave a new chance to heal the schism, and
therefore was received in the Russian Church benevolently and considered
on its merits. In November 2017, a corresponding Determination of the Council of
Bishops, a special commission was created. Unfortunately, under pressure from the Poroshenko regime, Filaret was
forced to disavow his appeal.
(…)
Soon a delegation of the Patriarchate of Constantinople began to visit one
after another the Primates of the Local Churches to discuss the
initiative to grant autocephaly to Ukraine. However, none of them
supported the plans of Constantinople. The delegation from Constantinople also visited Moscow, where it
was received by His Holiness Patriarch Kirill. At the meeting, His
Holiness confirmed the readiness of the Russian Church for a conciliar
discussion of all the problems facing the Church.
Also, on the basis of objective statistics on the number of church
communities in Ukraine, the Primate of the Russian Church clearly
demonstrated to Patriarch Bartholomew that his information about the
alleged support of the schism by the majority of Orthodox Ukrainians is
unreliable, and the data of opinion polls presented to him are
fictitious, custom-made. His Holiness the Patriarch drew the
attention of Patriarch Bartholomew to the purely political nature of the
autocephalous project, which was being prepared for the start of the
election campaign of the then President of Ukraine P.
Poroshenko. He pointed out to the Constantinople side the
consolidation of the episcopate, clergy and believers of the canonical
Ukrainian Orthodox Church and warned that there would not and could not
be any “wave of transitions” promised by the Ukrainian authorities
then.
Taking into account the extremely poor awareness of the Constantinople
side about the history and current situation of the Ukrainian Orthodox
Church, which was noticeable from the statements of the Phanar and
statements during the negotiations, His Holiness the Patriarch proposed to
jointly study the issue of the jurisdiction of the Kiev Metropolis with
the involvement of competent specialists. Unfortunately, the Primate of Constantinople answered all our arguments
and proposals only that he did not have time. Ukrainian autocephaly
was being prepared in extreme haste, in an attempt to keep up with the
momentary political situation.
In December 2018, the so-called “unification council” of schismatic
denominations was held. The council was held under strong pressure from the Poroshenko regime,
who was personally present at the presidium of the event, and under the
control of the Constantinople side. Despite the sharp
contradictions between the participants in the event and the unanimous
refusal of the episcopate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to
participate in it (with the exception of one diocesan and one vicar
bishop), the alleged “unification” of Ukrainian Orthodoxy was
announced. In January 2019, the newly created schismatic structure was
recognized by the Patriarchate of Constantinople and received the status
of the so-called "autocephaly".
Instead of the promised “unification” of Orthodoxy in Ukraine, the anti-canonical actions of the Patriarchate of Constantinople led
to the actual legalization and institutionalization of the Ukrainian
schism, which soon split in two again. Moreover, the possibilities of actually healing the split in
Ukraine were undermined. The emergence of schismatic "autocephaly" in Ukraine provoked a wave of
seizures of churches of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church and
cases of mass violence against its communities, and greatly increased
pressure on its episcopate, clergy and believers.
As for the Church of Alexandria, it must be added that soon after the recognition of the schism by Patriarch Theodore, African
clerics who disagreed with this began to turn to us with a request to be
accepted into our Church. However, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill believed that one should
not rush, hoping that the Patriarch of Alexandria would change his
mind. Unfortunately, this did not happen; moreover, the Primate of
the Church of Alexandria went further and co-served with the head of the
Ukrainian schismatics. This circumstance compelled our Church to form
the Patriarchal Exarchate of Africa for those many African
clerics who wish to protect themselves from communion with schism. His Holiness set out in detail the
position of the Russian Church in the messages sent to Patriarch Theodore,
one of which was recently published.
The latest events in Ukraine have been a new test for the unity of our
Church and all Orthodoxy.
The overwhelming majority of the Local Orthodox Churches have taken a
balanced peacekeeping position in relation to what is
happening. Many Churches have focused their efforts on providing
humanitarian assistance to war victims and refugees. Against this
background, statements by representatives of the Patriarchates of
Constantinople and Alexandria stand out, using the current tragic
situation to promote the autocephalous project in Ukraine and to
popularize Epiphanius Dumenko and the schismatic community he leads. These signals indicate that a tense struggle for church unity awaits us
ahead.
14/03/2022 (Source)
Statement by Department for External Church Relations
On January 10, a meeting was held at the
Patriarchal Residence in the St. Daniel Monastery in Moscow to discuss, among
other things, the development of church-state relations in Ukraine. It was
chaired by His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia.
The participants in the conference expressed
grave concern over the continued tough persecution of the faithful of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Ukraine.
It was particularly pointed out that for the
first time the state offered the schismatics an opportunity for holding ‘a
divine service’ on the day of the Nativity of Christ at the Kiev Pechersk Lavra
while His Beatitude Onufriy, Metropolitan of Kiev, had no opportunity to
preside over the festive liturgy within the walls of this monastery.
Among the signs of extreme expression of the
pressure applied on the faithful is the information about ‘the suspension of
citizenship’ of a number of hierarchs of the Ukrainian Church, which, according
to available reports, can threaten dozens more of them.
10/01/2023 (Source)
Comments of Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk
on the adoption of the WCC statement ‘War in Ukraine, peace and justice in the
European region
Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, chairman
of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate and
head of the Russian Orthodox Church delegation at the 11th General Assembly of
the World Council of Churches in Karlsruhe, Germany, delivered his comments on
the adoption of the WCC document ‘War in Ukraine, peace and justice in the
European region’.
The delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church
could not support by voting the statement made by the WCC Assembly on ‘War in
Ukraine, peace and justice in the European region’.
At the same time, it is with cautious optimism
that we evaluate the stand taken by the World Council of Churches. Despite
an unprecedented political pressure made on it during the drafting of a
document on the Ukrainian conflict - which was expressed, among other things,
in the speech of President of Germany F.-W. Steinmeier and in statements of
some other persons who called to expel the Russian Church from the WCC – it
refused to bring any accusations against the Russian Orthodox Church and
recognized the importance of her large-scale humanitarian mission carried out
with a blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia to
give support to refugees and those affected by the conflict.
Unfortunately, the final document has remained
considerably politicized. It has excluded all the proposals made by the Russian
Church, which prevents us from supporting it. At the same time, we believe that the
discussion, which took place during the Assembly, can become for the WCC a
starting point for an objective and unprejudiced study of the causes of the
longstanding conflict in Ukraine just as for subsequent peace-making efforts.
We also regret that the drafters of the
document did not take into consideration the proposal of representatives of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church to condemn the violent mass seizures of churches
belonging to the canonical Church carried out by the so-called ‘OCU’. We hope that the World Council of
Churches will undertake further actions to study this problem.
08/09/2022 (Source)
Mr. Zelensky is not a religious leader, however this speech has explicit religious references, which is why I am including it here.
Presidential address on Forgiveness Sunday
Today is Forgiveness Sunday. A day when we always apologized. To each other. To all people. To God. But today, it seems, many have not mentioned this day at all. Have not mentioned the obligatory words: "Forgive me." And the obligatory answer: "God forgives, and I forgive." These words seem to have lost their meaning today. At least in part. After everything we went through.
We will not forgive the destroyed houses. We will not forgive the missile that our air defense shot down
over Okhmatdyt today. And more than five hundred other such missiles
that hit our land. All over Ukraine. Hit our people and children.
We will not forgive the shooting of unarmed people. Destruction of our infrastructure.
We. Will. Not. Forgive. Hundreds and hundreds of victims. Thousands
and thousands of sufferings. And God will not forgive. Not today. Not
tomorrow. Never. And instead of Forgiveness, there will be a Day of
Judgment.
I'm sure of it.
It seems everything Russian servicemen have already done is still not
enough for them. Not enough ruined destinies. Mutilated lives. They want to kill even
more.
Tomorrow Russia has officially announced the shelling of our
territory. Our enterprises. Defense complex. Most were built decades ago. By the
Soviet government. Built in cities. And now they are in the middle of an
ordinary urban environment. Thousands of people work there. Hundreds of
thousands live nearby.
This is murder. Deliberate murder.
And I have not heard a reaction from any world leader today. From any Western politician. Reaction to this announcement. Think about
the sense of impunity of the invaders: they announce their planned
atrocities. Why?
Because there is no reaction. Because there is
silence. Not a word, as if Western leaders have dissolved tonight. For
this day. I hope that at least tomorrow you will notice it. React. Say
something. We know exactly who prepared this attack. We know exactly how
orders will follow the vertical command. We know everything.
And we will not forgive anything. The
Tribunal is waiting for you. And God's judgment, if you try to
hide.
The audacity of the aggressor is a clear signal to the West that
sanctions against Russia are not enough. Because they didn't understand. Did not feel. They did not see that the
world is really determined. Really determined to stop this war. You will
not hide from this reality.
You will not hide from new murders in Ukraine.
There was a lot of talk about humanitarian corridors. There were talks every day about the opportunity for people to leave
the cities where Russia came. Russian military.
I am grateful to every Ukrainian who stays to defend our cities, even
in the encirclement. Our freedom.
But I also know that there are people who really need to get out,
those who cannot stay. And we heard the promise that there would be humanitarian corridors.
But there are no humanitarian corridors.
Instead of humanitarian corridors, they can only make bloody
ones.
A family was killed in Irpen today. A man, a
woman and two children. Right on the road. As in the shooting club. When
they were just trying to get out of town. To escape.
The whole family. How many such families have died in Ukraine!
We will not forgive. We will not forget.
We will punish everyone who committed atrocities in this war. On our land. We will find every bastard. Which shot at our cities,
our people. Which bombed our land. Which launched rockets. Which gave
the order and pressed "start".
There will be no quiet place on this earth for you. Except for the
grave.
06/03/2022 (Source)
Bishop Markos Hovhannisyan, Ukrainian Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church
Words to Pope Francis during visit of the
Council of Churches to the Vatican
This opportunity to share with you both the
feelings of pain and suffering experienced by our people at this time of the
liberation struggle against the Russian aggressor, and examples of
self-sacrificing solidarity and desperate heroism of our civilian fellow
citizens and military defenders is extremely important for us, they practically
embody the Lord's commandment: "Love your neighbor as yourself",
laying down your souls and material goods to save the Ukrainian people from
destruction.
In our opinion, today the voice of the Church
and religious communities of various denominations should be heard loudly
throughout the world for the restoration of respect for the principles and
norms of international law and fundamental human rights and their observance. A
just peace that would involve the restoration of Ukraine's territorial
integrity within its internationally recognized borders would be evidence of a
positive step towards this global goal.
And we sincerely believe that your voice and ours
against this unjust Russian aggression, in defense of the offended and wounded
Ukrainian people, will be heard! And we sincerely hope to soon receive you
hospitably in Kyiv under the peaceful sky of a free and independent
democratic Ukraine!
25/01/2023 (Source)
From the very first days, our community expressed its civic
position on the war: to be defenders of the city where our faithful
live. It's moral, it's natural, and it's spiritual. Our spiritual
support, our prayers for Ukraine continue, whether private or within
the framework of the AUCCR, we pray for the achievement of God's
peace, which every person deserves. Our parishioners provide
humanitarian support to our relatives: our bakeries are working, our
restaurateurs have switched to providing lunches to those in need.
Some of our faithful are in the ranks of the territorial defence
and have already passed away in this service. The situation is difficult, but our faith does not leave us, our
civic position does not weaken, because we are an integral part of
Ukrainian society, because here is our thousand-year successful
history, here is part of our culture and our spiritual heritage
19/03/2022 (Source)
Besides the words below, Patriarch Bartholomew has had many gestures of support for the Ukrainian people, including telephone calls to Ukrainian authorities and a visit to the Ukrainian Consul-general in Istanbul.
Words during meeting with the primate of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church
We are happy to welcome you, His Holiness, here
in the Ecumenical Patriarchate, where we constantly pray for you, for
Ukraine, for those who suffer from an unjust war. We condemn this war, Russian
aggression against Ukraine. This is a diabolical war that was spawned by
untruth. I said this in my speech recently at a forum in Abu Dhabi, and
most of the audience greeted this definition with applause.
We pray for Ukraine and for your victory.
Convey our greetings to the people, to the Orthodox faithful, convey that we
admire their courage and pray for them
27/01/2023 (Source)
Speech at conference on “Ukraine, autocephaly
and the war that changed the world”
“The granting of Autocephalous status to the
Church of Ukraine, which "changed", in the spirit of canonical
tradition, the ecclesiastical matters in the country have no relationship, no
direct or indirect connection, with geopolitical facts and with the
unacceptable invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine, which, indeed,
"changed the world tragically", causing untold suffering and terrible
destruction. This war is artificially connected by the leadership of the Church
of Russia with the Ukrainian Autocephaly, in order to cover up its own
responsibilities, its wrong ecclesiastical manipulations and its sky-high
ambitions. It was she who deepened the gap between Ukrainians and Russians and
not the Autocephaly, which was given by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, primarily
for reasons of pastoral care for the people of God.
(…)
Moscow continues, using the internet, but not
only, the offensive statements against our Moderation, as well as the
unacceptable attempt to damage and discredit the Ecumenical Patriarchate at all
levels, with the unacceptable goal of provoking hidden situations, in its own
interest. We have
already mentioned it on another occasion: the leadership of the Moscow
Church is trying to impose a new ecclesiology, which overturns the normal order
on the basis of supposedly new data. However, it must understand that the
Ecumenical Patriarchate is the only guarantee for the unity of Orthodoxy.
"Without the Ecumenical Patriarchate", as His Holiness the
Metropolitan of Pergamum Mr. Ioannis writes, "Orthodoxy will fall into the
vortex of nationalisms, into the boasting of the past, into the introversion of
self-sufficiency”.
The instrumentalization of the Eucharist shows
that the Church of Moscow subordinates the quintessence of church life to its
immoral plans. Perhaps this is her unforgivable sin against the Holy Spirit.
(…)
Moscow does not recognize the right of the
Orthodox people of Ukraine to have their own Autocephalous Church, because it
wants to control them, to oppress them. She wants to transform the Orthodox
Church into a confederation of Churches, in order to claim, in time, a leading
role in the "new Orthodox order of things".
(…)
We are all witnesses of the tragedy and the
human disaster, which is unfolding on Ukrainian soil, already for eleven months
exactly, with incalculable consequences for the trying people of Ukraine, for
the European continent and for the whole world. A ceasefire must be reached
immediately and honest dialogue must begin to achieve a solution based on the
principles of international law. We call on those Orthodox Heads of the Church
who have not done so yet, to proceed with the recognition of the Ukrainian Church,
showing with this decision their support for the people of Ukraine. And the
leadership of the Church of Moscow to humbly ask for the mercy and forgiveness
of the Master of the Church for all the suffering it has caused and continues
to cause in Orthodoxy.
(…)
We return to the point with which our speech
began: the hints about connecting the invasion of Russia into the independent
and sovereign Ukraine with the Autocephaly granted by the Ecumenical
Patriarchate are figments of a morbid imagination, interspersed with many fake
news, in order to cover up the crime, YES the crime, which is being committed
today in Ukraine. The Ukrainian people know that the uncontrolled state of
ecclesiastical affairs in their country before the granting of Autocephaly was
created and maintained by the Church of Russia, in order to maintain control
over developments, applying the principle of "divide and conquer".
The Orthodox Ukrainian people will never accept that their Church continues to
belong to the Moscow Patriarchate.
24/01/2023 (Source)
Christmas
message to the people of Ukraine
Beloved children in Christ,
Today our Holy Church celebrates the Nativity
in the flesh of the pre-eternal Son and Word of God. This is one of the
greatest feasts of our Christian faith, which we celebrate with spiritual
freedom and joy, independently from the tragic external circumstances.
Unfortunately, this year, the message of the
good news about Christmas echoes alongside the din of war and the clash of
weapons in your fatherland, which is experiencing the horrible consequences of
a provocative and unjust invasion. This war, provoked by the aggression of the
Russian Federation last February, constitutes the worst European geopolitical
and humanitarian crisis since the end of the Second World War, with a negative
impact on the environment and society worldwide.
For us Christians, all wars are the murder of
our brothers. Our Savior blesses the “peacemakers,” for “they shall be called
children of God” (Mat. 5:9); He promotes the notion of righteousness and love,
even toward our enemies. As recipients and supreme beneficiaries of all things
from God, we are obliged more than anyone else to strive for peace. In this
sense, all that is enacted by Christians contrary to this principle does not
primarily affect Christianity but rather those who live contrary to the divine
commandments.
Any distortion of the Gospel message for
political purposes, trying to find a theological reason for war and violence,
thus trying to justify the unjustifiable, turns out to be not only a caricature
of the Gospel, but also and above all a blasphemy against the God of mercy and
the Prince of Peace. The
credibility of religions today depends on their attitude towards protecting
human freedom and dignity and their contribution to peace.
Now, as we celebrate the Nativity of Christ,
the coming into this world of the Son of God to reconcile all creation with its
Creator, let us wholeheartedly strive to be artisans of peace by caring about
justice, solidarity, and the protection of creation. Let us never forget that
our Savior enjoins us in the Gospel to love one another as He has loved us,
specifying that “by this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you
have love for one another” (Jn. 13:35).
The Holy Great Church of Christ – who brought
the Christian faith and Byzantine civilization to your fatherland, Kyivan Rus, at
the end of the 10th century – continues to admire the courage, bravery, and
valor of the Ukrainian people, who demonstrate to the whole world true devotion
and unlimited love to their country. At the same time, the Mother Church is
especially thinking of you all who are celebrating the Nativity of Christ in
this cold season, particularly this year in Ukraine, without electricity,
without heating, and is unceasingly praying for the immediate restoration of
peace and justice, for the revival of Ukraine.
Beloved children in Christ,
Christ is born; glorify Him! Christ is
descending from the heavens; come and meet Him! Christ is on earth; rise up to
greet Him! Despite the circumstances, let us celebrate the Nativity of the
world’s Savior with spiritual joy. We pray that all of you may enjoy a
prayerful Holy Twelve Days of Christmas, like a genuine fullness of time and
radiance of the light of eternity. May the coming 2023 prove – by the goodness
and grace of the Divine Word that became flesh for us and our salvation – to be
a period of peace, love, and solidarity, indeed a year in the righteousness of
our Lord!
We believe that only solidarity with the
Ukrainian people can overcome evil and darkness. We hope, when time permits, to
revisit your unsubdued homeland, finding, then, all the Orthodox Christians in
Ukraine united in one flourishing Church! We wish you all many blessed years!
25/12/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
Before we finish our remarks, we would be
remiss, if we failed to wholeheartedly welcome the artists from the Lviv
Academic Music and Drama Theater, who came from Ukraine, in order to be
together with the children from our Ukrainian community here in Istanbul, who
are celebrating tomorrow, with the Julian calendar, the feast of St. Nicholas.
This morning we have the privilege to have these renown artists in our midst in
order to perform Christmas carols, which will enjoy here shortly. Beloved
children, we are immensely grateful for your great ministry to our faithful
from Ukraine and we are really moved by your kindness to be together with us,
despite the unfathomable sufferings of your country and your fellow-citizens.
From the very first moment of the Russian
invasion to Ukraine, we condemned this war as “unjustified, unholy,
diabolical!” Today,
one week before one of the two greatest feasts of our faith, the Nativity of
our Lord, the feast of love, hope and peace, once again, we raise our voice and
hands to our Savior Jesus Christ, “who for us and for our salvation came down
from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became
man,” imploring Him to look down upon His tormented children in Ukraine and
offer them their much desired and needed peace, comfort and reconciliation.
19/12/2022 (Source)
Speech at World Policy Conference, in Abu Dhabi
The Ukrainian war, provoked by the unjust
aggression of Russia in February 2022, constitutes the worst European
geopolitical and humanitarian crisis since the end of the Second World War. It
is accompanied by the sacrifice of a large number of Ukrainians, Russians and
others, as well as the destruction of an entire country. Was such a disaster to be expected?
Specialists in international relations seek to
explain this situation by referring to the conditions of the end of the Cold
War. Was the West wrong to take advantage of the implosion of the Soviet Union to
establish its influence in the East? Has the change in the major balances in
Europe reawakened old fears of a possible encirclement of Russia? On the other
hand, how can we fail to take into consideration the desire for independence of
peoples who have lived under Soviet oppression? How not to respond with acts of
solidarity to the culpable abandonment of Eastern Europe to the domination of
Moscow in the name of the system of zones of influence established by the Yalta
agreements?
This debate is undoubtedly valid. However, the
vision of our Church lies beyond these current perspectives. Its gaze is more
rooted in history in general and in ecclesiastical history in particular. We
consider the source of our misfortunes to be the consequence of errors in judgment
regarding matters related to faith. It is for this reason that we identify with
the term orthodoxy, a just and upright faith.
The Orthodox Church has played a fundamental
role in the emergence of these two realities, both separate and intertwined, which
are Russia and Ukraine. The place of the drama is at the intersection of a
double crossroads, of Europe and Asia. First of all, there is the isthmus
between the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea, an essential axis for trade between
Northern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean. Perpendicular to this corridor,
in the southern part of present-day Ukraine, a corridor is formed open to the
circulation of peoples, through which several successive invasions have passed.
The commercial function allowed the structuring of powers and the opening to
civilization and to the outside world. The waves of invasions and the
covetousness of the surrounding powers have, on the other hand, often undone
the political structures and subjected the populations to enormous suffering.
It is this dialectic between construction and destruction that explains the
emergence of a Ukrainian identity.
The spatial political map of present-day
Ukraine has changed shape many times over the centuries, from Kievan Rus' in
the 9th century to Catherine II in the 18th century , when most of the Ukraine
found itself integrated into the Russian Empire. Over the centuries, the
populations of Ukraine have been subjected to successive foreign dominations:
Russian, Polish, Mongol, Lithuanian or Austrian. The 20th century was
particularly hard on Ukrainians. They endured the great Stalin-era famine,
Holodomor, and found themselves in the midst of armed confrontation between the
Soviet Union and Nazi Germany during World War II.
This history explains the desire to
differentiate itself from the Russian group and to connect with Europe and its
values. These conditions also make it possible to understand the importance of
religion, an element that is both founding and liberating of Ukrainian
consciousness. From Constantinople, the Ecumenical Patriarchate introduced
Christianity and Byzantine civilization already in the 9th century to the
peoples of this region. It played a fundamental role in the organization of the
religious communities which formed around the Metropolis of Kyiv, and then
around the Patriarchate of Moscow.
However, its teachings with regard to the rules
of organization and ecclesiastical functioning, inherited from the long history
of Christianity and which reflect all the administrative and philosophical
wisdom of the world of the Eastern Mediterranean, have not always been
respected by Moscow. The imperial power wanted to submit the church to its will
in its effort to instrumentalize the religious feeling for its political and
military ends. Thus, from the capture of Constantinople by the Ottomans in
1453, Moscow aspired to replace the Ecumenical Patriarchate by proclaiming that
Moscow represented “the third Rome”. This long-lasting policy of Moscow
constitutes a fundamental factor of division of the Orthodox world.
From the 19th century, Moscow's
instrumentalization of religion combined with the innovative ideas of German
nationalism. Inspired by Pan-Germanism, the new ideology of Pan-Slavism, an
organ of Russian foreign policy, acquired a religious component. It is about
the idea that the churches must organize themselves according to the principle
of ethnicity, whose central marker would be the language. It is this approach
that the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople denounced in 1872 as heresy
(the heresy of ethnophyletism, a form of ecclesial racism). It is in flagrant
contradiction with the universalism of the Gospel message, as well as the
principle of territorial governance which defines the organization of our
church.
This heresy was however useful to the
objectives of Moscow since it distanced the Slavic-speaking believers from the
influence of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The aim of this strategy was to
create, within the Ottoman Empire, and later in the form of an independent
state, a separate political force, at the service of the Russian thrust towards
the warm seas. She is responsible for the hatreds between Balkan Christians
that led to the Balkan wars and atrocities of the early 20th century.
During the Soviet Union, religion was
marginalized and oppressed. Communist ideology had occupied the terrain
attributed to the screen to a religion exploited by the Tsarist Empire. After its
fall, the faith was again used for ideological purposes. The Russian
Orthodox Church has sided with the regime of President Vladimir Putin,
especially since the election of His Beatitude Patriarch Kirill in 2009. It is
actively involved in promoting the ideology of Rousskii Mir, of the Russian
world , according to which language and religion make it possible to define a
coherent whole encompassing Russia, Ukraine, Belarus as well as the other
territories of the former Soviet Union and the diaspora. Moscow (both political
power and religious power) would constitute the center of this world, whose
mission would be to combat the decadent values of the West. This ideology
constitutes an instrument of legitimization of Russian expansionism and the
basis of its Eurasian strategy. The link with the past of ethnophyletism and
the present of the Russian world is obvious. Faith thus becomes the backbone of
the Putin regime's ideology.
Autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church
granted in 2019 by the Ecumenical Patriarchate has worsened relations with the
Russian Church. Here
we find tensions already expressed when the Patriarchate of Moscow decided not
to participate in the holy and great Council of the Orthodox Church gathered in
Crete in 2016.
The invasion of Ukraine on February 24 pushed
the polarization to a fever pitch. Patriarch Kirill's ambiguous stance on the
war and support for President Putin's policies have provoked strong criticism
within the Orthodox world and beyond. The Orthodox of Ukraine who had chosen to
remain under the tutelage of the Russian Church also expressed their disapproval.
Thus, the division of the Orthodox world
deepens and extends. Some Churches agree with the Ecumenical Patriarchate;
others, whose countries are too dependent on Russia, blindly support the Moscow
Patriarchate; still others prefer to keep a complicit silence. Meanwhile, the
Russian Church uses the means of the state to establish its influence on the
canonical territory of other Churches, despite the most elementary rules of the
ecclesiastical organization of Orthodoxy. Its interferences in Africa are presented
as punitive actions against the Patriarchate of Alexandria for the recognition
of the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. It is obvious that under
these conditions, the peace-making role of the Church becomes very difficult.
What does this mean for debates beyond church
circles? It shows once again the growing role of the religious factor in major
global issues. Ideologies are weakening one after another. The end of communism
left a great void in a whole part of the world which lived under its domination
and in other populations which had invested their hopes in it. The crisis of
globalization and liberalism is also creating deep frustrations and dangerous
resentments. In this landscape of the collapse of materialist ideologies, the
spiritual is making a comeback. However, this return can constitute a danger,
if it is not expressed according to approaches integrating the wisdom of
religious traditions drawn from the heritage of the great civilizations of the
past.
Errors in discernment, heresies, are not
insignificant phenomena which interest only a few clerics and a few scholars.
On the contrary, they have very serious consequences for spiritual life and for
material life. The source of the problems is the instrumentalization of
religion by actors who often have no real faith.
The Russian Orthodox constitute a great wealth
for Orthodoxy and for the whole world. Russian Orthodoxy offered an enormous
intellectual, spiritual and artistic contribution. It was unfortunately the
victim of interference from Russian political power. Soviet oppression wreaked
havoc, depriving entire generations of the blessings of the Church's faith and
wisdom. The neo-imperial regime, in its need to strengthen itself, drew on what
seemed to it to be precious political capital: the renewed religious sentiment
of the Russian people. Unfortunately, it was able to lead part of the Orthodox
clergy on this path. Above all, it took up and reinforced the heretical
approaches of the Tsarist regime in a context of poor knowledge of
ecclesiastical rules, due in part to the spiritual decay of the Soviet period.
The consequences are very serious. The
ethno-religious fanaticism inculcated in Russian youth stifles prospects for
peace and reconciliation. The Orthodox world is divided and this fragmentation
is projected onto poor countries, whose people hoped to find relief in the
faith. It harms especially the Russian Church since sooner or later the
populations will realize the excesses of a Church subjected to objectives which
have nothing to do with its original mission.
Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends,
Specialists in international relations
sometimes tend to ignore or marginalize the role and significance of the
religious factor, authentic or manipulated. We have, however, entered a period
in which this factor is becoming increasingly important. Theologians and other
specialists in questions having to do with the functioning of the Churches must
undoubtedly open up to other perspectives and develop dialogue with other
scientific disciplines. It is also important that specialists in the social
sciences, political sciences and international relations overcome a certain
hesitation to deepen religious questions. The understanding of a new world
which is being constituted before our eyes cannot disregard the religious fact.
Thank you for your attention !
09/12/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from speech during ecumenical prayer in
Malta
The credibility of religions today depends on
their attitude towards protecting human freedom and dignity and their
contributions to peace. This is the presupposition not only of peaceful
coexistence but even of the sheer survival of humanity. We can face these
challenges only together. Nobody – not a nation, state, religion, or science
and technology – can meet the current problems alone. We need one another; we
need common mobilisation, common efforts, common goals, and a common spirit.
The numerous challenges our world faces today provide an opportunity for
practising solidarity, engaging in dialogue and cooperation, and openness and
confidence. Our future is shared and the way toward this future is a shared
journey.
Unfortunately, those who started the war in
Ukraine ignore and violate these principles and act against the common good.
In His Sermon on the Mount, our Saviour teaches us, saying: “Blessed are the
peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Mt. 5:9). Any
distortion of the Gospel message for political purposes, trying to find a
theological reason for war and violence, thus trying to justify the
unjustifiable, turns out to be not only a caricature of the Gospel but also,
and above all, a blasphemy against the God of mercy and the Prince of Peace.
At this time, when we Christians prepare to
celebrate the Nativity of Christ, the coming into this world of the Son of God
to reconcile all creation with its Creator, let us wholeheartedly strive to be
artisans of peace by caring about justice, solidarity, and the protection of
creation. Let us never forget that our Saviour enjoins us in the Gospel to love
one another as He has loved us, specifying that “by this everyone will know
that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn. 13:35). This
is our common heritage. This is what we share. This is what drives us to come
together and act together. During this holiday season, may our Saviour grant
you all health, peace, and progress in every good thing, every blessing from
above, during Christmas, the upcoming new year, and all the days of your life!
06/12/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from sermon during vespers on feast of
St. Nicholas
Unfortunately, we see how the message of the
Gospel of Christ can be manipulated to justify war and the use of violence. The
disastrous ongoing war in Ukraine between Christian brother peoples deeply
saddens us. In
response to these unacceptable and tragic events, we shall quote the document
on The Mission of the Orthodox Church in Today’s World of the Holy and Great
Council of the Orthodox Church, which was gathered in Crete in 2016, and which
stated: “The Church of Christ condemns war in general, recognizing it as the
result of the presence of evil and sin in the world” (D1, D3). Seeing the
bloodshed unfolding before our eyes, we pray for the rest of the thousands of
dead people and for the consolation and salvation of all who suffer from its
consequences, calling once again for an immediate ceasefire and for a peaceful
resolution of this conflict through sincere dialogue.
Since many centuries, the Holy and Great Church
of Christ has always fostered and encouraged a culture of dialogue. Dialogue
can only take place in a spirit of respect, responsibility and solidarity. The
purpose of dialogue is mutual understanding with the aim of seeking justice and
truth. Dialogue involves both parties: it cannot take place if there is no
genuine desire to listen to the other. The starting point is the desire to
clarify misunderstandings that may have developed over the centuries. Dialogue
manifests true Christian love and mercy.
06/12/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from greeting at reception on St. Andrew’s
Day
As you all realize, this year’s celebrations
occur during a difficult time for the region and the world as we constantly
follow what our spiritual children in Ukraine continue to endure. We encourage
you not to forget these courageous people as the cold winter approaches and are
confident that the Lord will not forget them.
30/11/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from speech during visit to England
And today, the unjustifiable war in Ukraine
has resulted in fratricide and plunged the entire world into insecurity.
From the Phanar, in conversations with our hierarchs and in communications with
other religious leaders, we unceasingly appeal for peace and reconciliation,
especially in this unjustifiable bloodshed among Orthodox brothers as a result
of the unprovoked attack by the Russian Federation on the sovereign territory
of Ukraine. We can never accept the callous position taken by Patriarch of
Moscow in this regard.
23/10/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from speech during visit to England
Our words to you tonight are not a mere
formality. They come from the heart. They are the sincere and paternal hopes of
your Patriarch for the role and responsibility that you and your generation
have in our world and in our time. All over the world, we witness turmoil and
change; you see it in your own country, but it is the same in many parts of the
planet. You see how the unprovoked and diabolical war instigated by the
Russian Federation on the sovereign territory of Ukraine has global
ramifications on the economy, the energy, and the food of so many countries,
both developed and developing. Everything that occurs in one part of the planet
has direct implications for the rest of the planet, and especially the poor. And
if we are to resist facing despondency and despair, then we are called to
search deep inside the Word of God and the wealth of our tradition in order –
as the First Letter of Peter says – to “be ready always to give an answer to
every person who asks us to give account for the hope that lies within us.”
22/10/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from speech during visit to England
The entire world is only just
emerging from the global pandemic that threatened and took so many lives, while
at the same time revealing the generosity and dedication of doctors and carers.
And today, the unjustifiable attack by Russia on Ukraine has resulted in
fratricide and plunged the entire world into insecurity. We appeal to you to
pray constantly and fervently for an end to this war, and that the leaders of
the Russian Federation and Moscow Patriarchate may bring an end to this
wrongdoing so that God’s peace may prevail.
21/10/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of message on the Day for the
Protection of Creation
This year, the celebration of the Day of the
protection of creation are accompanied by the sound of weapons in Ukraine, by
the cry of the victims of military violence, the bombardment of cities and
infrastructures, the groaning of nature and moaning of refugees. Every war is a
humanitarian and ecological catastrophe. The ongoing violence, beyond the
thousands of human lives, also destroys the natural environment that it
pollutes, forcing nations and peoples to return to ways of securing energy
efficiency through means that are unfriendly to the environment. Thus, humanity
enters a new vicious cycle of destructive impasses, which confirm the saying
that homo sapiens to this day continues to behave simultaneously as homo
demens, as imprudent and irrational.
01/09/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of press conference by Ecumenical
Patriarch
I have expressed the position of the Ecumenical
Patriarchate since the beginning of this painful war. I said that it is
unjustified and unacceptable. His Beatitude the Patriarch of Moscow said
that it was a holy war and tried to justify it and explain it in spiritual and
religious terms. But I have allowed myself to correct it and say that it is not
a holy war but an unholy and evil war. When thousands of new soldiers are
killed on both sides, and not only soldiers but also civilians, how can we
bless this war with our two hands, as the Blessed Patriarch of Moscow
unfortunately does?
29/08/2022 (Source)
Message on the Day of Ukrainian Independence
From the centre of Orthodoxy, the Phanar, we
are addressing all of you, beloved spiritual children, on this special day, the
twenty-fourth of August, 2022, the thirty-first anniversary of Ukraine’s
declaration of independence. We offer heartfelt greetings and our paternal
love to you all at this difficult time as you defend your homeland from a
foreign invader.
History has bound Ukraine and the Ecumenical
Patriarchate since the end of the tenth century, when the Holy Prince Vladimir,
like “a merchant in search of fine pearls,” sent emissaries to Constantinople,
where he found Christ, the priceless pearl. Since then, the Mother Church of
Constantinople has always been at your side, sharing your joys and sorrows.
By the grace of God, during these days last
year, we had the honour to partake in the Independence Day celebrations in Kyiv
during our first Patriarchal Visit to your hospitable country after the Holy
and Great Church of Christ granted the Tomos of Autocephaly to your Church.
Last year was a time of celebration and
rejoicing. But unfortunately, when you were looking for good, evil came;
when you waited for light, darkness came, days of affliction came to meet you
(cf. Job 30:26-27). With great sadness and horror, last February, we learned of
the unjustified aggression against your country by the Russian Federation, a
gross violation of international law. Since then, we have been anxiously
following the war’s progression and its political, economic, sociological, and
ecological consequences.
It is our conviction that no Church or
Christian can justify or support any form of aggression by using religious
language. Called to be peacemakers, genuine Christians must support all
initiatives to prevent conflict via dialogue, which fosters understanding and
reconciliation.
Constantly lifting our prayers to the Mother of
God to grant justice and peace to Ukraine, we petition our Lord that no one be
filled with anguish for their families. Furthermore, we beseech the Almighty
that their heroic sons and daughters will not die defending their native land.
The virtuous Ukrainian people did not attack
anyone, but were forced to defend their land and homes. May the All-Merciful
Lord strengthen all of you to endure these many distresses and bear this heavy
cross. Our Saviour,
Jesus Christ, said: “Where I am, there My servant will be also.” (John 12:26).
You must know that God is always with you, that this evil and ungodly war will
end; evil will never overcome good; darkness will never overcome light. After
suffering and torment, the light of Christ will shine, and peace will reign in
Ukraine.
In March, we visited Ukrainian refugees in
Poland in a spirit of solidarity to bring them solace and hope, trying to
awaken the international community’s conscience to this tragedy that is taking
place in Europe. Today, with much paternal love, we console you and bestow on
you all – civil and ecclesiastical authorities, the armed forces, selfless
medical professionals, educators, refugees throughout the world, all Ukrainian
citizens and everyone of goodwill – our Patriarchal blessing, wishing you all
that “the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in all ways and may
be with you all” (2 Thess. 3:16).
24/08/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of Letter to Pope Francis on the Feast of St. Peter and St.
Paul
How precious the testimony of the two Apostles by the incarnation of
the Gospel principle of non-violence is to us today, when the whole
world suffers at this time from the political, economic, and ecological
consequences of war at the door of Europe between two Christian peoples,
resulting from the illegal invasion of Ukraine by the Russian
Federation. The Churches cannot remain silent in the face of this tragedy of
humanity. Called to be peacemakers, under no circumstances can they use
religious language to justify or support aggression, violence, or war. On
the contrary, they should support all initiatives and efforts to prevent
conflicts through dialogue, which transforms all threats into
opportunities and fosters peace, reconciliation, and solidarity. They are
no losers in sincere dialogue.
30/6/2022 (Source)
Sermon at the Church of Saints Constantine and Helen
Let us not be discouraged, then, and do not be disappointed when we are
called into our lives to bear various crosses, sorrows and
trials. This is the message we are sending tonight to the beloved and tested
children of the Mother Church in Ukraine. All these difficulties and problems can be overcome by believing in
the power of the Cross of the Lord
20/05/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from speech at the Meeting for the Promotion of Common Values
among the Believers of Religions
Future generations are entitled to a life in dignity, to a world free
of hatred and violence, unspoiled by pollution and natural devastation,
a society of peace and fraternity. At these crucial moments that the world is experiencing following the war
in Ukraine, we appeal to the responsible authorities and international
organizations and all people of goodwill to strive for the end of all
hostilities and the establishment of just and sustainable peace.
11/05/2022 (Source)
Excerpts of interview with Kathimerini Kyprou
What is happening in Ukraine is a tragedy, it is a shame that will
stigmatize those who caused it, those who turned out to have no fear of
God. Holy Week does not seem to be over for
the war-torn Ukrainian people, for the mothers, and for both sides
mourning their children. And yet, Christ is Risen.
Of course [the prolongation of the war] worries us. And it hurts us deeply… We have said many times that war is not the
solution. It should not even be the last resort. The way to resolve any dispute should be dialogue, and only dialogue. I
would not like to comment on the attitude and choices of the Russian
political leadership, which is judged by its results, and I am sure that
it will be judged further in the near and distant future by other
persons and institutions and, of course, by history itself, whose pages
are currently written in the blood of the innocent victims of this
war. However, we are convinced that the Russian people, at least our Christian
Orthodox brothers, can not agree with what is happening to the detriment
of their neighboring Ukrainian people. And we have all seen this with the reaction of a courageous faction
that opposes fratricidal war and is in favour of peace.
[Regarding the attitude of the Patriarch of Moscow] In the face of the death of innocent people, in the bombing of
civilians, in the levelling of entire cities, in the face of this
human tragedy, sermons cannot be heard that characterize a war as
"sacred". This is something very sad. It causes us deep sorrow and pain. But it
causes more pain to the Ukrainians themselves. Because you can not claim
to be a brother to another people and bless the war waged by your state.
You can not insist that Ukraine belongs to you ecclesiastically, but let
the faithful of the ecclesiastical structure under Moscow be killed and
their temples destroyed by the Russian bombing.
01/05/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from the Easter Encyclical
However, even as we are filled with gratitude and joy for this supreme
value ascribed to the human being by the Lord of glory, we are disheartened before multifaceted violence, social injustice
and infringement of human rights in our time. “The radiant message of the resurrection” and our cry “Christ is
Risen!” today reverberate alongside the horrendous sound of weapons, the distressing cries of innocent
victims of military aggression and the plight of refugees, among whom
there are numerous innocent children. We saw with our own eyes all of
these problems during our recent visit to Poland, where the vast
majority of Ukrainian refugees has fled. We stand and suffer alongside
the pious and courageous people of Ukraine that bear a heavy cross. We pray and strive for peace and justice as well as for all those who
are deprived of these. It is unimaginable for us Christians to remain silent before the
obliteration of human dignity. Together with the victims of military
conflict, the “greatest casualty” of war is humanity, which has not
managed to eradicate war in the course of its long history. Not only
does war not solve problems; it actually creates new and more complex
problems. It sows division and hatred; it increases discord among
peoples. We firmly believe that humankind is capable of living without
war and violence.
The Church of Christ innately functions as an agent of peace. Not only
does it pray “for the peace from above” and “the peace of the whole
world,” but it underlines the importance of every human effort to
establish peace. The principal characteristic of a Christian is
“peace-making.” Christ blesses the peacemakers, whose struggle is a
tangible presence of God in the world and depicts the peace “that
surpasses all understanding” (Phil. 4.7) in the “new creation,” the
heavenly kingdom of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. As
judiciously emphasized in the document of the Ecumenical Patriarchate,
entitled For the Life of the World, the social ethos of the Orthodox
Church, the Church “honors the martyrs for peace as witnesses to the
power of love, to the goodness of creation in its first and final forms,
and to the ideal of human conduct established by Christ during his
earthly ministry” (§ 44).
22/4/2022 (Source)
Words spoken during the consecration of Holy Myrrh
We beseech and implore the Peace of God who voluntarily suffered the
Passion for our salvation, our Lord Jesus Christ, to cease by His
extraordinary and powerful intervention the horrible and abominable war against the people of Ukraine, in the context of which a demonic crew, unfortunately, have sacrilegiously wielded an impudent weapon against their Orthodox
brothers and sisters, ...victimizing and lynching without fear of God, without embarrassment
and shame, slaughtering and killing thousands of civilians, disgracing
women, insulting holy temples, and burning homes, destroying and
razing cities and towns to the ground, and forcing millions of their
defenceless brethren, especially women and children, to flee their
country! May the Leader of Life shorten the Passion and Calvary of His
children and lead them with Him to the peace, tranquillity, light and
joy of the Resurrection! And lead also the belligerent invaders of
Christian love to sincere repentance, through the light of the
Paraclete!
19/4/2022 (Source)
Speech during memorial service for Patriarch Gregory V
We are in favour of the law, in favour of the truth. Law and truth are with Ukraine, that is why we are with Ukraine. The Gospel says: "Know the truth, and
the truth shall make you free". We Christians believe that the truth is
Christ himself. Christ, then, will liberate Ukraine, which has the truth on its side. We all pray, with all our hearts, for this catastrophic war to end as
soon as possible.
(…)
This Easter of 2022 will be a bitter Easter for our Ukrainian brothers and
not only. Good Friday will pass and Anastasis will come. Those who will not come back will be the thousands of dead, the victims
of this war. They, like everyone else, will pray from heaven not only
for the freedom and prosperity of Ukraine, but will pray for truth and
justice and peace throughout the world. The Mother Church of Constantinople has always loved its spiritual
children in Ukraine. Now we love you so much more. Happy Resurrection!
10/04/2022 (Source)
Speech to students
No problem can be solved by war. War does not solve problems, I always
say it, repeatedly, war adds new problems.
(…)
The Russians, wrongly, wrongly, invaded Ukraine. They may have had
fears about the future, about NATO, but there was no specific threat or intervention from Ukraine to
push the President of the Russian Federation to take up arms and
attack civilians, innocent people, to destroy schools, hospitals, theatres, churches.
Now some people want to say that because of this headache [the
discussion over autocephaly of the Ukrainian Church] the war broke
out. As if that were possible! They are looking for an alibi to
justify the unjustifiable.
(…)
We are very sorry for the attitude of His Beatitude Patriarch Kirill
of Russia. He should not have identified so much with President Putin
and, in fact, described Russia's war against Ukraine as “sacred”.
07/04/2022 (Source)
Speech during welcome ceremony, on visit to Poland
My visit here is neither any jubilant nor some festive occasion. My
exclusive focus these days is to stand in solidarity and prayer with the
millions of refugees who have been forcibly displaced by the ongoing
unjustified and unjustifiable aggression as well as the horrendous and
costly violence caused by Russia on their sovereign homeland of
Ukraine.
I am here to meet with some of the many refugees and to encourage those
who are demonstrating the ultimate Christian virtue of love for their
neighbour and charity for every stranger, in whom we are called to
witness and welcome Christ Himself.
What I would like to emphasize first of all, Mr. President, is my
personal gratitude – but especially the appreciation of the Orthodox
faithful, and indeed the admiration of every decent human being – for
the generous and compassionate hospitality of your historical and
magnificent nation to those who were forced to flee Ukraine. The people
of Poland understand very well what it means to suffer from war. But
above and beyond this, the citizens of Poland respect the gifts of freedom – freedom of
speech, freedom of education, freedom of economy, freedom of worship,
and freedom of living.
Let me assure You that the entire world has watched as Poland – and
other surrounding nations within this blessed continent – has literally
opened the borders of its land and the depths of its heart to receive
and comfort women and children, elderly and unaccompanied minors, and
even pets. You did not just consign your refugee neighbours to tents and
camps; you embraced them in your places of residence and your living
rooms.
All of them are distressed about the past and fearful about the future.
All of them need our reassurance and assistance, our support and
encouragement. All of them are vulnerable to hunger and homelessness but
also to exploitation and trafficking. And in the middle of this
unbelievable and unacceptable crisis, the state and people of Poland
stand out as a model of decency, of philanthropy, and of
hospitality.
May God bless all of you and your loved ones abundantly. May all
humankind learn from and imitate your extraordinary example. Only such
genuine love and unconditional solidarity can conquer any and all evil
and darkness in our world.
28/3/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from the sermon on the second Sunday of Lent
Dear Christians, war can and should never be an option for resolving any disputes.
Weapons scatter death and, of course, do not discriminate. They kill
everyone. This is evidenced by the tragic images that have been going around
the world for the last twenty-five days.
Unfortunately, the invaders of Ukraine, a sovereign and independent state, seem to seek the utter humiliation of their proud, loyal and brotherly Ukrainian people, who are fighting heroically and sacrificially for their freedom. At the same time, however, those who chose the path of war are leading their own youth to doom. Several thousand Russian soldiers have lost their lives. Because its effects are already being experienced by ordinary people on both sides. Ukrainian and Russian mothers have been separated from their children who went to war, and many of them are already, unfortunately, mourning their loss.
We seize the opportunity of our presence here to shout once again with all our might: stop this horror! Stop the war now! Enough of this Madness! How much more blood will our earth withstand? How many more dead will she fit in her womb? How many more tears will water her soil?
20/03/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from the sermon on Triumph of Orthodoxy Sunday
With all our hearts, we are watching the drama of the Ukrainian people,
and at the same time we are admiring their strong resistance to the
invader. We also note with satisfaction the brave reaction of Russian citizens
to the bloodshed. We call for an immediate ceasefire on all fronts of
the war. Violence and war not only do not resolve disputes, but cause pain
and death and create more complex problems. The invasion and the war must end immediately, and a new opportunity
must be given to dialogue, preeminent vehicle of reconciliation and
peace. On the other hand, the Charter of the
United Nations, this "Gospel of the Nations" as it is called, explicitly
prohibits the use of force in international relations and commits all
members of the Organization to settle their disputes by peaceful means.
"War is a violation of international law, which is now a 'law of
peace.'"
13/03/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from HH homily at the opening liturgy for the Great Lent
Throughout these days, the pious people of Ukraine carry their own weighty Cross, as they
suffer the unspeakable abuses of an unprovoked, irrational and hostile
war, which propagates pain and death. Co-suffering with our tested brethren and children, we intensify our
supplication to the Lord of mercy and God of peace, unto the immediate
cessation of this conflict and the prevalence of justice and peace, which
are a foretaste of the redeemed joy of the Kingdom of God.
3/3/2022 (Source)
Interview with CNN Turkey
I saw that Ukraine is extremely pleased and proud of its
independence. Being able to break away from the Soviet Union and establish their own
independent country is an honor and privilege for them, and they
celebrated this wholeheartedly last August. President Zelensky hosted a
dinner in my honor on the first evening I arrived, and explained the
situation in his homeland. He expressed his gratitude towards our
Ecumenical Patriarchate. We have given the independent country of Ukraine an independent
church.
How much was this act of our Patriarchate appreciated? Under today's conditions, we see that our Patriarchate acted very early
and we did a very good job. We upset our Russian brothers, but this had to
happen. Orthodox people in all Balkan countries were attached to our
Patriarchate for a long period of time. But there came a point in time
when all those churches received their independence from our Ecumenical
Patriarchate. Ukraine well deserved it.
Now we see that some Ukrainian clergy do not want to mention the name of the Russian
patriarch, Kyril, in their services. They see him as the religious
leader of the enemy country. They gradually break away from that church
and move on to the new autocephalous church. We are happy about it or not. Because this is the result of war. One
would wish that the Russian church would not show such hostility towards
our Patriarchate and towards me, and accept our canonical action.
Unfortunately, the Russian Patriarchate did not accept our decision. Our
Patriarchate and I personally became their target. The whole world is against Russia. We are entering a new era of cold
war. The distance between Russia and not only Ukraine but the whole
Western world, Russia and the Western world is getting bigger. It means
that we are entering a new cold war period. Anyone who thinks right and
acts right does not want this situation, this new cold war
period. As a religious institution, our Patriarchate, has always been in favour
of peace and unity, and we continue to do so. We have especially
strengthened our prayers these days.
02/03/2022 (Source)
Today, Monday, 28 February 2022, His All-Holiness, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, accompanied by His Eminence Elder Metropolitan Emmanuel of Chalcedon and the V. Rev. Grand Syncellus Iakovos, went to the local Consulate General of Ukraine and expressed the unreserved sympathy, support and solidarity of the Mother Church to the Consul General, Mr. Roman Nedilskyi, his collaborators, the large local Ukrainian Community and the entire heroic people of their country. He simultaneously assured them of the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s constant prayers for the prevalence of peace, the preservation of Ukraine’s independence and territorial integrity, an immediate ceasefire and the cessation of intrusion of foreign forces into it.
The Consul General thanked His All-Holiness for this renewed loving
expression of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and comprehensively informed
those present regarding the current developments and the progress of the
negotiations underway.
At the Ecumenical Patriarchate, 28 February 2022
From the Chief Secretariat of the Holy and Sacred Synod
28/2/2022 (Source)
Even in the most unfavorable circumstances, such as today, where the world community is following with horror Russia’s, beyond every sense of law and morality, military attack and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, an independent and sovereign state, or perhaps even more so now as the fiercest conflict since the time of World War II unfolds in Europe, in our neighborhood, we direct our prayers to the Lord Jesus, the Ruler of peace, asking Him with a fervent soul that He “will give strength to His people” and “bless His people with peace” (cf. Psalm 27:11). The Holy Great Church of Christ unceasingly chants the angelic hymn throughout the ages: “peace on earth and good will to men.”
Indeed, during the last few days, a tragic humanitarian catastrophe is
unfolding in Ukraine. A war, which, like any war, is an abominable and
reprehensible situation. It is the domination of irrationality over
reason, hatred over love, darkness over light, death over life.
Again, from this position, we address another plea to end the war now! To immediately stop any act of violence, anything that spreads pain
and death. Let reason prevail, love for fellow human beings,
reconciliation and solidarity, the light of the Risen Christ, the gift of
life.
We express our full sympathy to our brother, the Primate of the Church
of Ukraine, His Beatitude Metropolitan Epiphanios of Kyiv, and our unwavering support to all the seriously suffering Ukrainian
people, who have a deep faith in God and chose to live freely and to
determine their own lives, as every nation deserves. Although,
unfortunately, some have come, these days, to the point of questioning
even their historical and national existence.
Our thoughts are constantly with the wounded and with the families of
the innocent victims, irrespective of their ethnic identity, and we pray for the rest of their souls to the Lord of Life and
Death. We are certain that the Lord will hear our prayers and will not abandon
his beloved children in Ukraine.
27/2/2022 (Source)
Even before speaking officially, after the Angelus prayer on 27 February, Pope Francis made several important gestures in favour of peace, including an unprecedented visit to the Russian Embassy to the Vatican, and a telephone call to the President of Ukraine and to the leader of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church. He also published a number of tweets in Ukrainian and in Russian.
General audience
The day after tomorrow, on 24 February, it
will be one year since the invasion of Ukraine, since the beginning of this
absurd and cruel war. A sad anniversary! The toll of dead, wounded,
refugees and displaced persons, destruction, economic and social damage speaks
for itself. May the Lord forgive so many crimes and so much violence. He
is the God of peace. Let us remain close to the tormented Ukrainian people,
who continue to suffer, and let us ask ourselves: has everything possible been
done to stop the war? I appeal to those who have authority over nations to make
a concrete commitment to end the conflict, to achieve a cease-fire and to start
peace negotiations. What is built on rubble will never be a true victory!
22/02/2023 (Source)
Words during Angelus
Jesus’ love asks us to let ourselves be touched
by the situations of those who are in difficulty. I think especially of Syria
and Turkey, of the very many victims of the earthquake, but also of the
daily tragedies of the dear Ukrainian people and the many populations who
suffer as a result of war or because of poverty, the lack of freedom or
environmental devastation
19/02/2023 (Source)
General audience
And brothers and sisters, let us not forget
the dear and tormented people of Ukraine, praying so that all their cruel
suffering may end. I offer my blessing to all of you.
05/02/2023 (Source)
Words during Angelus
And let us not forget tormented Ukraine: may
the Lord open avenues of peace and give those responsible the courage to follow
them.
12/02/2023 (Source)
General audience
Let us not forget the suffering of the
Ukrainian people, so battered: with this cold, without light, without heating,
and at war.
08/02/2023 (Source)
In-flight press conference following visit to
South Sudan
I am open to meeting both presidents: the
President of Ukraine and the President of Russia – I am open to a meeting. If I
have not gone to Kyiv, it is because it was not possible at the time to go to
Moscow; but I was in dialogue, and indeed, on the second day of the war, I
went to the Russian Embassy to say that I wanted to go to Moscow to talk to
Putin, provided there was a small window to negotiate. Then Minister Lavrov replied,
“Good”, that he was taking this into consideration, but [said], “We’ll see
later”. That gesture was something considered, saying ‘I’ll do it for him’.
05/02/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
To Our Lady we also entrust peace in our world,
especially in the many countries at war, like Ukraine, which suffers so greatly.
05/02/2023 (Source)
Words during Angelus
Let us continue to stay close, with prayer and
concrete support, to the earthquake victims in Syria and Turkey. I saw on the
television programme “A Sua Immagine” the images of this catastrophe, the pain
of these peoples who are suffering as a result of the earthquake. Let us pray
for them, let us not forget them, let us pray and think about what we can do
for them. And let us not forget tormented Ukraine: may the Lord open ways of
peace and give those responsible the courage to follow them.
12/02/2023 (Source)
Conversation with Jesuits during visit to the
DR Congo
These days I am struck by the stories of
violence. I am especially struck by the cruelty. The news coming from the wars
around the world tell us of a cruelty that is hard even to think about. Not
only is there killing, but it is being done cruelly. This is something new to
me. It gives me pause for thought. Even the news coming out of Ukraine tells
us about cruelty. And here in Congo we have heard it in the direct
testimonies of the victims.
02/02/2023 (Source)
Words during Angelus
And now I greet with great affection the boys
and girls from Catholic Action from the Diocese of Rome! You have come with the
“Peace Caravan”. I thank you for this initiative which is so much more precious
this year because, thinking of war-torn Ukraine, our commitment and our
prayer for peace must be even stronger. Let us think of Ukraine and pray for
the Ukrainian people, who are so badly treated. Let us listen now to the
message that your friends here beside me will read to us.
29/01/2023 (Source)
Words to delegation of the All Ukrainian
Council of Churches and Religious Organisations
Dear brothers, good morning!
I welcome you and thank Bishop Marcos for the
words he addressed to me on your behalf. I give thanks to God that this
meeting with you enables me somehow to have closer contact with the Ukrainian
people, who have always been present in my prayers in these months. Indeed,
you represent the Churches and religious organizations of Ukraine, including
the Bible Society, which is interdenominational. And you participate in the
life of the country, endeavouring to respond to social challenges with public
interventions and various activities, which in recent times have necessarily
been linked to the dramatic current situation.
I want to tell you that I am with you in your
closeness to and support for families, children, the elderly, the sick and the
most vulnerable people. I am with you in defending the rights of the
faithful of every religious community, especially those who suffer injustices
and persecution. I am with you in your commitment to assisting prisoners
and those who are detained for political reasons. I encourage your efforts to
re-establish respect, on the part of everyone, for the principles and norms of
international law and fundamental human rights.
And I consider the fact that you decide and
carry out all these initiatives together, as brothers, to be a
grace of God. This is a concrete witness of peace in a country that suffers due
to war. Your action, carried out with tenacity and courage, effectively
prepares for tomorrow, a tomorrow of peace, in which the economic and political
interests that engender war will finally give way to the common good of
peoples. I pray for this every day. I pray with you and for you, dear
brothers, for your people, for the beloved Ukrainian people. May God bless them
with the gift of peace!
Impromptu greeting of the Holy Father
I would like to listen to you, but we are
slaves to the limitations of time, because at five to nine I have to begin the
General Audience. I would like to listen to each one of you, but looking at the
number, we won’t make it. So I ask you, please, to be brief, so that at five to
nine I can be there. I am sorry. I would stay all morning with you, but we are
slaves also to time.
What you hold in your hands is a text that
brings together what has stirred in my heart in these months of war, seeing the
images of this immense tragedy. I am close to you and I regularly receive
envoys from President Zelensky. I am in dialogue with the representatives of
the Ukrainian people and this enables me to feel I am with you, and to pray. I
thank you for your unity: this, for me, is something great, like the children
of a family — one here, another there, another over there — but when the mother
is sick, they all come together. It is not so much about Jewish Ukraine,
Christian Ukraine, Orthodox Ukraine, Catholic Ukraine, Islamic Ukraine..., no.
It is about Ukraine, “mother” Ukraine, and all together! And this shows the
fabric of your race. It is an example in the face of the superficiality seen in
our culture today.
I had prepared an address, but time cuts us
short, and so, if you are not offended, I will hand it to you for it to be
distributed. I am close to you. When I was a child — he knows the story — I
would serve at Mass with a priest, Father Stefano, who was there, and I learned
to serve Mass in Ukrainian, when I was 11 years old. And from that moment, my
fondness for Ukraine grew. It is an old fondness that has grown, and this
brings me closer to you. Have no doubt, I pray for you! I carry you in my
heart and ask God to have mercy on this courageous people. Thank you for this
visit, thank you! I would like to greet you before leaving, one by one.
Only, before we finish, I would ask you to pray, in silence, each in his own
way, in your own way of praying, in silence but together for Mother Ukraine.
25/01/2023 (Source)
Words during general audience
In our thoughts and prayers, may the
tormented Ukraine, so much afflicted, not be absent. This morning I had a
meeting with the leaders of the different Confessions of faith that are in
Ukraine – all united – and they told me about the pain of that people. Let
us never forget, every day, to pray for definitive peace in Ukraine.
25/01/2023 (Source)
Words following Angelus prayer
In these days, as we pray in particular for the
full unity of all Christians, please, let us not forget, to pray for peace
for war-torn Ukraine. May the Lord comfort and sustain that people who are
suffering so much! They are suffering so much!
22/01/2023 (Source)
Words following Angelus prayer
Brothers and sisters, let us not forget the
war-torn Ukrainian people, who are suffering greatly. Let us stay close to
them with our sentiments, our aid and our prayer.
15/01/2023 (Source)
Words during general audience
And let us not forget war-torn Ukraine, which
is always in our hearts. Let us express our affection, closeness and our prayer to these people
who are experiencing cruel suffering. And now I will pause in silence for a
few minutes before the icon known as Our Lady of the People, who is venerated
in Belarus, to pray for that country and for peace. I invite you to join
spiritually to my prayer.
11/01/2023 (Source)
Speech to diplomatic corps
Today
the third world war is taking place in a globalized world where conflicts
involve only certain areas of the planet directly, but in fact involve them
all. The closest and most recent example is certainly the war in Ukraine,
with its wake of death and destruction, with its attacks on civil
infrastructures that cause lives to be lost not only from gunfire and acts of
violence, but also from hunger and freezing cold. For its part, the
conciliar Constitution Gaudium et Spes states that “every act of war directed
to the indiscriminate destruction of whole cities or vast areas with their
inhabitants is a crime against God and humanity which merits firm and
unequivocal condemnation” (No. 80). Nor can we forget that war particularly
affects those who are most fragile – children, the elderly, the disabled – and
leaves an indelible mark on families. Today, I feel bound to renew my appeal
for an immediate end to this senseless conflict, whose effects are felt in
entire regions, also outside of Europe, due to its repercussions in the areas
of energy and food production, above all in Africa and in the Middle East.
(…)
The
current conflict in Ukraine has made all the more evident the crisis that has
long affected the multilateral system, which needs a profound rethinking if it
is to respond adequately to the challenges of our time. This demands a reform
of the bodies that allow it to function effectively, so that they can be truly
representative of the needs and sensitivities of all peoples, and avoid
procedures that give greater weight to some, to the detriment of others. It is
not a matter of creating coalitions, but of providing opportunities for
everyone to be partners in dialogue.
09/01/2023
(Source)
Words during Angelus prayer
And let us not forget our Ukrainian brothers
and sisters. They suffer a great deal because of the war! This Christmas at
war, without light, without heat, they are suffering a lot! Please, let us not
forget them. And today, seeing Our Lady who is holding the infant in the
Nativity scene, who nurses him, I think of the mothers of the victims of war,
of the soldiers who have fallen in this war in Ukraine. Ukrainian mothers and
Russian mothers, both have lost their children. This is the price of war. Let
us pray for the mothers who have lost their soldier sons, both Ukrainian and
Russian.
08/01/2023 (Source)
Words during Angelus prayer
I extend my heartfelt best wishes to the
communities of the Eastern Churches, both Catholic and Orthodox, who celebrate
the Nativity of the Lord tomorrow. In a special way, I would like to it to
reach the brothers and sisters of the suffering people of Ukraine. May
the Lord’s birth instil comfort, instil hope; and may it inspire concrete steps
that can finally lead toward the end of the fighting and to peace. Let us pray
a lot for Ukraine and for peace.
06/01/2023 (Source)
Words during Angelus prayer
On this day that Saint Paul VI wished to
dedicate to prayer and reflection for peace in the world, let us feel even more
strongly intolerable the contrast of war, that in Ukraine and in other regions,
is sowing death and destruction. Nevertheless, let us not lose hope because we have faith in God who in
Jesus Christ has opened for us the way of peace. The experience of the pandemic
has taught us that no one can save him or herself alone, but that together we
can pursue the paths of peace and development. Throughout the entire world,
from every people, the cry is rising: No to war! No to rearmament! May
resources go toward development, health, food, education, employment.
Among the innumerable initiatives promoted in
the Christian community, I recall the national march that took place yesterday
in Altamura, after four caravans that brought their solidarity to Ukraine. I
greet and thank the numerous friends of the Sant’Egidio community who have come
this year as well to witness to their commitment for peace in every land, here,
and in many cities in the world. Thank you, dear brothers and sisters of
Sant’Egidio.
01/01/2023 (Source)
Message for World Day of Peace
Even so, at the very moment when we dared to
hope that the darkest hours of the Covid-19 pandemic were over, a terrible new
disaster befell humanity. We witnessed the onslaught of another scourge:
another war, to some extent like that of Covid-19, but driven by culpable human
decisions. The war in Ukraine is reaping innocent victims and spreading
insecurity, not only among those directly affected, but in a widespread and
indiscriminate way for everyone, also for those who, even thousands of
kilometres away, suffer its collateral effects – we need but think of grain
shortages and fuel prices.
Clearly, this is not the post-Covid era we had
hoped for or expected. This war, together with all the other conflicts around
the globe, represents a setback for the whole of humanity and not merely for
the parties directly involved. While a vaccine has been found for Covid-19,
suitable solutions have not yet been found for the war. Certainly, the virus of
war is more difficult to overcome than the viruses that compromise our bodies,
because it comes, not from outside of us, but from within the human heart
corrupted by sin
01/01/2023 (Source)
Urbi et Orbi Christmas message
Let us also see the faces of our Ukrainian
brothers and sisters who are experiencing this Christmas in the dark and cold,
far from their homes due to the devastation caused by ten months of war. May
the Lord inspire us to offer concrete gestures of solidarity to assist all those
who are suffering, and may he enlighten the minds of those who have the power
to silence the thunder of weapons and put an immediate end to this senseless
war! Tragically, we
prefer to heed other counsels, dictated by worldly ways of thinking. Yet who is
listening to the voice of the Child?
(…)
The war in Ukraine has further aggravated this
situation, putting entire peoples at risk of famine, especially in Afghanistan
and in the countries of the Horn of Africa.
25/12/2022 (Source)
Words after Angelus
In the spiritual atmosphere of joy and serenity
of Holy Christmas, I greet with affection all of you present here and all those
who follow us through the media. I reiterate my wish for peace: peace in
families, peace in parish and religious communities, peace in movements and
associations, peace for those peoples tormented by war, peace for the dear
and embattled Ukraine. There are so many Ukrainian flags here! Let us ask for
peace for this suffering people!
26/12/2022 (Source)
Urbi et Orbi Christmas message
Let us also see the faces of our Ukrainian brothers and sisters who are experiencing this Christmas in the dark and cold, far from their homes due to the devastation caused by ten months of war. May the Lord inspire us to offer concrete gestures of solidarity to assist all those who are suffering, and may he enlighten the minds of those who have the power to silence the thunder of weapons and put an immediate end to this senseless war! Tragically, we prefer to heed other counsels, dictated by worldly ways of thinking. Yet who is listening to the voice of the Child?
(…)
The war in Ukraine has further aggravated this situation, putting entire peoples at risk of famine, especially in Afghanistan and in the countries of the Horn of Africa.
25/12/2022 (Source)
Christmas address to Roman Curia
I would like to say one last word about the
subject of peace. Among the titles that the prophet Isaiah gives the Messiah is
that of “Prince of Peace” (9:5). Never as at this time have we felt so great
a desire for peace. I think of war-torn Ukraine, but also of the many ongoing
conflicts in different parts of our world. War and violence are always a
catastrophe. Religion must not lend itself to fueling conflicts. The Gospel is
always a Gospel of peace, and in the name of no God can one declare a war to be
“holy”.
22/12/2022 (Source)
Words after Angelus
Let us ask the Virgin Mary, whom the liturgy
invites us to contemplate on this Fourth Sunday of Advent, to touch the hearts
of those who can stop the war in Ukraine. Let us not forget the suffering of those
people, especially of the babies, the elderly, the people who are sick. Let us
pray. Let us pray.
18/12/2022 (Source)
Greetings to artists at the Christmas Concert
As we know, peace must be built up day by day;
it must inspire and accompany our daily lives and activities. Yet, tragically,
at this moment in time, peace is also an emergency, as we are reminded by the
invitation to take part in the charitable project associated with today’s
concert. In Ukraine, the Salesians of the Don Bosco Missions have remained
alongside the populace, working to house refugees and to distribute food and
medicine. With the present initiative, we want to offer them our support;
at the same time, each of us, in whatever way we can, is called to be an
artisan of peace, to pray and work for peace.
17/12/20222 (Source)
Words after Angelus
And now I will bless the “Bambinelli”, the
little statuettes of the Infant Jesus that you, dear boys and girls, have brought
here and then, returning home, will place in the Nativity scene. I invite
you to pray, before the creche, that the Nativity of the Lord will bring a ray
of peace to children all over the world, especially those forced to live the
terrible and dark days of war, this war in Ukraine that destroys many lives, so
many lives, and many children.
11/12/2022 (Source)
Words after Angelus
This afternoon I will go to the Basilica of
Saint Mary Major to pray to the Salus Populi Romani, and straight afterwards to
the Spanish Steps to perform the traditional act of homage and prayer at the
foot of the monument to Mary Immaculate. I ask you to join with me spiritually
in this gesture, which expresses filial devotion to our Mother, to whose
intercession we entrust the universal desire for peace, in particular for
martyred Ukraine, which suffers greatly.
08/12/2022 (Source)
Prayer on the day of the Immaculate Conception
Immaculate Virgin, today I would like
To bring to you the thanksgiving of the people
of Ukraine
For the peace that we have long been beseeching
the Lord.
However, I also must still present to you the cries
Of children, of the elderly
Of that martyred land, which is suffering so!
But in truth we all know
That You are with them, and all those who
suffer,
As you were at the side of your Son’s Cross.
08/12/2022 (Source)
General Audience
Tomorrow is a beautiful day. It is the
Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. With a gaze turned to the Virgin Mary,
always be daring in promoting the values of the spirit. Let us ask her, the
sweetest of mothers, to comfort those who are suffering due to the brutality of
war, especially martyred Ukraine. Let us pray for these martyred people who are
suffering so much.
07/12/2022 (Source)
Words after Angelus
This Thursday, we will celebrate the Solemnity
of the Immaculate Conception. To her intercession let us entrust our prayer for
peace, especially for the tortured Ukrainian people.
04/12/2022 (Source)
Interview with America Magazine
How would you explain your position on this war
to Ukrainians, or Americans and others who support Ukraine?
When I speak about Ukraine, I speak of a people
who are martyred. If you have a martyred people, you have someone who
martyrs them. When I speak about Ukraine, I speak about the cruelty because I
have much information about the cruelty of the troops that come in. Generally,
the cruellest are perhaps those who are of Russia but are not of the Russian
tradition, such as the Chechens, the Buryati and so on. Certainly, the one who
invades is the Russian state. This is very clear. Sometimes I try not to specify
so as not to offend and rather condemn in general, although it is well known
whom I am condemning. It is not necessary that I put a name and surname.
On the second day of the war, I went to the
Russian embassy [to the Holy See], an unusual gesture because the pope never
goes to an embassy. And there I said to the ambassador to tell [Vladimir] Putin
that I was willing to travel on condition that he allowed me a tiny window to
negotiate. [Sergey] Lavrov, the foreign minister at a high level, replied with
a very nice letter from which I understood that for the time being it was not
necessary.
I spoke to President Zelensky three times by
phone. And I work in general with receiving lists of prisoners, both
civilian prisoners and military prisoners, and I have these sent to the Russian
government, and the response has always been very positive.
I also thought of traveling, but I made the
decision: If I travel, I go to Moscow and to Kyiv, to both, not to one place
only. And I never gave the impression that I was covering up the aggression. I
received here in this hall, three or four times, a delegation from the
Ukrainian government. And we work together.
Why do I not name Putin? Because it is not
necessary; it is already known. However, sometimes people latch onto a detail.
Everyone knows my stance, with Putin or without Putin, without naming him.
Some cardinals went to Ukraine: Cardinal Czerny
went twice; [Archbishop] Gallagher, who is responsible for [relations with]
states, spent four days in Ukraine, and I received a report of what he saw; and
Cardinal Krajewski went four times. He goes with his van loaded with things and
spent last Holy Week in Ukraine. I mean the presence of the Holy See with the
cardinals is very strong, and I am in continual contact with people in
positions of responsibility.
And I should like to mention that there is
in these days the anniversary of the Holodomor, the genocide that Stalin
committed against the Ukrainians [in 1932-33]. I believe it is appropriate to
mention it as a historical antecedent of the [present] conflict.
The position of the Holy See is to seek peace
and to seek an understanding. The diplomacy of the Holy See is moving in this
direction and, of course, is always willing to mediate.
[The Holy See subsequently apologised to Russia for the statements regarding minorities]
28/11/2022
(Source)
Words
after Angelus
Let us not tire of saying no to war, no to
violence, yes to dialogue, yes to peace; in particular for the martyred
Ukrainian people. Yesterday we recalled the tragedy of the Holodomor.
27/11/2022 (Source)
Letter to the people of Ukraine
Dear Ukrainian brothers and sisters,
For a full nine months, the absurd folly of war
has been unleashed upon your land. Your skies have constantly echoed the grim sound of explosions and the
alarming wail of sirens. Your cities have been hammered by bombs, as a shower
of missiles has caused death, destruction and sorrow, hunger, thirst and
freezing cold. Great numbers of people have taken flight into your streets,
leaving behind their homes and their dear ones. Alongside the great rivers of
your nation, great streams of blood and tears flow daily.
I would like to add my own tears to yours, and
to assure you that I am daily close to you and bear you in my heart and in my
prayers. Your pain is my pain. Today, in the cross of Jesus, I see all of you
who are experiencing the terror unleashed by this aggression. Truly, the cross,
the instrument of the Lord’s torture, is present anew in the signs of torture
found on corpses, in the mass graves discovered in different cities, and in so
many other brutal images that leave us appalled and make us cry out, “Why? How can human
beings treat other human beings in this way?”
I think often of the many tragic stories that I
have heard, especially those involving little ones: how many children have been
killed, wounded or orphaned, torn from their mothers! With you, I weep for
every child killed in this war, like Kira in Odessa, like Lisa in Vinnytsia,
like hundreds of other children. In each of them, our very humanity has been
deeply scarred. Now they are in God’s arms; they see our struggles and pray
that they may soon be ended. Yet how can we fail to feel anguish for their
loss and for all those others, young and old, who have been deported? The pain
felt by the mothers of Ukraine is incalculable.
I think too of you, young people, who in
courageous defence of your homeland have had to take up arms rather than pursue
your cherished dreams for the future. I think of you, wives who have lost your
husbands, gritting your teeth and quietly carrying on with dignity and
determination, and making every sacrifice possible for your children. I think
of you adults, who strive in every way possible to protect your dear ones; and
you, the elderly, who instead of enjoying a peaceful old age have been cast
into the dark night of war. I also think of you, women who were victims of
violence and bear immense burdens in your heart, and of all who are pained in
soul and body. I think of you and I am close to you, with affection and
admiration for the way you are facing such bitter trials.
My thoughts also turn to you, the volunteers
who daily sacrifice yourselves to serve others, and to you, the pastors of
God’s holy people who – often at the risk of your own safety – have remained at
the side of your people, offering them the consolation of God and the
solidarity of their brothers and sisters. With creativity, you have turned
community rooms and religious houses into shelters that provide hospitality,
assistance and meals to those in difficulty. I think too of the refugees and
the internally displaced, far from their homes, many of which are now
destroyed. I pray for the civil authorities, who have the responsibility of
governing the country in these tragic times and of taking farsighted decisions
for peace and the development of the economy amid the ruin of so many vital
infrastructures, both in the cities and in the countryside.
Dear brothers and sisters, in all this great
flood of evil and pain – ninety years after the terrible genocide of the
Holodomor – I stand in admiration of your steadfast resistance. Even amid the
experience of this enormous tragedy, the Ukrainian people have never given into
discouragement or self-pity. The world has come to recognize a people bold and
strong, a people that suffers and prays, weeps and struggles, resists and
continues to hope, a noble people of martyrs. I remain close to you in heart and prayer,
with humanitarian concern that you never feel alone, that you not become inured
to war, that you will not be left alone, at present but even more so in the
future, when there may be a temptation to forget your sufferings.
In these months, in which bitter cold only adds
to the tragedy that you are experiencing, it is my hope that the affection of
the Church, the power of prayer and the love of so many of your brothers and
sisters throughout the world be so many caresses on your face. In a few weeks,
Christmas will be here, and the harshness of your sufferings will be all the
more deeply felt. I would like to return with you to Bethlehem, to the troubles
the Holy Family had to face on that cold and dark night. Yet a light arrived:
not from men but from God, not from earth but from heaven.
May Our Lady, the Lord’s Mother and our own,
watch over you. To her Immaculate Heart, in union with the bishops of the
world, I have consecrated the Church and all humanity, and particularly your
own country and Russia. To her maternal heart I now commend your sufferings and
your tears. From Mary, who as a great son of your land once wrote “brought God
into our world”, let us never tire of imploring the anxiously-awaited gift of
peace, in the sure knowledge that “nothing will be impossible for God” (Lk
1:37). May he grant fulfilment to the rightful aspirations of your hearts, heal
your wounds and bestow his consolation upon you. I am with you, I pray for you
and I ask you to pray for me.
May the Lord bless you and Our Lady keep you.
24/12/2022 (Source)
During general audience
Let us
pray for peace in the world, and for an end to all conflicts, with a special
thought for the terrible suffering of the dear and martyred people of Ukraine.
And let us think of war-torn Ukraine. This Saturday is the anniversary of
the terrible Holodomor genocide, the extermination by hunger in 1932-33
artificially caused by Stalin. Let us pray for the victims of this genocide and
let us pray for all Ukrainians, the children, the women and the elderly, the
babies who are today suffering the martyrdom of aggression.
23/11/2022 (Source)
Address to the Conference of the World Jewish Congress
Brothers and sisters, today in many parts of
the world, peace is threatened. Together we recognize that war, every war,
is always and everywhere a defeat for all humanity! I think of the conflict in
Ukraine, a great and sacrilegious war that is threatening Jews and Christians
alike, depriving them of their loved ones, their homes, their property and
their very lives! Only with a serious resolve to draw closer to one another
and in fraternal dialogue is it possible to lay the groundwork for peace. As
Jews and Christians, let us seek to do all that is humanly possible in order to
put an end to war and to pave paths of peace.
22/11/2022 (Source)
Words during Angelus
Right now, we are living a famine of peace: we
are living a famine of peace. Let’s think of how many places in the world
are scourged by war, in particular of war-torn Ukraine. Let’s roll our
sleeves and continue to pray for peace!
20/11/2022 (Source)
Words during general audience
I have learned with sorrow and concern the news
of a new and even more severe missile attack on Ukraine, which has caused deaths
and damage to much civilian infrastructure. Let us pray that the Lord will
convert the hearts of those who still insist on war, and make the desire for
peace prevail for martyred Ukraine, to avoid any escalation and open the way to a cease-fire and dialogue.
16/11/2022 (Source)
Address to the Federation of Non-Governmental
Christian Organizations For International Voluntary Service
A second objective regards peace, which we see
is wounded, trampled in Ukraine and in many other places on the planet.
When peace is lacking, when the “reasons” of force prevail, people suffer,
families are divided, and the most fragile end up alone. For months we have
been seeing images of destruction, of death. Peace in justice is a necessary
condition for a dignified life, for building together a better future.
14/11/2022 (Source)
Address to participants of the Match for Peace
I thank all of you who have come from different
places, and faraway places, to play a match: a match, yes, but it is a match
for peace! This is important.
Just think that the biggest expenses in the
world today are in the arms industry. Because people always think about waging
wars to destroy.
You have taken the time to come and “wage” the gratuitousness of peace. And
peace carries on like this, with gestures like these: gestures of closeness, gestures
of friendship, gestures of a hand always outstretched, not a hand holding a
stone to be thrown. I thank you for this. They are small gestures, but they are
seeds. They are seeds of peace. They are capable of changing the world because
they are seeds of peace.
Thank you, thank you for what you do, for
today’s match. Thank you for saying: “We want peace”, in a world that always
looks for wars and destruction. Thank you!
And thank you for telling us that a rag ball,
with the gratuitousness of the game, is more important, more important than
conquering a territory through wars; that’s unnecessary. Thank you for your witness.
14/11/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from homily on World Day of the Poor
Nowadays we too live in troubled societies and
are witnesses, as the Gospel told us, to scenes of violence – we only have to
think about the cruelty that the people of Ukraine are experiencing – injustice
and persecution;
13/11/2022 (Source)
Words after Angelus
Let us always remain close to our brothers and
sisters in martyred Ukraine. Close in prayer and with concrete
solidarity. Peace is possible! Let us not resign ourselves to war.
13/11/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from address to the community of the Pontifical
College Nepomucenum
Bridges are built starting from the prayer of
intercession: day after day, knocking insistently on Christ’s door, the
foundations are laid to enable two distant and hostile shores to start to
communicate again. In this regard, I would like to recall a meditation by
Cardinal Martini, entitled “A Cry of Intercession”, delivered in January 1991,
at the time of the Gulf War. Today, as the war in Ukraine rages on, that
homily is highly topical. In particular, I emphasize a passage on the prayer of
intercession, where he says: “Intercession means standing where the conflict
takes place, between the two sides in the conflict. [...] It is the gesture of
Jesus Christ on the cross”.
And here we touch on the central point: Jesus
Christ is the bridge and he is the pontiff. He is our peace, and he has always
torn down, and tears down, the walls of enmity (cf. Eph 2:14). And it is to him
that we must always direct and draw people, families, communities. It is what
we do in the central moment of our day, when we celebrate Mass. We cannot and must
not be at the centre; it must be him! Let us flee the temptation of worldly
protagonism. Please, the Lord wants us all to be servants, brothers and
sisters, not prima donnas or first actors, not protagonists, and at times the
protagonists of sad stories and mediocre stories. No. The Lord wants us to be
fighters. Let us flee the temptation of this worldly protagonism, which often
deceives us by masquerading as noble causes. The motto of John the Baptist
applies to every one of us: “He must increase; I must decrease”
10/11/2022 (Source)
Words during general audience
The Forum for dialogue, entitled “East and West
for Human Coexistence”, encouraged choosing the path of encounter and rejecting
that of confrontation. How much we need this! There is such a need to encounter
each other. I am thinking of the insanity of war — insane! — of which
martyred Ukraine is a victim, and of many other conflicts, that will never be
resolved with the infantile logic of weapons, but only with the gentle power of
dialogue. But in addition to Ukraine, which is being tormented, let us
think of the wars that have been going on for years, and let us think of Syria
— more than 10 years! — let us think, for example, of Syria, let us think of
the children in Yemen, let us think of Myanmar: everywhere! Right now,
Ukraine is closer. What do wars do? They destroy, they destroy humanity,
they destroy everything. Conflicts should not be resolved through war.
(…)
I renew my invitation to pray for martyred
Ukraine: let us ask the Lord for peace for these people, so tried and who
suffer so much cruelty, so much cruelty at the hands of mercenaries who make
war.
09/11/2022 (Source)
Words during press conference on flight from Bahrain
to Rome
First of all: the Vatican is constantly attentive, the
Secretariat of State works and works well, works well. I know that the
secretary, Archbishop Gallagher, works well there.
Then, a bit of history. The day after [the beginning
of] the war – I thought this could not be done, an unusual thing – I went to
the Russian embassy, to speak with the ambassador, who is a good man. I have
known him for six years, since he arrived. He is a humanist. I remember a
comment he made to me then: ‘Nous sommes tombés dans la dictature de l'argent’
[We have fallen into the dictatorship of money], talking about civilization. A
humanist, a man fighting for equality. I told him I was willing to go to Moscow
to talk to Putin, if the need arose. Lavrov [the foreign minister, ed.] replied
very politely – 'Thank you' – [but] that it was not necessary for the moment.
Since then we have been very interested. I spoke
twice on the phone with President Zelensky; then with the ambassador a few more
times. And work is being done to get closer, to seek solutions. The Holy See
also does what it has to do with regard to prisoners, these things... they are
things that are always done and the Holy See has always done them, always.
And (then) the preaching for peace. What strikes me
– that's why I use the word 'tormented' for Ukraine – is the cruelty, which is
not of the Russian people, perhaps... because the Russian people are a great
people. It is of the mercenaries, of the soldiers who go off to war as an
adventure, mercenaries... I prefer to think of it this way because I have high
esteem for the Russian people, for Russian humanism. Just think of Dostoevsky,
who to this day inspires us, inspires Christians to think of Christianity.
I have great affection for the Russian people and I
also have great affection for the Ukrainian people. When I was eleven years
old, there was a priest close to me who celebrated in Ukrainian and had no
altar boys, and he taught me to serve Mass in Ukrainian, and all these
Ukrainian songs I know them in their language because I learned them as a
child. So I have a very great affection for the Ukrainian liturgy. I am in the
midst of two peoples that I love.
It's not just me. The Holy See has had many confidential
meetings, many good results. Because we cannot deny that a war, at the
beginning, perhaps makes us brave. But then it tires and hurts and we see the
evil that a war does. This regards the more human, closer part.
06/11/2022 (Source)
Address to clergy and religious in Bahrain
I encourage everyone to support this commitment for a
lasting peace, so that, with the help of God, those involved may continue to
journey on the paths of dialogue and that the population may soon find once
more a peaceful and dignified life. And also I do not want to forget to
pray, and to tell you to pray, for tormented Ukraine, for that war to end.
06/11/2022 (Source)
Address during closing of Bahrain Forum For Dialogue:
East And West For Human Coexistence
Let us promote concrete initiatives to ensure that the
journey of the great religions will be ever more effective and ongoing, a
conscience of peace for our world! I address to all my heartfelt appeal for
an end to the war in Ukraine and the start of serious negotiations for peace.
04/11/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
This morning I received a letter from a Protestant,
Lutheran chaplain in a children's home in Ukraine. Children orphaned by war,
lonely, abandoned children. And he said, "This is my service: to accompany
these discarded ones, because they have lost their parents, the cruel war has
left them alone." This man does what Jesus asks him to do: to care for
the least of the tragedy. And when I read that letter, written with so much
pain, I was moved, because I said, "Lord, we can see that you continue to
inspire the true values of the Kingdom."
02/11/2022 (Source)
Words following Angelus prayer
Dear brothers
and sisters, please, let us not forget martyred Ukraine: let us pray for peace,
let us pray that there may be in peace in Ukraine.
01/11/2022 (Source)
Words following
Angelus prayer
Please, let us not forget martyred Ukraine in our prayer and in
our heartache. Let us pray for peace, never tire of doing so!
30/10/2022 (Source)
Address at Prayer Meeting for Peace
This year our
prayer has become a heartfelt plea, because today peace has been gravely
violated, assaulted and trampled upon, and this in Europe, on the very
continent that in the last century endured the horrors of two world wars – and
we are experiencing a third. Sadly, since then, wars have continued to cause
bloodshed and to impoverish the earth. Yet the situation that we are presently
experiencing is particularly dramatic. That is why we have raised our prayer to
God, who always hears the anguished plea of his sons and daughters. Hear us,
Lord!
25/10/2022 (Source)
General
audience
And let us turn
our thoughts to martyred Ukraine and pray for Ukraine. Let us pray for the
bad things that are happening there, the tortures, the deaths, the destruction.
19/10/2022 (Source)
Angelus
This Tuesday, 18 October, the Foundation “Aid
to the Church in Need” is promoting the “A million children praying the Rosary”
campaign. I thank all the children who are participating! Let us unite
ourselves to them and entrust the suffering people of Ukraine, and other
people who are suffering due to war and any form of violence and misery, to Our
Lady’s intercession.
16/10/2022 (Source)
General audience
In these days my heart is always with the
Ukrainian people, especially the inhabitants of those places where the
bombardments have been raging. I carry within me their pain and, by the intercession of the
Holy Mother of God, I present it in prayer to the Lord. He always listens to
the cry of the poor who invoke him: may his Spirit transform the hearts of
those who hold the outcome of the war in their hands, so that the hurricane of
violence may cease, and peaceful coexistence, in justice, may be rebuilt.
12/10/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
The emigration currently taking place in Europe
is causing great suffering and forcing us to open our hearts – that is the
emigration of Ukrainians who are fleeing from war. Let us not forget the beleaguered Ukrainian
emigrants.
09/10/2022 (Source)
General audience
And let us not forget to pray for martyred
Ukraine, always
asking the Lord for the gift of peace.
05/10/2022 (Source)
Angelus
The course of the war in Ukraine has become so
serious, devastating and threatening, as to cause great concern. Therefore,
today I would like to devote the entire reflection before the Angelus to
this. Indeed, this terrible and inconceivable wound to humanity, instead of
healing, continues to shed even more blood, risking to spread further.
I am saddened by the rivers of blood and tears spilled in
these months. I am saddened by the thousands of victims, especially
children, and the destruction which has left many people and families homeless
and threaten vast territories with cold and hunger. Certain actions can never
be justified, never! It is disturbing that the world is learning the geography
of Ukraine through names such as Bucha, Irpin, Mariupol, Izium, Zaparizhzhia
and other areas, which have become places of indescribable suffering and fear.
And what about the fact that humanity is once again faced with the atomic
threat? It is absurd.
What is to happen next? How much blood must still flow for
us to realize that war is never a solution, only destruction? In the name of
God and in the name of the sense of humanity that dwells in every heart, I
renew my call for an immediate ceasefire. Let there be a halt to arms, and
let us seek the conditions for negotiations that will lead to solutions that
are not imposed by force, but consensual, just and stable. And they will be so
if they are based on respect for the sacrosanct value of human life, as well as
the sovereignty and territorial integrity of each country, and the rights of
minorities and legitimate concerns.
I deeply deplore the grave situation that has arisen in
recent days, with further actions contrary to the principles of international law.
It increases the risk of nuclear escalation, giving rise to fears of
uncontrollable and catastrophic consequences worldwide.
My appeal is addressed first and foremost to the President
of the Russian Federation, imploring him to stop this spiral of violence and
death, also for the sake of his own people. On the other hand, saddened by the
immense suffering of the Ukrainian people as a result of the aggression they
have suffered, I address an equally confident appeal to the President of
Ukraine to be open to serious proposals for peace. I urge all the
protagonists of international life and the political leaders of nations to do
everything possible to bring an end to the war, without allowing themselves to
be drawn into dangerous escalations, and to promote and support initiatives for
dialogue. Please let the younger generations breathe the salutary air of peace,
not the polluted air of war, which is madness!
After seven months of hostilities, let us use all
diplomatic means, even those that may not have been used so far, to bring an
end to this terrible tragedy. War in itself is an error and a horror!
Let us trust in the mercy of God, who can change hearts, and
in the maternal intercession of the Queen of Peace, as we raise our
Supplication to Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompei, spiritually united with the
faithful gathered at her Shrine and in so many parts of the world.
02/10/2022 (Source)
General audience
And then a thought for the tormented
Ukraine, which is suffering so much, that poor people so cruelly tried. This
morning I was able to speak with Cardinal Krajewski, who was on his way back
from Ukraine and he told me about terrible things. Let us think of Ukraine
and pray for this tormented people.
28/09/2022 (Source)
Words during Angelus
Mary, Queen of Peace, comfort the martyred
Ukrainian people and obtain from the heads of Nations the strength of will
immediately to find effective initiatives to bring the war to an end.
25/09/2022 (Source)
General audience
And I would also like to mention the terrible
situation in martyred Ukraine. Cardinal Krajewski went there for the fourth
time. Yesterday he telephoned me, he is spending time there, helping in the
area of Odessa and bringing closeness. He told me about the pain of this
people, the savagery, the monstrosities, the tortured corpses they find. Let us
unite ourselves to this people who are so noble and martyred.
21/09/2022 (Source)
Conversation with Jesuits in Kazakhstan
There is a war going on and I think it is a
mistake to think that this is a cowboy movie where there are good guys and bad
guys. It is also a mistake to think that this is a war between Russia and
Ukraine and no more. No, this is a world war.
(…)
The victim of this conflict is Ukraine. I intend to reflect on why this war
was not avoided. War is like a marriage, in a way. To understand it, one has to
investigate the dynamics that developed the conflict. There are international
factors that contributed to provoking the war. I have already mentioned that a
head of state, in December last year, came to tell me that he was very
concerned because NATO had gone barking at the gates of Russia without
understanding that the Russians are imperial and fear border insecurity. He
expressed fear that this would provoke a war, and this broke out two months
later.
So, one cannot be simplistic in reasoning about
the causes of the conflict. I see imperialisms in conflict. And, when they
feel threatened and in decline, the imperialisms react, thinking that the
solution is to unleash a war to make up for it, and also to sell and test
weapons. Some say, for example, that the Spanish Civil War was started to
prepare for World War II. I do not know if that was really the case, but it
could have been. I do not doubt, however, that we are already living through
World War III. We have seen three in a century: one between 1914 and 1918, one
between 1939 and 1945, and now we are living through this one.
(…)
That is what needs to be done: to free hearts
from hatred. From the first day of the war until yesterday I spoke constantly
about this conflict, referring to the suffering of Ukraine. On the day of the
country’s independence, there was the flag in Saint Peter’s Square, and I
myself spoke about it, obviously. After speaking about Ukraine, I thought of
saying a word addressed to the suffering of the two peoples, the Ukrainian and
the Russian. Because in wars it is the people who suffer. It is the poor people
who pay, as always. And this generates hatred. Those who make war forget humanity and do not
look at the real life of people, but put partisan interests and power ahead of
everything. The ordinary people in every conflict are the real victims, the
ones who pay for the follies of war with their own skin. I also referred to
that girl who had been killed in an explosion. At this point people forgot
everything I had said up to then and only paid attention to that reference. I
understand people’s reactions, because they are suffering a lot.
I recall that the day after the start of the
war I went to the Russian Embassy. It was an unusual gesture; the pope never
goes to an embassy. He receives the ambassadors personally only when they
present their credentials, and then at the end of their mission on a farewell
visit. I told the ambassador that I would like to speak with President
Putin, provided he left me a small window for dialogue.
I also received the Ukrainian ambassador and
spoke twice with President Zelensky on the telephone. I sent Cardinals Czerny
and Krajewski to Ukraine to affirm the solidarity of the pope. Archbishop
Gallagher, the Secretary for Relations with States, also made an official
visit. The Holy See’s presence in Ukraine has the value of bringing help and
support. It is a way of expressing a presence. I too had in mind to go. It
seems to me that God’s will is not for me to go at this precise moment; we will
see later, however.
Some Ukrainian envoys have come to me. Among
them the vice-rector of the Catholic University of Ukraine, accompanied by the
adviser to the president for religious questions, an evangelical. We spoke, we
discussed. A military chief in charge of the exchange of prisoners also
came, again with President Zelensky’s religious adviser. This time they brought
me a list of more than 300 prisoners. They asked me to do something to make an
exchange. I immediately called the Russian ambassador to see if something could
be done, if an exchange of prisoners could be speeded up.
When a Ukrainian Catholic bishop came to visit,
I gave him a package with my statements on the subject. I called the
invasion of Ukraine an unacceptable, repugnant, senseless, barbaric, sacrilegious
aggression… Read all the statements! The Press Room has collected them.
Now, I would like to tell you that I am not interested in your defending the
pope, but that the people feel caressed by you, the pope’s brothers. The pope
does not get angry if he is misunderstood, because I know well the suffering
behind it.
(…)
15/09/2022 (Source)
Words during the
Angelus
I am saddened by the recent fighting
between Azerbaijan and Armenia. I express my spiritual closeness to the
families of the victims, and I urge the parties to respect the ceasefire in
view of a peace agreement. Let us not forget that peace is possible when
weapons are silenced and dialogue begins! And let us continue to pray
for the suffering people of Ukraine and for peace in every land bloodied by war.
18/09/2022 (Source)
Address during closing ceremony of Congress in
Kazakhstan
Thank you for having taken part so intensely in
these days of work, commitment and sharing in the service of dialogue. This
is more valuable than ever in challenging times like our own, when the problems
of the pandemic have been compounded by the utter folly of war.
15/09/2022 (Source)
Press conference on flight from Kazakhstan to
Rome
In your opinion, should Ukraine be given
weapons at this time?"
This is a political decision, which can be
moral – morally acceptable – if it is done according to the conditions of
morality, which are manifold, and then we can talk about it. But it can be immoral
if it is done with the intention of provoking more war or selling weapons or
discarding those weapons that are no longer needed. The motivation is what
largely qualifies the morality of this act. To defend oneself is not only
lawful but also an expression of love of country. Those who do not defend
themselves, those who do not defend something, do not love it, instead those
who defend, love.
(…)
I would like to ask if you think there is a red
line beyond which you should not say: we are open to dialogue with Moscow.
Because so many people have a hard time understanding this openness. And I
would also like to ask if the next trip will be to Kyiv.
I will answer that, but I would prefer that the
questions about the trip be asked first...
I think it is always difficult to understand
the dialogue with the states that started a war, and it seems that the first
step was from there, from that side. It is difficult but we must not discard
it; we must extend the opportunity for dialogue to everyone, to everyone! Because there is always the
possibility that in dialogue we can change things, and also offer another point
of view, another point of consideration.
I don't exclude dialogue with any power,
whether it's at war, whether it's the aggressor... sometimes dialogue has to be
done in this manner, but it has to be done; it "stinks", but it has
to be done. Always one step ahead, an outstretched hand, always! Because
otherwise we close off the only reasonable door to peace.
Sometimes some do not accept dialogue: too bad!
But dialogue must always be done, at least offered, and this is good for those
who offer it; it helps them to breathe.
15/09/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of address to Congress
of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions, Kazakhstan
In recent decades, dialogue
among religious leaders has dealt primarily with this question. Yet, we look
around us and see our time still plagued by the scourge of war, by a climate of
hostility and confrontation, by an inability to step back and hold out a hand
to the other. Brothers and sisters, a leap forward is required, and it needs to
come from us. If the Creator, to whom we have devoted our lives, is the
author of human life, how can we, who call ourselves believers, consent to the
destruction of that life? And how can we imagine that the men and women of our
time, many of whom live as if God did not exist, can be inspired to engage in
respectful and responsible dialogue if the great religions, which are the soul
of so many cultures and traditions, are not themselves actively committed to
peace?
Mindful of the wrongs and
errors of the past, let us unite our efforts to ensure that the Almighty will
never again be held hostage to the human thirst for power. Abai observes that,
“he who permits evil, and does not oppose it, cannot be regarded as a true
believer. At best he is a half-hearted believer” (cf. Words 38). Dear brothers
and sisters, each and every one of us needs to be purified of evil. The great
Kazakh poet insists on this; in his words, “he who abandons learning deprives
himself of a divine blessing”, and “a person who is not strict in his ways and
is not capable of compassion cannot be considered a believer” (Word 12). So,
brothers and sisters, let us purify ourselves of the presumption of feeling
self-righteous, with no need to learn anything from anyone. Let us free
ourselves of those reductive and destructive notions that offend the name of
God by harshness, extremism and forms of fundamentalism, and profane it through
hatred, fanaticism, and terrorism, disfiguring the image of man as well. As
Abai says, “the source of humanity is love and justice… They are the crown of
divine creation” (Word 45). May we never justify violence. May we never
allow the sacred to be exploited by the profane. The sacred must never be a
prop for power, nor power a prop for the sacred!
God is peace. He guides us
always in the way of peace, never that of war. Let us commit ourselves,
then, even more to insisting on the need for resolving conflicts not by the
inconclusive means of power, with arms and threats, but by the only means
blessed by heaven and worthy of man: encounter, dialogue and patient
negotiations, which make progress especially when they take into consideration
the young and future generations. For the young embody the hope that peace will
come about, not as the fragile outcome of painstaking negotiations, but as the
fruit of persevering commitment to an education that can support their
aspirations for development and a serene future. Abai, in that sense,
encourages the expansion of learning beyond the limits of one’s own culture, in
order to embrace the knowledge, history and literature of others. Let us
invest, I beg you, in this: not in more weapons, but in education!
14/09/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of address to civil authorities during
visit to Kazakhstan
I am visiting you in the course of the senseless
and tragic war that broke out with the invasion of Ukraine, even as other
conflicts and threats of conflict continue to imperil our times. I have
come to echo the plea of all those who cry out for peace, which is the
essential path to development for our globalized world. And this is peace: a
path of integral development for our globalized world.
13/09/2022 (Source)
Words
during Angelus prayer
Let us
continue to pray for the Ukrainian people, that the Lord may give them comfort
and hope. During these days, Cardinal Krajewski, prefect of the Dicastery
for the Service of Charity, is in Ukraine to visit various communities and to
bear concrete witness to the closeness of the Pope and the Church.
11/9/2022
(Source)
Address
to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences
I
have said that it was a third world war being fought “piecemeal” – perhaps we
can now say that it is “all out” – putting people and the planet at ever greater risk. Saint John Paul II gave thanks to God that,
through Mary’s intercession, the world had been preserved from atomic war. Unfortunately, we must continue to pray for
protection against this danger, which should have been averted long ago.
10/09/2022
(Source)
Address
to pontifical representatives
Unfortunately,
Europe and the entire world are convulsed by a war of particular gravity,
in terms of the violation of international law the risks of nuclear escalation,
and the grave economic and social consequences. It is a “piecemeal” third world
war, to which you bear witness in the places where you carry out your mission.
08/09/2022
(Source)
General
audience
And I
am not forgetting martyred Ukraine. There are some flags there. Faced with
all the war scenarios of our time, I ask each of you to be builders of peace
and to pray so that thoughts and projects of peace and reconciliation may
spread throughout the world. Today we are living through a world war. Let us
stop please! Let us entrust the victims of every war, every war, to the Virgin
Mary, especially the dear people of Ukraine.
07/09/2022
(Source)
Excerpt of interview with Portuguese journalist
Maria João Avillez
Some dialogue is indispensable. You recently
said you would like to go to Kiev and Moscow. What can you say to presidents
Putin and Zelensky?
I don’t know, I don’t know. I have spoken to
both, they both came to visit me. Not know, but longer ago… I always believe
that if we speak, we can move forwards. Do you know who doesn’t know how to
dialogue? Animals. They go by pure instinct. If you let yourself go by pure instinct…
On the other hand, dialogue is leaving instinct behind you and listening. Dialogue
is hard.
And it seems particularly difficult in this
case.
It is difficult. But it begins in the family. If
you don’t dialogue in the family, if all there is is screaming and arguing,
then children don’t learn how to dialogue.
When are you going to Kiev or to Moscow?
That’s an open question. I still don’t know. I am in dialogue with them. Tomorrow, for instance, I will be speaking on the phone with President Zelensky. We shall see. The fact is that I have sent representatives to Kiev. Three cardinals. One of them went three times and was there for the whole of Holy Week, and the undersecretary of State also went, who is, we can say, in charge of International Relations. My presence there is strong. Now I can’t go, because after travelling to Canada my knee worsened a bit, and I’m under doctor’s orders not to travel. He told me not to go anywhere before the Kazakhstan trip. But I have been in touch, over the phone. And I do what I can. I ask that everybody do what they can. Between all of us we can do something. I follow all I can with my pain and my prayers, but the situation is truly tragic.
05/09/2022 (Source)
Words
during Angelus prayer
And
now we turn in prayer to the Virgin Mary, so that she might obtain the gift of
peace throughout the world, especially for war-torn Ukraine. May she, the first and perfect
disciple of the Lord, help us follow the example and holiness of life of John
Paul I.
04/09/2022
(Source)
Vatican Press office communiqué
In the context of the war in Ukraine, there are numerous interventions by the Holy Father Francis and his collaborators in this regard. For the most part, their purpose is to invite pastors and the faithful to prayer, and all people of good will to solidarity and efforts to rebuild peace.
On more than one occasion, as in recent days, public discussions have arisen on the political significance to be attached to such interventions.
In this regard, it is reiterated that the Holy Father's words on this dramatic issue should be interpreted as a voice raised in defence of human life and the values associated with it, and not as a political stance. As for the large-scale war in Ukraine, initiated by the Russian Federation, the Holy Father Francis' interventions are clear and unequivocal in condemning it as morally unjust, unacceptable, barbaric, senseless, repugnant and sacrilegious.
30/08/2022 (Source)
Words during Angelus prayer
Let us pray for the people of Ukraine and for all those who suffer because of war. May the God of peace revive a human and Christian sense of pity and mercy in the hearts of the leaders of nations.
28/08/2022 (Source)
Appeal following general audience
I renew my invitation to implore peace from the Lord for the beloved Ukrainian people who for six months today have been suffering the horror of war. I hope that concrete steps will be taken to put an end to the war and to avert the risk of a nuclear disaster in Zaporizhzhia.
I carry the prisoners in my heart, especially those in fragile conditions, and I ask the competent authorities to work for their release. I think of the children, so many dead… then so many refugees – here in Italy there are many… so many wounded, so many Ukrainian children and Russian children who have become orphans. And being an orphan has no nationality, they have lost their father or their mother, whether they are Russian or Ukrainian.
I think of so much cruelty, so many innocents who are paying for madness, the madness of all sides, because war is madness and no one in war can say: ‘No, I am not mad.’ The madness of war.
I think of that poor girl blown up by a bomb under her car seat in Moscow.
The innocent pay for war, the innocent! Let us think about this reality and say to each other: war is madness.
And those who profit from war and the arms trade are criminals who kill humanity.
And we think of other countries that have been at war for a long time: more than 10 years in Syria; we think of the war in Yemen, where so many children suffer from hunger; we think of the Rohingya who travel the world because of the injustice of being driven from their land.
But today in a special way, six months after the beginning of the war, we think of Ukraine and Russia, I consecrated both countries to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. May she, as Mother, turn her gaze on these two beloved countries: may she look upon Ukraine, look upon Russia, and bring us peace! We need peace!
24/08/2022 (Source)
Words
during Angelus prayer
Let
us persevere in our closeness and in prayer for the dear Ukrainian people who are experiencing inhuman
cruelty.
21/08/2022
(Source)
Words during Angelus prayer
Let us continue to invoke the intercession of Our Lady, so that God might give the world peace, and let us pray in particular for the Ukrainian people.
15/08/2022 (Source)
Words during Angelus prayer
Mercy is the way of salvation for every one of us, and for the entire world. And let us ask the Lord for special mercy, mercy and pity for the martyred Ukrainian people.
14/08/2022 (Source)
Words during general audience
A thought also for the people of Ukraine, who continue to suffer this cruel war. And let us also pray for the migrants continuously arriving.
10/08/2022 (Source)
Words during Angelus
I want to welcome with satisfaction the departure of the
first ships loaded with grain from the ports of Ukraine. This step demonstrates
that it is possible to dialogue and to reach concrete results for everyone’s
benefit. Therefore, this event also presents itself as a sign of hope, and I
sincerely hope that, following in this direction, there might be an end to
combat and that a just and lasting peace might be reached.
07/08/2022 (Source)
Words during Angelus
Also,
during this journey, I did not cease praying for the battered and martyred
Ukrainian people, asking God to free them from the scourge of war. If one
looked at what is happening objectively, considering the harm that war brings
every day to those people, but also to the entire world, the only reasonable
thing to do would be to stop and negotiate. May wisdom inspire concrete
steps toward peace.
31/07/2022 (Source)
Words during Angelus
And I
also remain close to the martyred Ukrainian population, struck every day by a
hail of missiles. How can one fail to understand that war only creates
destruction and death, driving peoples apart, killing truth and dialogue? I
pray and hope that all international stakeholders will truly work to resume
negotiations, not to fuel the senselessness of war.
17/07/2022
(Source)
Words during the Angelus prayer
And I am also always close to the martyred Ukrainian population, struck
every day by a hail of missiles. How can one fail to understand that war only
creates destruction and death, driving peoples apart, killing truth and
dialogue? I pray and hope that all the
international actors will truly work to resume negotiations, not to fuel the
senselessness of war.
17/07/2022 (Source)
Address to the participants in the general chapters of the Basilian
orders
I would not like to end without expressing my closeness to you, dear
Ukrainian Basilian brothers, in this moment of pain, in this moment of
martyrdom of your homeland. I would like to tell you that I am close to you, the whole
Church is close, all of you. We accompany you as we can in your pain. I
often think that one of the greatest dangers now is to forget the drama of
Ukraine. One gets used to it, one gets used to it... and then it is not so
important and one talks... In recent days, I saw in the newspaper that the news
about the war was on page 9! It's not a problem of interest, and this is bad,
it’s bad. That is why we are close to you and we must all look to them because
they are suffering martyrdom right now. You are suffering martyrdom. And I
hope that the Lord will have compassion on you and in another way be close to
you with peace and the gift of peace.
14/07/2022 (Source)
Letter to participants in the synod of the
Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
I cordially greet all of you gathered in Synod
in Przemyśl, from 7 to 15 July. This Synod, according to the previous plan,
should have been held in Kyiv, but the dramatic situation of the war, already
in its fifth month, did not allow it.
Recently, on 27 June, the Ukrainian Greek
Catholic Church celebrated the liturgical memory of the Blessed Martyrs,
beatified by St John Paul II in Lviv during his visit to Ukraine in 2001. But it
is at this time that we better understand the circumstances in which these
martyrs lived and died, among whom were bishops, priests, religious men and
women and lay people who fell victim to the Soviet communist regime. Today they
protect their suffering People from heaven: to their protection I entrust
all the Members of the Synod.
Dear Brother Bishops, I unite myself
spiritually to your suffering, assuring you of my prayers and my commitment,
which not infrequently, because of the delicate situation, does not emerge in
the media.
11/07/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of message to the participants in the EU
Youth Conference
Dear young people, while you are holding
your Conference, in Ukraine – which is not in the EU, but is Europe – a
senseless war is being fought. Added to the numerous conflicts taking place
in different regions of the world, it makes the need for an educational pact
that educates everyone to fraternity all the more urgent.
The idea of a united Europe arose from a
powerful yearning for peace in the wake of the numerous wars fought on this
continent, and it led to a seventy-year period of peace. Now we must all commit
ourselves to putting an end to this dreadful war, where, as usual, a few
powerful people decide and send thousands of young people to fight and die. In
cases like this, it is legitimate to rebel!
Someone has said that, if the world were ruled
by women, there would not be so many wars, because those who have the mission
of giving life cannot make death choices. In a similar vein, I like to think
that if the world were ruled by young people, there would not be so many wars.
Those who have their whole life ahead of them do not want to ruin it and throw
it away, but to live it to the full.
11/07/2022 (Source)
Words after Angelus prayer
I renew my closeness to the Ukrainian people,
who are daily tormented by the brutal attacks that the ordinary people are
paying for. I pray
for all the families, especially for the victims, the wounded, those who are
sick. I pray for the elderly and for the children. May God show the way to put
an end to this senseless war.
10/07/2022 (Source)
Words after Angelus prayer
Let us continue to pray for peace in Ukraine and in the entire world.
I appeal to the heads of nations and international organizations to
react to the tendency to accentuate conflict and confrontation.
The world needs peace. Not a peace based on the balance of weapons, on
mutual fear. No, that will not do. This means turning history back
seventy years.
The Ukrainian crisis should have been, but – if there is the will –
can still become a challenge for wise statesmen, capable of building,
with dialogue, a better world for the new generations.
With God’s help, this is always possible! But it is necessary to pass
from the strategies of political, economic and military power to a plan
for global peace: no to a world divided between conflicting powers; yes
to a world united between peoples and civilizations that respect each
other.
03/07/2022 (Source)
Message to Orthodox delegation from the Ecumenical Patriarchate
Sister Churches, Brother Peoples. Reconciliation among separated Christians, as a means of contributing
to peace between peoples in conflict, is a most timely consideration
these days, as our world is disrupted by a cruel and senseless war of
aggression in which many, many Christians are fighting one another. Before the scandal of war, in the first place, our concern must not
be for talking and discussing, but for weeping, for helping others and
for experiencing conversion ourselves. We need to weep for the victims
and the overwhelming bloodshed, the deaths of so many innocent people,
the trauma inflicted on families, cities and an entire people. How much suffering has been endured by those who have lost their
loved ones and been forced to abandon their homes and their own
country! We need to help these, our brothers and sisters. We are summoned
to exercise that charity which, as Christians, we are obliged to show
towards Jesus, present in the displaced, the poor and the
wounded. But we also need to experience conversion, and to recognize that
armed conquest, expansionism and imperialism have nothing to do with
the Kingdom that Jesus proclaimed. Nothing to do with the risen Lord,
who in Gethsemane told his disciples to reject violence, to put the
sword back in its place, since those who live by the sword will die by
the sword (Mt 26:52), and who, cutting short every objection, simply said:
“Enough!” (cf. Lk 22:51).
30/06/2022 (Source)
Following Angelus prayer
Every day I carry in my heart the dear and tormented Ukraine, which
continues to be scourged by barbaric attacks, like the one that struck
the Kremenchuk shopping centre. I pray that this insane war may soon see
an end, and I renew the invitation to persevere, without tiring, in prayer
for peace: may the Lord open those paths of dialogue that men are
unwilling or unable to find! And let us not neglect to come to the aid
of the Ukrainian people, who are suffering so much.
29/06/2022 (Source)
Following Angelus prayer
I see Ukrainian flags there. Bombardments continue there in Ukraine which are causing death,
destruction and suffering for the population. Please, let us not forget
these people afflicted by the war. Let us not forget this in our heart and with our prayers.
26/06/2022 (Source)
Message to the Reunion of Aid Agencies for the Oriental Churches
Please continue to keep before your eyes the icon of the Good
Samaritan: you have done so and I know you will continue to do so for
the drama caused by the conflict that from Tigray has again wounded
Ethiopia and partly neighbouring Eritrea, and above all for the beloved and tormented Ukraine. There, we have
returned to the drama of Cain and Abel; a life-destroying violence has
been unleashed, a luciferous, diabolical violence, to which we
believers are called to react with the power of prayer, with the
concrete help of charity, with every Christian means so that weapons
give way to negotiations. I would like to thank you for helping to
bring the caress of the Church and the Pope to Ukraine and to the
countries where refugees have been received. In faith we know that the heights of human pride and idolatry
will be lowered, and the valleys of desolation and tears filled, but we
would also like to see Isaiah's prophecy of peace soon fulfilled: that
one people will no longer raise its hand against another people, that
swords will become ploughs and spears scythes (cf. Is 2:4). Instead,
everything seems to go in the opposite direction: food diminishes and
the clang of weapons increases. It is the Cainic pattern that governs
history today. Let us therefore not stop praying, fasting, helping,
working so that the paths of peace find a place in the jungle of
conflicts.
23/06/2022 (Source)
Words after Angelus prayer
And let us not forget the suffering of the Ukrainian people in this
moment, a people who are suffering. I would like you all to keep in mind a
question: what am I doing today for the Ukrainian people? Do I pray? Am I doing
something? Am I trying to understand? What am I doing today for the
Ukrainian people? Each one of you, answer in your own heart.
19/06/2022 (Source)
Words during general audience
And please, let us not forget the martyred people of Ukraine. Let us not become
accustomed to living as if the war were something far away. May our memory, our affection, our prayer and our help always be
close to these people who are suffering so much and experiencing a true
martyrdom.
15/06/2022 (Source)
Excerpts of Pope’s conversation with heads of Jesuit journals in
Europe
We have to move away from the normal pattern of “Little Red Riding
Hood”: Little Red Riding Hood was good and the wolf was the bad
guy. Here there are no metaphysical good guys and bad guys, in an abstract
sense. Something global is emerging, with elements that are very much
intertwined. A couple of months before the war started, I met a head of state,
a wise man, who speaks very little, very wise indeed. After we talked about the things he wanted to talk about, he told me
that he was very concerned about the way NATO was moving. I asked him
why, and he said, “They are barking at the gates of Russia. They do
not understand that the Russians are imperialists and will allow no
foreign power to approach them.” He concluded, “The situation could
lead to war.” This was his opinion. On February 24, the war began.
That head of state was able to read the signs of what was taking
place.
What we are seeing is the brutality and ferocity with which this war is being carried out
by the troops, generally mercenaries, used by the Russians. The
Russians prefer to send in Chechen and Syrian mercenaries. But the
danger is that we only see this, which is monstrous, and we do not see
the whole drama unfolding behind this war, which was perhaps somehow
either provoked or not prevented. And note the interest in testing and
selling weapons. It is very sad, but at the end of the day that is
what is at stake.
Someone may say to me at this point: so you are pro-Putin! No, I am
not. It would be simplistic and wrong to say such a thing. I am simply
against reducing complexity to the distinction between good guys and bad
guys without reasoning about roots and interests, which are very
complex. While we see the ferocity, the cruelty of Russian troops, we
must not forget the real problems if we want them to be solved.
It is also true that the Russians thought it would all be over in a week. But they
miscalculated. They encountered a brave people, a people who are
struggling to survive and who have a history of struggle.
I must also add that we see what is happening now in the Ukraine
because it is closer to us and touches our sensibility more. But there
are other countries far away. Let us think of some parts of Africa, the
north of Nigeria, the north of the Congo, where a war is still going on
and nobody cares. Think of Rwanda 25 years ago. Think of Myanmar and the
Rohingya. The world is at war. A few years ago, it occurred to me to say
that we are living the third world war piece by piece. For me, today,
World War III has been declared. This is something that should give us
pause for thought. What is happening to humanity that we have had three
world wars in a century? I lived the first war through my grandfather’s
experience on the Piave River. And then the second and now the third.
This is bad for humanity, a calamity. To think that in one century there
have been three world wars, with all the arms trade behind them!
Just three years ago, there was the commemoration of the 75th
anniversary of the Normandy landings. Many heads of state and government
celebrated their success. No one remembered the tens of thousands of
young men who died on the beaches on that occasion.
When I went to Redipuglia in 2014 for the centenary of the world war –
I share something personal – I cried when I saw the age of the fallen
soldiers. When, a few years later, on November 2 – I visit a cemetery
every November 2 – I went to Anzio, I cried there when I saw the age of
those fallen soldiers. Last year I went to a French cemetery and saw
that the graves of the young men – Christians and Muslims, because the
French also sent those from North Africa to fight – were also of young
men of 20, 22, 24 years old. When I went to Slovakia, I was struck by
the number of young and old women. However, there was a lack of older
men. The grandmothers were alone. The war had taken their husbands
away.
Why am I telling you this? Because I would like your journals to deal
with the human side of war. I would like you to show the human drama of
war. It is all very well to make a geopolitical calculation, to study
things in depth. You must do so because that is your duty. But also
try to convey the human drama of war: the human drama of those
cemeteries, the human drama of the beaches of Normandy or Anzio, the
human drama of a woman whose receives a knock on the door, it’s a
postman with a letter thanking her for having given a son to the
country, who is a hero of the country. But she is then left alone.
Reflecting on this would help humanity and the Church a great deal.
Make your socio-political reflections, without however neglecting
human reflection on war.
Let us go back to Ukraine. Everyone opens their hearts to the refugees,
the Ukrainian exiles, who are usually women and children. The men are
left to fight. At the general audience last week, two wives of Ukrainian soldiers
who were in the Azovstal steelworks came to ask me to intercede for
them to be saved. We are all very sensitive to these dramatic
situations. They are women with children whose husbands are fighting
over there. Young, beautiful women. But I ask myself, what will happen
when the enthusiasm to help passes? Because things are cooling down,
and who will then take care of these women? We need to look beyond the
concrete action of the moment, and see how we will support them so
that they do not fall into trafficking, are not abused, because the
vultures are already circling.
Ukraine is an expert in suffering slavery and war. It is a rich country
that has always been cut up, torn apart by the will of those who want to
take it over and exploit it. It is as if history has predisposed Ukraine
to be a heroic country. Seeing this heroism touches our hearts. A
heroism that combines with tenderness! In fact when the first young
Russian soldiers arrived – later they sent mercenaries – sent to carry
out a “military operation,” as they said, without knowing they were
going to war, it was the Ukrainian women who took care of them when they
surrendered. Great humanity, great tenderness. Brave women. Brave
people. A people not afraid to fight. A people hardworking and at the
same time proud of their land. We keep in mind the Ukrainian identity at
this time. This is what moves us: to see such heroism. I would really
like to emphasize this point, the heroism of the Ukrainian people. What
is before our eyes is a situation of world war, global interests, arms
sales and geopolitical appropriation, which is martyring a heroic
people.
I would like to add one more element. I had a forty-minute conversation
with Patriarch Kirill. In the first part he read me a declaration in
which he gave reasons justifying the war. When he finished, I intervened
and told him: “Brother, we are not clerics of the State, we are pastors
of the people.” I was to have met him on June 14 in Jerusalem, to talk
about our shared issues. But with the war, by mutual agreement, we
decided to postpone the meeting to a later date, so that our dialogue
would not be misunderstood. I hope to meet him at a general assembly in
Kazakhstan in September. I hope to be able to greet him and speak a
little with him as a pastor.
14/06/2022 (Source)
Message for Sixth World Day of the Poor
Several months ago, the world was emerging from the tempest of the
pandemic, showing signs of an economic recovery that could benefit
millions of people reduced to poverty by the loss of their jobs. A patch
of blue sky was opening that, without detracting from our sorrow at the
loss of our dear ones, promised to bring us back to direct interpersonal
relations and to socializing with one another once more without further
prohibitions or restrictions. Now, however, a new catastrophe has appeared on the horizon, destined
to impose on our world a very different scenario.
The war in Ukraine has now been added to the regional wars that for
years have taken a heavy toll of death and destruction. Yet here the
situation is even more complex due to the direct intervention of a
“superpower” aimed at imposing its own will in violation of the
principle of the self-determination of peoples. Tragic scenarios are being reenacted and once more reciprocal
extortionate demands made by a few potentates are stifling the voice of
a humanity that cries out for peace.
What great poverty is produced by the senselessness of war! Wherever we look, we can see how violence strikes those who are
defenceless and vulnerable. We think of the deportation of thousands
of persons, above all young boys and girls, in order to sever their
roots and impose on them another identity.
Millions of women, children and elderly people are being forced to
brave the danger of bombs just to find safety by seeking refuge as
displaced persons in neighbouring countries. How many others remain in
the war zones, living each day with fear and the lack of food, water,
medical care and above all human affections? In these situations, reason
is darkened and those who feel its effects are the countless ordinary
people who end up being added to the already great numbers of those in
need. How can we respond adequately to this situation, and to bring
relief and peace to all these people in the grip of uncertainty and
instability?
(…)
I think at this time of the generosity that in recent years has led
entire populations to open their doors to welcome millions of refugees
from wars in the Middle East, Central Africa and now Ukraine. Families
have opened their homes to make room for other families, and communities
have generously accepted many women and children in order to enable them
to live with the dignity that is their due. Even so, the longer conflicts last, the more burdensome their
consequences become. The peoples who offer welcome find it increasingly
difficult to maintain their relief efforts; families and communities
begin to feel burdened by a situation that continues past the emergency
stage. This is the moment for us not to lose heart but to renew our
initial motivation. The work we have begun needs to be brought to
completion with the same sense of responsibility.
13/06/2022 (Source) [Although published on 13 June, the date on the message is 13 November, 2022]
Words after Angelus prayer
The thought of the people of Ukraine, afflicted by war, remains vivid
in my heart. Let the passage of time not temper our grief and concern for that
suffering population. Please, let us not grow accustomed to this
tragic situation! Let us always keep it in our hearts. Let us pray and strive for
peace.
12/06/2022 (Source)
Address to Directors of the Federation of Catholic Family Associations
in Europe
Sadly, at this moment Europe, and especially families in Europe, are
undergoing tragic and dramatic experiences as a result of the war in
Ukraine. I can only endorse your statement that
“mothers and fathers, regardless of their nationality, do not want war.
The family is the school of peace” (FAFCE Presidency Council, 6 May 2022).
Indeed, families and family networks have been and continue to be at the
forefront of welcoming refugees, particularly in Lithuania, Poland and
Hungary.
10/06/2022 (Source)
Words after Regina Coeli prayer
Dear brothers and sisters, on Pentecost, God’s dream for humanity
becomes reality; fifty days after Easter, peoples who speak different
languages encounter and understand one another. But now, 100 days since the beginning of the armed aggression against
Ukraine, the nightmare of war, which is the negation of God’s dream,
has once again befallen humanity: peoples who lock horns, peoples who
kill each other, people being driven from their homes instead of being
brought closer. And while the fury of destruction and death rampages
and the conflicts rage on, fuelling an escalation that is increasingly
dangerous for all, I renew my appeal to the leaders of Nations: do not
lead humanity in ruin, please! Do not lead humanity in ruin, please! Let true negotiations take
place, real talks for a ceasefire and for a sustainable solution. Let
the desperate cry of the suffering people be heard — we see this every
day in the media — have respect for human life and stop the macabre
destruction of cities and villages in the east of Ukraine. Let us
continue, please, to pray and to strive tirelessly for peace.
(…)
I express my closeness to fishers: let us think of fishers who, due to
the increase in the cost of petrol, risk having to cease their work, and
I extend this to all the categories of workers gravely afflicted by the
consequences of the conflict in Ukraine.
05/06/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from address to the volunteers of the Italian National Civil
Protection Service
Likewise, there has been no lack of commitment on your part for
humanitarian assistance and the reception in Italy of refugees from Ukraine, especially women and
children feeling from this absurd war. Thank you for what you have done and continue to do, in silence. Good
deeds do not make noise, but they build up the world.
(…)
Every war marks a surrender of the human capacity to protect. A denial of what is written in the solemn commitments of the United
Nations. This is why Saint Paul VI, speaking before the UN, proclaimed,
“Never again war!” (4 October 1965). We repeat this today, in the face of what is happening in Ukraine, and we protect the dream of peace among people, the sacred right of
peoples to peace.
23/05/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from words during the weekly general audience
At certain junctures in history, the accumulation of burdens gives the
impression that they were given a group appointment. This is what
happened in these years with the Covid-19 pandemic, and what is happening now with the war in Ukraine.
Can we justify these “excesses” as the higher intelligence of nature
and history? Can we religiously bless them as justified responses to
the sins of victims, as if they deserve it? No, we cannot.
18/05/2022 (Source)
Regina Coeli
Right now, many members of the faithful are gathered around the image
of Mary venerated in the Shrine of Pompei, to pray the Supplication that
sprang from the heart of Blessed Bartolo Longo. Kneeling in spirit before the image of the Virgin, I entrust to her
the ardent desire for peace of the many people in various parts of the
world who suffer the senseless calamity of war. In particular, I
present the sufferings and tears of the Ukrainian people to the Holy
Virgin. Before the madness of war, please, let us continue to pray the
Rosary for peace each day. And let us pray for the leaders of nations,
so that they might not lose the “pulse of the people” who want peace
and who know well that weapons never achieve it, never.
08/05/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from the address to the Pontifical Council for Promoting
Christian Unity
Even before the healthcare emergency had come to an end, the entire
world found itself facing another tragic challenge: the war currently
underway in Ukraine. Since the end of the second world war
there has never been any lack of regional wars, many of them! Think of
Rwanda, for example, thirty years ago, to mention just one; but think of
Myanmar, let’s think… But since they are far away, we do not see them,
whereas this one is close by and it makes us react. So much so that I have
often spoken about a piecemeal third world war, scattered
everywhere. However, this war, cruel and senseless like every war, has a greater
dimension and threatens the entire world, and cannot but question the
conscience of every Christian and every Church. We must ask ourselves: what have Churches done, and what can they
do, to contribute to “the development of a global community of fraternity
based on the practice of social friendship on the part of peoples and
nations” (Encyclical Letter Fratelli tutti, 154)? It is a question we must
think about together.
06/05/2022 (Source)
Interview with Corriere della Sera
I spoke to Kirill for 40 minutes via zoom. The first twenty, with a card in hand, he read me all the
justifications for the war. I listened and told him: I don't understand anything about
this. Brother, we are not clerics of state, we cannot use the language of
politics, but that of Jesus. We are shepherds of the same holy people
of God. For this we must seek ways of peace, to put an end to the firing
of weapons. The Patriarch cannot transform himself into Putin's altar boy.
03/05/2022 (Source)
Words after Regina Coeli
Today is the beginning of the month dedicated to the Mother of
God. I would like to invite all the faithful and communities to pray the
Rosary for peace every day in May. My thought goes to the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, “Mary’s city”,
barbarically bombed and destroyed. Once again, from here, I renew my request that safe humanitarian
corridors be arranged for the people trapped in the steelworks in that
city. I suffer and weep, thinking of the sufferings of the Ukrainian people,
and in particular, the weakest, the elderly and children. There are even
terrible reports of children being expelled and deported.
And while we are witnessing a macabre regression of humanity, I wonder, along with so many anguished people, if peace is truly
being sought; whether there is the will to avoid a continued military
and verbal escalation; whether everything possible is being done to
silence the weapons. I beg you, let us not surrender to the logic of violence, to the perverse
spiral of weapons. May the path of dialogue and peace be taken! Let us
pray.
01/05/2022 (Source)
Easter message to Patriarch Kirill
Your Holiness!
In His goodness, the Lord again vouchsafed us to celebrate
Easter. In these days, when we feel the full weight of the suffering of the
members of our human family, crushed by violence, war and numerous
manifestations of injustice, let us again marvel with a grateful heart
that the Lord took upon Himself all the evil and all the pain of our
world. He did this for all time and everywhere in the universe by the
power of His Cross, filially committing Himself into the hands of the
Father (see Luke 23:46).
Obedient to the will of the Father, in the unity of the Spirit, Jesus
laid down His life to destroy death. Truly, the death of Christ was the
beginning of a new life and liberation from the bonds of sin and the
occasion for our Paschal joy, opening before all people the way from the
shadow of darkness to the light of the kingdom of God.
Dear brother! Let us pray for one another that we may bear a credible
witness to the gospel message of the Risen Christ and of the Church as
the universal sacrament of salvation, so that all may enter into the
kingdom of “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom.
14:17). ).
May the Holy Spirit transform our hearts and make us true peacemakers,
especially for war-torn Ukraine, so that as soon as possible the great
Easter transition from death to new life in Christ becomes a reality for
the Ukrainian people, who yearn for a new dawn that will put an end to
the darkness of war.
United by mutual prayer, we commit our Churches and all our brothers
and sisters to the intercession of Mary, the Mother of God, who was with
her Son in His suffering and death and shared the joy of His
resurrection. I sincerely wish Your Holiness a joyful and blessed
Easter!
Christ is Risen!
24/04/2022 (Source)
Words after Regina Coeli
Today various Eastern Churches, Catholic and Orthodox, and several
Latin communities, celebrate Easter according to the Julian calendar. We
celebrated it last Sunday, following the Gregorian calendar. I offer
them my warmest wishes: Christ is risen, he is truly risen! May he fill
with hope the good expectations of hearts. May he grant peace, outraged
by the barbarity of war.
Today marks two months since the beginning of this war: instead of
stopping, the war has worsened. It is sad that in these days, which
are the holiest and most solemn for all Christians, the deadly roar of
weapons is heard rather than the sound of bells announcing the
Resurrection; and it is sad that weapons are increasingly taking the
place of words.
I renew my appeal for an Easter truce, a minimal and tangible sign of
a desire for peace. The attack must be stopped, to respond to the
suffering of the exhausted population; it must stop, in obedience to
the words of the Risen Lord, who on Easter Day repeats to his
disciples: “Peace be with you!” (Lk 24:36; Jn 20:19.21). I ask everyone to increase prayer for peace
and to have the courage to say, to show that peace is possible.
Political leaders, please, listen to the voice of the people, who want
peace, not an escalation of the conflict.
24/04/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from an interview with Argentinian newspaper La Nacion, as translated into English by Crux
On possible visit to Kiev
I cannot do anything that would jeopardize higher objectives, which are
the end of the war, a truce or at least a humanitarian corridor. What would be the use of the pope going to Kyiv if the war continues
the next day?
On his refusal thus far to mention either Russia or its president
Vladimir Putin
No pope ever condemns a head of state, much less a country, which is
superior to its head of state.
On his visit to the Russian embassy in the Vatican
It is clear for those who want to see it well that I was signaling to
the government that it can put an end to the war this instant. To be
honest with you, I would like to do something so that there will not be
one more death in Ukraine. Not one more. And I am ready to do everything.
All war is anachronistic in this world and at this stage of
civilization. That is why I also publicly kissed the Ukrainian flag. It was a gesture
of solidarity with their dead, with their families, and with those who
suffer emigration.
On possible meeting with Patriarch Kirill, which he announced has been
cancelled
Our diplomacy understood that a meeting between the two at this time
could lend itself to much confusion.
I have always promoted interreligious dialogue. When I was archbishop
of Buenos Aires, I brought together Christians, Jews and Muslims in a
fruitful dialogue. It was one of the initiatives of which I am most proud. It is the same
policy that I promote in the Vatican.
22/4/2022 (Source in English) (Original source)
Easter Urbi et Orbi blessing
Our eyes, too, are incredulous on this Easter of war. We have seen all
too much blood, all too much violence. Our hearts, too, have been filled
with fear and anguish, as so many of our brothers and sisters have had
to lock themselves away in order to be safe from bombing. We struggle to believe that Jesus is truly risen, that he has truly
triumphed over death. Could it be an illusion? A figment of our
imagination?
No, it is not an illusion! Today, more than ever, we hear echoing the
Easter proclamation so dear to the Christian East: “Christ is risen! He
is truly risen!” Today, more than ever, we need him, at the end of a
Lent that has seemed endless. We emerged from two years of pandemic, which took a heavy toll. It
was time to come out of the tunnel together, hand in hand, pooling our
strengths and resources... Instead, we are showing that we do not yet
have within us the spirit of Jesus but the spirit of Cain, who saw
Abel not as a brother, but as a rival, and thought about how to
eliminate him. We need the crucified and risen Lord so that we can believe in
the victory of love, and hope for reconciliation. Today, more than ever,
we need him to stand in our midst and repeat to us: “Peace be with
you!”
Only he can do it. Today, he alone has the right to speak to us of
peace. Jesus alone, for he bears wounds… our wounds. His wounds are
indeed ours, for two reasons. They are ours because we inflicted them
upon him by our sins, by our hardness of heart, by our fratricidal
hatred. They are also ours because he bore them for our sake; he did not
cancel them from his glorified body; he chose to keep them forever. They
are the indelible seal of his love for us, a perennial act of
intercession, so that the heavenly Father, in seeing them, will have
mercy upon us and upon the whole world. The wounds on the body of the
risen Jesus are the sign of the battle he fought and won for us, won
with the weapons of love, so that we might have peace and remain in
peace.
As we contemplate those glorious wounds, our incredulous eyes open
wide; our hardened hearts break open and we welcome the Easter message:
“Peace be with you!”
Brothers and sisters, let us allow the peace of Christ to enter our
lives, our homes, our countries!
May there be peace for war-torn Ukraine, so sorely tried by the
violence and destruction of the cruel and senseless war into which it
was dragged. In this terrible night of suffering and death, may a new
dawn of hope soon appear! Let there be a decision for peace. May there
be an end to the flexing of muscles while people are suffering. Please,
please, let us not get used to war! Let us all commit ourselves to
imploring peace, from our balconies and in our streets! Peace! May the
leaders of nations hear people’s plea for peace. May they listen to that troubling question posed by scientists
almost seventy years ago: “Shall we put an end to the human race, or
shall mankind renounce war?” (Russell-Einstein Manifesto, 9 July
1955).
I hold in my heart all the many Ukrainian victims, the millions of
refugees and internally displaced persons, the divided families, the
elderly left to themselves, the lives broken and the cities razed to the
ground. I see the faces of the orphaned children fleeing from the war.
As we look at them, we cannot help but hear their cry of pain, along
with that of all those other children who suffer throughout our world:
those dying of hunger or lack of medical care, those who are victims of
abuse and violence, and those denied the right to be born.
Amid the pain of the war, there are also encouraging signs, such as the
open doors of all those families and communities that are welcoming
migrants and refugees throughout Europe. May these numerous acts of
charity become a blessing for our societies, at times debased by
selfishness and individualism, and help to make them welcoming to
all.
17/04/2022 (Source)
Interview with Lorena Bianchetti
And so, Your Holiness, going back to the war in Ukraine. Kyiv – we are
seeing it, the images are arriving – it’s completely destroyed. In
ashes. Perhaps this is the very scene that the devil likes so much. So,
I ask you: Kyiv is no longer simply a geographic place, but it represents much
more to the eyes of the world. In your heart, what does it
represent?
Holy Father
Pain. Pain is uncertainty, it’s a feeling that takes over. After surgery,
when you feel the physical pain from the wound they’ve given you, you
ask for anaesthesia, for something to help you tolerate it. But [for]
human pain, moral pain, there is no anaesthesia. Only prayer and
tears. I am convinced that we are not weeping very well today. We have
forgotten how to weep. If I may give some advice, to me and to the
people, it is to ask for the gift of tears. And to weep like Peter wept after having betrayed Jesus. When he ran
off, he wept when he denied him. He wept. A type of weeping that is not
an outburst, no. It is physically-felt shame and, I believe we are
lacking this shame. There are many of us who do not feel shame many
times – there is an insult used in my homeland “[that person] has no
shame” – but the grace of weeping. There is a beautiful prayer, there is
a beautiful Mass that asks for the gift of tears. In that Mass, a
beautiful prayer goes like this: “Lord, you who made water flow from the
rock, grant that tears might flow from the rock of my heart”. The hard
heart, the heart that is not moved, does not know how to weep. I ask
myself: how many people can weep on seeing the images of war, whatever
war? Some yes, I am sure, but many are not able to. They begin to
justify or attack. No, this (Editor’s note: the Holy Father points to
his heart): you need to cure this. And Jesus touches here. Today, Good
Friday, in front of Jesus Crucified, let him touch your heart, let him
speak to you with his silence, and with his pain. He speaks to you
through those people who are suffering in the world: who suffer from
hunger, suffer from war, suffer from such exploitation, and all these
things. Let Jesus speak to you and, please, don’t speak. Remain silent.
Let him be the one, and ask for the grace of tears.
Lorena Bianchetti: How much religions can do to remove this desertification from hearts.
What can and what words do you want to say, even to the Orthodox
bishops?
Holy Father: Yes, they too are preparing for Easter with us, with the difference
of a week, because they follow – even Eastern Catholics – follow the
Julian calendar, not the Gregorian. I take the opportunity to send a message of fraternity to all my
brother Orthodox bishops who are living this Easter with the same pain
that I and many Catholics are living ours. It is not easy to be a
bishop…and thank God that it’s not easy! This is why I don’t
understand those who want to become a bishop! They don’t know what’s
in store for them! But I take the opportunity to greet all the
Orthodox bishops, as a brother in the faith.
15/04/2022 (Source)
General audience
This is why the armed aggression of these days, like every war, is an outrage
against God, a blasphemous betrayal of the Lord of Passover, a
preference for the face of the false god of this world over his meek
one. War is always a human act, to bring about the idolatry of power.
13/04/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from sermon on Palm Sunday
When we resort to violence, we show that we no longer know anything
about God, who is our Father, or even about others, who are our brothers
and sisters. We lose sight of why we are in the world and even end
up committing senseless acts of cruelty. We see this in the folly of war, where Christ is crucified yet
another time. Christ is once more nailed to the Cross in mothers who
mourn the unjust death of husbands and sons. He is crucified in
refugees who flee from bombs with children in their arms. He is
crucified in the elderly left alone to die; in young people deprived
of a future; in soldiers sent to kill their brothers and sisters. Christ is being crucified there, today.
10/04/2022 (Source)
Words before the Angelus prayer
In a moment, we will turn to the Blessed Mother with the Angelus
Prayer. It was the Angel of the Lord himself who said to Mary in the
Annunciation: “with God nothing will be impossible” (Lk 1:37). With God nothing will be impossible. He can even bring an end to a
war whose end is not in sight, a war that daily places before our eyes
heinous massacres and atrocious cruelty committed against defenceless
civilians. Let us pray about this.
10/04/2022 (Source)
Wednesday general audience
Today we often hear about “geopolitics”. But unfortunately, the
dominant logic is the strategies of the most powerful countries to
affirm their own interests, extending their area of economic influence,
or ideological influence, and/or military influence. We are seeing this
with the war. In this framework, Malta represents the rights and power
of the “small” nations, small but rich in history and civilization that
should lead toward another logic — that of respect and freedom — the
logic of respect and also the logic of freedom, of the coexistence of
differences, opposed to the colonization of the most powerful. We are
seeing this now. And not only from one side: also from others… After World War II, an attempt was made to lay the foundations of a
new era of peace. But, unfortunately — we never learn — the old story
of competition between the greater powers continued. And, in the
current war in Ukraine, we are witnessing the impotence of the United
Nations Organization.
(…)
Recent news of the war in Ukraine, rather than bringing relief and
hope, confirms new atrocities, like the massacre in Bucha: ever more
horrendous cruelty even against defenceless civilians, women and
children. They are victims whose innocent blood cries to Heaven and
implores: put an end to this war! Silence the weapons! Stop sowing death and destruction! Let us
pray together for this…
And yesterday, precisely from Bucha, they brought me this flag. This flag comes from
the war, precisely from that war-torn city, Bucha. And also here, there are some Ukrainian children with us. Let us
greet them and pray together with them.
These children had to escape and come to a foreign land: this is one of
the fruits of war. Let us not forget them, and let us not forget the
Ukrainian people. It is hard to be uprooted from your own land due to war.
06/04/2022 (Source)
Appeal after general audience
The blocking of grain exports from Ukraine, on which the lives of
millions of people depend, especially in the poorest countries, is of
great concern. I make a heartfelt appeal that every effort be made to
resolve this issue and to guarantee the universal human right to food.
Please do not use wheat, a staple food, as a weapon of war!
01/06/2022 (Source)
Dialogue with children
Ukrainian boy): My name is Sachar, and I come from Ukraine. I do not
have a question, but rather, a request: can you come to Ukraine to save
all the children who are suffering there now?
Pope Francis:
I am glad you are here. I think a lot about the children in Ukraine,
and this is why I have sent some Cardinals to help there, to be close
to all the people, to the children. I would like to go to Ukraine; it
is just that I have to wait for the moment to do so, you know? Because
it is not easy to make a decision that can cause more harm than good
to the world. I must find the right moment to do it. Next week, I will
receive representatives from the Ukrainian government, who will come
to speak, also to speak about a potential visit of mine there. Let’s
see what happens.
04/06/2022 (Source)
Press conference on return flight from Malta
War is always an act of cruelty, an inhuman thing, that goes against
the human spirit; I don't say Christian, [I say] human. It is the spirit
of Cain. I am willing to do whatever needs to be done, and the Holy See,
especially the diplomatic side, Cardinal Parolin and Archbishop
Gallagher, are doing everything… everything possible. We cannot make
public everything they do, out of prudence and confidentiality, but we
are pushing the boundaries of our work. Among the possibilities there is
the trip. There are two possible trips: the President of Poland proposed
one of them, asking me to send Cardinal Krajewski to visit the
Ukrainians who have been welcomed in Poland. [The Cardinal] has already
been there twice, took two ambulances, and he was there with them for
some time. But he will go again; he is willing to do so. The other trip
that some of you have asked about. I answered sincerely that I was
planning to go, that I am always willing. There is no automatic “no.” I
am available.
What are my thoughts regarding such a trip? This was the question: "We heard that you were thinking about a trip
to Ukraine," and I said, "It is on the table." The idea is there,
among the proposals I have received, but I don't know if it can be
done, if it is fitting, and whether it would be for the best or if it
is fitting to undertake it, whether I should go… all this is up in the
air. Then, for some time, there have been considerations regarding a
meeting with Patriarch Kirill; that's what's being worked on, with the
possibility of holding the meeting in the Middle East. This is where things are at the moment.
(…)
Gerry O’Connell (America Magazine)
Father, several times during this trip you have talked about war. The
question everyone is asking is whether or not, since the beginning of
the war, you have spoken to President Putin, and if not, what would you
say to him today?
Pope Francis
The things which I have said to the Authorities on all sides are
public. None of the things I have said are confidential. When I spoke to
the Patriarch, he then released a nice statement of what we said to each
other. I spoke to the President of Russia at the end of last year when
he called me to convey his best wishes. We talked. Then, I have also spoken to the President of Ukraine, twice. So, on the
first day of the war, I felt I had to go to the Russian Embassy to
speak to the Ambassador, who is the representative of the people, and
ask questions and offer my impressions regarding the situation. These
are the official contacts I have had. With Russia I did it through the
Embassy.
Also, I have spoken to the Major Archbishop of Kyiv, Mons. Shevchuk. I have also spoken regularly—every two or three days—with one of
you, Elisabetta Piqué, who is now in Odessa. But I spoke to her when she was in Lviv. She tells me how things are
going. I have also spoken with the rector of the seminary there, through
a message to the seminarians and the people there. I am also in contact
with one of your representatives. Speaking of that, I would like to give
my condolences for your colleagues who have fallen. Whatever side they
are on, it doesn't matter. However, your work is on behalf of the common
good, and they have fallen in service of the common good, on behalf of
information. Let's not forget them. They were brave, and I pray for them
that the Lord will reward them for their work. These have been the
contacts I have had so far.
Gerry O’Connell
But what would be your message for Putin if you had a chance to talk to
him?
Pope Francis
The message I have given to all the Authorities is the one I have given
publicly. I do not say two different things. It is always the same.
I think that behind your question there is also doubt about just and unjust wars. Every war stems from an injustice, always,
because that is the pattern of war. It is not a pattern for peace. For
example, making investments to buy weapons. Some people say, ‘But we
need them to defend ourselves.’ And this is the pattern of war. When World War II ended, everyone breathed and said, "never again
war: peace!" A surge of work for peace began, with the goodwill not to
produce any more weapons, even atomic weapons at that time, after
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. That was a great intention.
Seventy years later, eighty years later, we have forgotten all that.
That's how it is: the pattern of war imposes itself. There was so much
hope in the work of the United Nations then. But the pattern of war has
imposed itself again. We cannot, we are incapable of imagining another pattern. We are not used to
thinking of the pattern of peace anymore. There have been great people
like Ghandi and many others, whom I mentioned at the end of the
Encyclical Fratelli Tutti, who wagered on the pattern of peace. But we
are stubborn! As humanity, we are stubborn. We are in love with wars,
with the spirit of Cain. It is not by chance that at the beginning of the Bible this
problem is presented: the "Cainist" spirit of killing instead of the
spirit of peace. ‘Father, it can't be!’ I'll tell you something
personal. In 2014, when I was in Redipuglia and saw the names [of the
departed], I cried. Really, I cried out of bitterness. Then, a year or
two later, I went to celebrate [Mass] in Anzio for All Souls’ Day, and
saw the names of the young men who fell while landing there. The names
were there, all young men, and I cried there, too. I really did. I did
not understand. We must cry on the graves. I respect,
because there is a political problem, but for the commemoration of the
Normandy landings, several heads of government came together to
commemorate it. But I don't remember anyone talking about the 30,000
young soldiers who were left on the beaches. The boats would open, they
would get out and were gunned down there, on the beaches. Does youth not
matter? This makes me wonder and pains me. I am pained by what is
happening today. We never learn. May the Lord have mercy on us, on all
of us. Every one of us is guilty!
03/04/2022 (Source)
Angelus in Malta
Let us now pray to her for peace, as we think of the humanitarian tragedy unfolding in war-torn Ukraine, which
continues to be bombarded in the sacrilegious war. May we be tireless in praying and in offering assistance to
those who suffer.
03/04/2022 (Source)
Speach to migrants in Malta
Your experiences make us think too of the experiences of all those
thousands and thousands of people who in these very days have been
forced to flee Ukraine because of the unjust and savage war.
But also the experiences of so many others in Asia, Africa and the
Americas; I also think of Rohingya…. All of them are in my thoughts and
prayers at this time.
03/04/2022 (Source)
Address to political and diplomatic personalities in Malta
from the east of Europe, from the land of sunrise, the dark shadows of
war have now spread. We had thought that invasions of other countries,
savage street fighting and atomic threats were grim memories of a
distant past. However, the icy winds of war, which bring only death,
destruction and hatred in their wake, have swept down powerfully upon
the lives of many people and affected us all. Once again, some
potentate, sadly caught up in anachronistic claims of nationalist
interests, is provoking and fomenting conflicts, whereas ordinary people
sense the need to build a future that, will either shared, or not be at
all. Now in the night of the war that is fallen upon humanity, please,
let us not allow the dream of peace to fade!
(…)
How much we need a “human moderation” before the infantile and destructive aggression that threatens us, before the
risk of an “enlarged Cold War” that can stifle the life of entire
peoples and generations. That “childishness”, sadly, has not
disappeared. It has reemerged powerfully in the seductions of
autocracy, new forms of imperialism, widespread aggressiveness, and the inability to build bridges and start from the poorest in our
midst. Today, it is difficult to think with the logic of peace. We have gotten used to thinking with the logic of war. It is from
there that cold wind of war begins to blow, and this time it has been
encouraged over the years. War has in fact been prepared for some time
by great investments in weaponry and a massive trade in arms. It is
distressing to see how the enthusiasm for peace, which emerged after
the Second World War, has faded in these recent decades, as has the
progress of the international community, with a few powers who go
ahead on their own account, seeking spaces and zones of influence. In this way, not only peace, but also so many great questions,
like the fight against hunger and inequality are no longer on the list
of the main political agendas.
02/04/2022 (Source)
Words after the Angelus
More than a month has gone by since the beginning of the invasion of
Ukraine, of the beginning of this cruel and senseless war,
that, like every war, represents a defeat for everyone, for everyone of
us. We need to reject war, a place of death where fathers and mothers bury
their children, where men kill their brothers and sisters without even
having seen them, where the powerful decide and the poor die.
War does not devastate the present only, but the future of a society as
well. I read that from the beginning of the aggression in Ukraine, one of
every two children has been displaced from their country. This means destroying the future, causing dramatic trauma in the
smallest and most innocent among us. This is the bestiality of war – a
barbarous and sacrilegious act!
War should not be something that is inevitable. We should not accustom ourselves to war. Instead, we need to convert
today’s anger into a commitment for tomorrow, because if, after what is
happening, we remain like we were before, we will all be guilty in some
way. Before the danger of self-destruction, may humanity understand that
the moment has come to abolish war, to erase it from human history before
it erases human history.
I beg every political leader to reflect on this, to dedicate themselves
to this! And, looking on battered Ukraine to understand how each day of war
worsens the situation for everyone. Therefore, I renew my appeal:
Enough. Stop it. Silence the weapons. Move seriously toward peace.
27/03/2022 (Source)
Angelus
Unfortunately, the violent aggression against Ukraine does not stop, a
senseless massacre where every day there is a repetition of slaughter
and atrocities. There is no justification for this! I plead with all those involved in the international community to
truly commit to ending this abhorrent war.
This week again missiles and bombs have fallen on civilians, the
elderly, children, and pregnant mothers. I went to see the wounded children who are here in Rome. One was missing an arm; one had a head injury... innocent
children. I think of the millions of Ukrainian refugees who must flee leaving
everything behind, and I feel a great pain for those who do not even have
the possibility to escape. So many grandparents, sick and poor people
separated from their own families, so many children and fragile people are
left to die under the bombs without being able to receive help and find
safety even in the air raid shelters. All this is inhuman! Indeed, it is also sacrilegious because it goes
against the sacredness of human life, especially against defenseless
human life, which must be respected and protected, not eliminated, and
this comes before any strategy! Let us not forget it is inhuman and
sacrilegious cruelty! Let us pray in silence for those who are suffering.
It comforts me to know that the people left under the bombs do not lack
the closeness of their pastors, who in these tragic days are living the
Gospel of charity and fraternity. I have spoken with some of them on the phone during these days, they are
close to the people of God. Thank you, dear brothers and sisters, for this
witness and for the concrete support you are offering courageously to so
many desperate people! I also think of the apostolic nuncio, who was just
made a nuncio, Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas, who since the beginning of
the war has stayed in Kyiv together with his collaborators and who with
his presence brings me close every day to the martyred Ukrainian people.
Let us be close to this people, let us embrace them with affection, with
concrete commitment and prayer. And please, let us not get used to war and
violence! Let us not tire of welcoming them with generosity as we are doing now
not only during the emergency, but also in the weeks and months to come.
As you know at first, we do all we can to welcome everyone, but then we
can get used to it, and our hearts cool a bit, and we forget about it.
Let us think of these women and children who in time, without work,
separated from their husbands, will be sought out by the ‘vultures’ of
society. Please, let us protect them.
I invite every community and all the faithful to unite with me on
Friday 25 March, the Solemnity of the Annunciation, for the Solemn Act
of Consecration of humanity, especially Russia and Ukraine, to the
Immaculate Heart of Mary, so that she, the Queen of Peace, may help us
obtain peace.
20/03/2022 (Source)
Message for the opening of the European catholic social days
What we have experiencing in recent weeks is not what we had hoped for
after the difficult health emergency caused by the pandemic, which made
us experience a sign of powerlessness and fear, together with the
fragile condition of our existence. The tragedy of the war that is taking place in the heart of Europe
leaves us astonished; we never thought we would see such scenes again,
reminiscent of the great wars of the last century. The heartbreaking cry
for help of our Ukrainian brothers and sisters urges us as a community
of believers not only to reflect seriously, but to cry with them and to
do something for them; to share the anguish of a people whose identity,
history and tradition have been wounded. The blood and tears of children, the suffering of women and men who are
defending their land or fleeing from bombs rattle our conscience. Once again humanity is threatened by a perverse abuse of power and
partisan interests, which condemns defenceless people to suffer all
forms of brutal violence.
15/03/2022 (Source)
Prayer for the end of war in Ukraine
Forgive us for war, O Lord.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us sinners!
Lord Jesus, born in the shadows of bombs falling on Kyiv, have mercy on
us!
Lord Jesus, who died in a mother’s arms in a bunker in Kharkiv, have
mercy on us!
Lord Jesus, a 20-year-old sent to the frontlines, have mercy on us!
Lord Jesus, who still behold armed hands in the shadow of your Cross,
have mercy on us!
Forgive us, O Lord.
Forgive us, if we are not satisfied with the nails with which we
crucified Your hands, as we continue to slate our thirst with the blood
of those mauled by weapons.
Forgive us, if these hands which You created to tend have been
transformed into instruments of death.
Forgive us, O Lord, if we continue to kill our brother;
Forgive us, if we continue like Cain to pick up the stones of our
fields to kill Abel.
Forgive us, if we continue to justify our cruelty with our labours, if
we legitimize the brutality of our actions with our pain.
Forgive us for war, O Lord. Forgive us for war, O Lord.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, we implore You! Hold fast the hand of Cain!
Illumine our consciences;
May our will not be done;
Abandon us not to our own actions!
Stop us, O Lord, stop us!
And when you have held back the hand of Cain, care also for him. He is
our brother.
O Lord, put a halt to the violence!
Stop us, O Lord!
Amen.
13/03/2022 (Source)
Words after the Angelus prayer
Brothers and sisters, we have just prayed to the Virgin
Mary. This weekend, the city that bears her name, Mariupol, has become a city martyred by the ruinous war that is
devastating Ukraine. Faced with the barbarism of the killing of
children, and of innocent and defenceless citizens, there are no
strategic reasons that hold up: the only thing to be done is to cease
the unacceptable armed aggression before the city is reduced to a
cemetery. With an aching heart I add my voice to that of the common people, who
implore the end of the war. In the name of God, listen to the cry of those who suffer, and put an
end to the bombings and the attacks! Let there be real and decisive focus on the negotiations, and let
the humanitarian corridors be effective and safe. In the name of God, I
ask you: stop this massacre!
I would like once again to urge the welcoming of the many refugees, in whom Christ is present, and to give thanks for the great network of solidarity that has formed.
I ask all diocesan and religious communities to increase their
moments of prayer for peace. God is only the God of peace, he is not the
God of war, and those who support violence profane his name. Now let us
pray in silence for those who suffer, and that God may convert hearts to a
steadfast will for peace.
13/03/2022 (Source)
Words after Angelus prayer
Dear brothers and sisters,
Rivers of blood and tears are flowing in Ukraine. It is not merely a military operation, but a war, which sows death,
destruction and misery. The number of victims is increasing, as are the people fleeing,
especially mothers and children. The need for humanitarian assistance in
that troubled country is growing dramatically by the hour.
I make a heartfelt appeal for humanitarian corridors to be genuinely
secured, and for aid to be guaranteed and access facilitated to the
besieged areas, in order to offer vital relief to our brothers and sisters oppressed by bombs and fear.
I thank all those who are taking in refugees. Above all, I implore that the armed attacks cease and that negotiation – and
common sense – prevail. And that international law be respected once again!
And I would also like to thank the journalists who put their lives at
risk to provide information. Thank you, brothers and sisters, for this service! A service that allows
us to be close to the tragedy of that population and enables us to assess
the cruelty of a war. Thank you, brothers and sisters.
Let us pray together for Ukraine: we have its flags in front of us. Let us
pray together, as brothers and sisters, to Our Lady, Queen of
Ukraine. Hail Mary...
The Holy See is ready to do everything, to put itself at the service
of this peace. In these days, two Cardinals went to Ukraine, to serve the people, to help. Cardinal Krajewski, the Almoner, to bring
aid to the needy, and Cardinal Czerny, interim Prefect of the Dicastery
for Promoting Integral Human Development. The presence of the two Cardinals there is the presence not only of the
Pope, but of all the Christian people who want to get closer and say:
“War is madness! Stop, please! Look at this cruelty!”.
06/3/2022 (Source)
Words after the Angelus prayer
He who wages war, he who provokes war, forgets humanity. He does not start with the people, he does not look at the concrete life of the people, but puts vested interests and power before everything. He entrusts himself to the diabolical and perverse logic of weapons, which is the furthest from the will of God. And he distances himself from the common people, who want peace; and who, in every conflict, are the real victims, who pay for the follies of war in their own skin. I’m thinking of the elderly, of those who seek refuge in these hours, of mothers fleeing with their children… They are brothers and sisters for whom it is urgent to open humanitarian corridors and who must be welcomed.
With a broken heart for what happens in Ukraine – and let's not forget the wars in other parts of the world, such as in Yemen, Syria, Ethiopia… –, I repeat: silence those weapons! God stands with peacemakers, not with those who use violence. Because those who love peace, as the Italian Constitution states, "repudiate war as an instrument of offense against the freedom of other peoples and as a means of resolving international disputes" (Art. 11).
#PrayTogether #Ukraine pic.twitter.com/WUyGuMLYzG
— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) February 25, 2022
Interview
with Famiglia Cristiana
Only a
logic of peace can guarantee a future for humanity. If partisan interests
prevail, violence, prevarication, economic and ideological colonization, the
law of the strongest – that is, a logic of war – we are destined not to have a
future.
Peace is
built on justice and law. There is no peace without justice, but there is no
justice without forgiveness, as Saint John Paul II reminded us at the beginning
of this new millennium. And it is equally true that forgiveness requires
conversion, that is, a change of attitude that is reflected in actions. I am
unable to tell you what peace is possible. I only know that without concrete
steps on the part of everyone we risk falling into a spiral of no return, with
catastrophic consequences.
The
truce, to stop the crackling of weapons, the bombings, the destruction, is a
necessary first step. This step, however, must also be accompanied and favoured
by gestures not of threat, but of trust and good will, which create the
conditions for dialogue and pave the way for negotiations. The Pope was clear
on this. Unfortunately, we are almost used to the news about the war: not only
do I consider the truce plausible, but I consider it necessary and urgent. We
hope and pray that Francis' appeal will be heard!
12/10/2022
(Source)
In light of today's developments in the crisis in Ukraine, we see even more clearly the timeliness of the clear and heartfelt appeal that the Holy Father made yesterday at the conclusion of the General Audience. The Pope spoke of “great sorrow,” “anguish and concern.” He also urged all the parties involved to “refrain from any action that would cause even more suffering to the people, destabilising coexistence between nations and bringing international law into disrepute.”
This appeal has taken on dramatic urgency following the beginning of
Russian military operations in Ukrainian territory. The tragic scenarios that everyone feared are becoming a reality. Yet
there is still time for goodwill, there is still room for negotiation,
there is still a place for the exercise of a wisdom that can prevent the
predominance of partisan interest, safeguard the legitimate aspirations
of everyone, and spare the world from the folly and horrors of war.
As believers, we do not lose hope for a glimmer of conscience on the
part of those who hold in their hands the fortunes of the world. And we continue to pray and fast — as we shall do this coming Ash
Wednesday — for peace in Ukraine and in the entire world.
Excerpts from interview
Eminence, could you, first of all, summarize the position of the Holy
See on the ongoing conflict?
The position of the Holy See is the one that the Pope has repeatedly
repeated:
a resounding "no" to war, war is madness, it must be stopped. We call, appealing to the conscience of all, for an immediate end
to hostilities. We have before our eyes horrible pictures coming from
Ukraine. Civilian casualties, elderly women, innocent children who
paid with their lives for the madness of war. Anxiety grows when you see cities with shattered houses, left
without electricity at sub-zero temperatures, lack of food and
medicine. As well as millions of refugees, mostly women and children
fleeing the bombing. These days I had the opportunity to meet a group
that came to Italy from different parts of Ukraine: no look, face without
a smile, endless sadness… What is the fault of these young mothers, what
did their children blame? You need to have a heart of stone, to remain intact and to allow
this chaos to continue, to keep rivers of blood and tears
flowing. War is barbarism!
Why did the Pope make an unprecedented gesture by visiting the
Russian embassy the day after the Moscow army's invasion of
Ukraine?
You are right to call this gesture of Pope Francis unprecedented. The
Holy Father wanted to express all his concern to the Moscow authorities in
view of the military escalation that has just begun, and decided to take a
personal step in this direction by applying to the diplomatic mission of
the Russian Federation at the Holy See.
The Pope clearly said that Ukraine is a war, not a "military
operation." Why?
Words are important, and
to call what is happening in Ukraine a military operation means not
recognizing the truth of the facts. We are facing a war that, unfortunately, is reaping many casualties among the civilian
population, like all wars.
12/03/2022 (Source)
Exerpts of an interview
For me personally, the
invasion is at the same time a dramatic moment, as it is for every Ukrainian,
because the war is tragic, dramatic in the physical and psychological sense.
But as a bishop, as a priest, I accept it as a dramatic grace. Because I
know many people who are interested in Ukraine, read and watch what is
happening on the Internet. It is much more difficult for them to understand
this, but they try. I am here and much better see and hear the suffering of
people with all its tragedy.
It is clear that I write to the Vatican about
what I see. And I am not the only source of information. There is the
Internet, the media, journalists, other priests, bishops who provide
information to the Pope. In February-March, there was and still is such a
large amount of information about murders, other tragic political and
humanitarian moments that it was difficult to cover them all. Therefore, my
task was to focus on the most important aspects.
It is also important to understand that the
Pope cannot know all aspects. The communique of the Holy See says that
Pope Francis is talking about the protection of human life more than the
political aspects. State
Secretary Cardinal Pietro Parolin and his deputy Archbishop Paul Richard
Gallagher, who came to Ukraine in May, talk about political aspects, other bishops,
I, as nuncio. It is easier for all of us to talk about both the pastoral
aspects and the political ones. For example, Cardinal Parolin always spoke
about Russian aggression, about Russia's attack on Ukraine. Everyone
understands what is happening. But the problem is that when Parolin or I talk
about it, no one pays attention to it. Everyone is waiting for the Pope's
words. And he personally chooses which words and concepts he wants to say.
And this is not always what we offer. I see that it is because he wants to
remain a pastor, not a politician.
Is the Pope even interested in politics?
For example, I collaborated with the Vatican
Secretariat of State from 2012 to 2020. And I saw that many times Pope
Francis asked Cardinal Parolin to explain political aspects. This means that
Pope Francis does not want to speak directly about what could be perceived as a
political statement. Although I will say it again: we all understand that
Russia started this war, not Ukraine.
But it is necessary to understand that there is
a position of politicians - presidents of countries, and the role of the Pope,
who avoids politics, remains, as I said, a shepherd. The pastor's job is
never to publicly condemn. Because a shepherd, like a priest, is more in direct
contact - one on one - he wants to talk about the most difficult things, but
not publicly. Here you can discuss a lot, who is which priest, how he
understands this task. But this is what I think about Pope Francis when I want
to understand why he chooses one concept and not another. And this is the first
aspect.
The second is that the Pope knows that there
are not many countries, not many people who can hypothetically be mediators. It
is very difficult here: if Russia attacked Ukraine, then human logic tells us
that there is no room for such mediation. If the conflict was not very
complicated, it would be easier to find mediators, conditionally forget about
everything done and live as friends. But with such a war it is not very
realistic. Yes, it is unreal for human logic, but the Pope remains a priest
who prays, and who also has hope that with the grace of God, what is impossible
for human logic will be possible. And this aspect explains to us why Pope
Francis chooses certain concepts, not those that people in Ukraine want to
hear.
What could the mediation of the Pope look like?
I know that not only with the beginning of the
full-scale war on February 24, but even earlier, because the war was already
going on, the Ukrainian authorities and President Zelenskyy asked Pope Francis,
the Holy See, that the Holy See be open to possible mediation. But for
mediation to take place, it is necessary that the other party - the Russian
Federation - accept Pope Francis as a mediator. I could be wrong, but I see
that so far there has been no signal from the Russian Federation that they want
to accept Pope Francis as a mediator. Some small signals, someone from the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia said in July that they are paying
attention to the Holy See, to the Vatican. There were small signs, but I have
no information about serious steps.
After February 24, the authorities of Ukraine
not only repeated this question, but I see and know that Pope Francis and the
State Secretariat also came out with their own initiative, looking for an
opportunity from the Russian Federation to be a mediator. The goal of
the mediator is to stop the war, not to reach an armistice. And from the very
beginning, Pope Francis said that he wanted to go to Moscow. Don't go to say:
"Good afternoon" or "How are you?"
The Pope's trip is an event. When he
goes, he sees the world. And therefore the very arrival should mean that the
Pope already has certain hopes, grounds for a trip to Moscow, opportunities for
change. But we can conclude that Moscow did not see the possibility of
accepting the Pope as a mediator. That is, its intentions to attack Ukraine
have not changed. Therefore, there is no result.
Another aspect that Pope Francis talked about
in his personal interviews is that from the very beginning of the full-scale
offensive, he wanted to talk with Patriarch Kirill of Moscow about a very clear
idea - to jointly speak out against the war. But we saw that
there was no such readiness on the part of Patriarch Kirill. Even after
quite a long conversation in March via video link. I don't know exactly how the
conversation went, but I know from all the interviews that it wasn't easy. And
there is no result either.
There were also diplomatic church and
humanitarian contacts. For example, at the end of March, there was an
idea that one Catholic bishop should go to Mariupol with humanitarian aid
together with an Orthodox bishop. Then this initiative changed - I, as a
nuncio, had to go from Kyiv together with the Orthodox bishop on behalf of
Metropolitan Onufriy. And this initiative was agreed not only with Pope
Francis, but also with Patriarch Kirill. It could become a step for mediation.
But then we did not get the green light to pass to Mariupol from the Russian
military forces.
A little later, at the beginning of May, when
the situation with the defenders of Mariupol continued to be very dramatic,
there was a hypothesis that the extraction process would take place. We
know that it did not work, but Pope Francis knew that there was such a
hypothesis, and understood that when it was implemented, it would be better for
him to come to Mariupol in person. And he was going to come. It was May 15-16.
This was resolved in writing. I informed the defenders' wives and the Ukrainian
authorities that the Pope was ready to come to Mariupol. And we know that the
Pope's health was bad in May, he couldn't even stand, he always sat in a cart.
But this visit did not take place either.
How did the Russian Federation react to the
Pope's possible visit to Mariupol?
Russia simply did not give permission for
extraction.
Who suggested that the Pope personally come to
Mariupol?
These were the wives of defenders and many
joint initiatives. And one of the hypotheses was - if the extraction
process goes ahead, it would be better for the Pope to act as a moral guarantor
that the extraction process itself is correct and takes place with respect for
human rights.
How can you characterize the Vatican's
relations with Russia? Pope Francis met with Putin three times and
signed the Havana Declaration with Kirill.
I do not have complete information about what
was planned between Pope Francis and Vladimir Putin now. This is the
Russian Federation, and I am the Nuncio of Ukraine. This does not apply
directly to me. But we can say that contacts between the Holy See and the
Russian Federation have developed in recent years. But the fact is that Pope
Francis could not officially visit Russia. This means that these connections
have not yet reached a high level. If Pope Francis comes to the country, meets
with the authorities, churches, this is a sign of very developed relations.
Why is the policy of reconciliation, which the
Vatican, for example, illustrated with the participation of two women - a
Ukrainian and a Russian woman - on Good Friday, even when it is obvious that
one side came to kill others, so important?
Yes, this is a very important aspect and
moment. But I will openly say that it will not be correct if I answer,
because I wrote letters with my vision and proposals to the Holy See.
Researchers say that until now the Pope avoided
calling one of the parties to the conflict an aggressor. Why?
As can be seen from your questions, you are
talking about Pope Francis, and you automatically mean the Vatican, Vatican
diplomacy. If you look at the interview of the Secretary of State Cardinal
Parolin, everything is clear there. But everyone is waiting for what Pope
Francis will say about it. And in this there is a difference.
The Pope himself decides how to speak to him.
Of course, he is offered certain messages. But it's easy to offer, because we
don't have the same position as him. Pope Francis is such a person to whom the
attention of the whole world is focused. Everyone hears what he says. If you
and I say that Russia is an aggressor, it does not change anything. But it is
impossible to understand what a person who has such responsibility on his
shoulders thinks. Because only he knows how he himself thinks about the
possible consequences.
Saint John Chrysostom says in his sermons that
if there is a sinner in society, it would be better not to talk about him
publicly. Because if we say publicly that he is a sinner, a murderer, then he
loses the psychological motivation to change. We know that there are situations
in which it is not possible to wait for a person to change. And, yes, I hear
many voices saying - no, it is impossible to wait for the Russians to change,
we must speak now. But, as we say, the Pope decides himself.
After the Pope's words about the death of the
daughter of the ideologue of the "Russian world" Oleksandr Dugin
Daria, one could hear a lot of criticism from the highest leadership of
Ukraine. Has this criticism been heard in the Vatican?
This is a very important part of my work, my
task. And as you know, I had a meeting with the Deputy Minister of Foreign
Affairs, where I heard the official position of the Ukrainian authorities. And
it was a very serious sign. After that, I wrote a report about what I was told.
Later, a message appeared.
So it was a response to save the Pope's
reputation?
The Holy See worked for several days on the
communique that was published. It is clear in those things that needed clarity:
the aggressor is Russia.
How does information about what is happening in
Ukraine get to the Pope? For example, he talked about the provision of NATO
weapons to Ukraine or about Dugin's daughter, but did not mention the specific
names of Ukrainian children killed by the Russian army.
I don't remember the Pope commenting on weapons
for Ukraine. I want to say that there is also manipulation by journalists. It
is my opinion. As for NATO, the Pope did not express his opinion, he quoted a
certain politician, the leader of a certain country. It was a quote. Already
here we can see the influence of that politician, that president. And about
Dugin, and about other similar things, I personally do not know what the
sources were. But this is proof that the sources must be checked.
The communiqué also touched on the fact that
the Pope does not want to talk about political aspects, because the Pope also
does not want to wait for a political decision on who is guilty and who is not.
For him, as you mentioned, there are a lot of children in Ukraine. So. For
example, I told my friends in Italy and Lithuania about the children that I pray
for them every morning. Before Easter in Odessa - Kira died. Dad returned from
the store - there is neither a child nor a wife. These are the children for
whom I pray by name. I think it is good to commemorate and remember specific
people, but the Pope spoke about many, and those who, in particular, were taken
to Russia, and we do not know what is happening to them there. For the Pope,
not only the lost lives of children are important. It is also important when
children lose families, or families lose children, or Ukraine loses children.
In this sense, we see that the Pope is very sincere about this.
My personal opinion is that if someone informed
the Pope that Dugin's daughter was killed in Moscow, it was not so important to
Pope Francis who and why: he was thinking about the lost life. The First Lady
of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, has emphasized many times that every child killed
is the whole world killed. Adults are also not guilty at the time of their
murder. Killing any life is a sin. Therefore, for the Pope, to kill, to take life, if you do not defend
yourself, because defense is a just war, is always a sin. This is my
understanding.
Do you personally communicate with the priests
of the UOC MP?
There was an example of the approval of a
humanitarian initiative to Mariupol. Then we talked for more than one day, it
was a long conversation on various points. There was a result, and a very
constructive one, between the nunciature and the metropolis of the UOC MP at
the level of discussion, but then there was no result in Mariupol itself. We
spent a lot of time on it. We would like to continue humanitarian initiatives.
Between churches in Ukraine or in the Russian
Federation as well?
I cannot contact the Russian Orthodox Church
directly, only through the State Secretariat. We are conducting negotiations at
our level regarding prisoners, children.
What specific results have you achieved as an
ambassador?
Unfortunately, I don't see any humanitarian
ones. In March-April, we worked in both Mariupol and Kherson. Zero results.
Even sometimes less than zero. We asked through the State Secretariat for
the Russian Federation to give permission to evacuate children from the Kherson
region, and we did not receive any response. But then we found out that those
children were taken away, and we don't know where. I call this result less
than zero. It's terrible.
Under what conditions can Pope Francis come to
Ukraine now?
When Pope Francis will personally decide, when
his health will allow him. There is a general decision, and it is publicly
known. We know that the presidents of the countries can come to Ukraine once,
twice, and a third time. Because it's important. It is much more difficult
for the Pope to come to Ukraine than for politicians. Because when
politicians-leaders of countries come, and it becomes known about their visit
later, it is acceptable for them. For the Pope - no. For him, the meaning of
the visit is not in this. He must not come secretly, meet only with the
president, only visit Bucha, Irpin or Borodyanka, he must see people - victims,
families of prisoners, killed. It is necessary to meet both with priests
and with representatives of society. I understand that the Pope wants to understand
when he can give Ukraine more than that, at what point. We are waiting and I
personally am waiting for the Pope to come.
When might be the right moment?
Then we will know everything at once.
Did you mention the possible visit of the Pope
to the Russian Federation, and after February 24 there were also talks about
it?
Yes, the Pope wanted to go to Moscow after
February 24. And here it is risky (reputationally. - Ed.) for the
Pope to explain to every Ukrainian why the Pope first wanted to go to Moscow,
and not to Kyiv. This means that there will be a lot of criticism for the Pope.
But why did he want so much? He wanted to go to Moscow so that the war would be
stopped, so that Russia would stop its aggression. And there were public
contacts so that Moscow would accept Francis. But the fact that he could not go
to Moscow means that there was no readiness on the part of Moscow.
09/09/2022 (Source)
We were very concerned that there might be a war, because the signs were
there. But it still causes a huge impact, it is surreal, like living in a
film. So, I say to myself, and also to many believers I speak to, that
our main weapons, so to speak, are humility, surrendering ourselves
totally to God, solidarity, and love. Because in any case if we are here for each other, if we are close to
God, if we are faithful, He will look after us.
And so it is during this war, which is not a purely human invention,
there is something demonic about it – as there is in all violence. And
we can only defeat the evil in this war together, all over the world,
through fasting, prayer, much humility and love.
(…)
There are plenty of reasons for this war, and some claim that there
is a religious dimension to some of them. I consider this completely incorrect. If we look at the Ukrainians, for example, we have the Council of
Churches and Religious Organisations in Ukraine which has been very united
at this time, it is close to the people, and they support each other.
This doesn’t mean that all difficulties have passed, because clearly
some interreligious misunderstandings played a role in the past. But I
don’t think you can justify this war in this way, because difficulties
in interreligious relations have to be dealt with a different way. Surprisingly, I have noticed that the difficulties I saw in Ukraine
before have decreased now. It seems that this tragedy is uniting the
Ukrainian people. This doesn’t mean that this unity will remain
afterwards, but it is still a very positive sign.
(…)
The words of the Holy Father show that he is doing all he possibly
can to end this war. And not only through words, because I know full well that he is seeking
all the possible paths for the Church, both spiritual and diplomatic.
All that is humanly possible to contribute to peace. Of course, the Pope – and I know this well through his collaborators,
with whom I am in touch several times a day – is weighing many
possibilities.
We are constantly reflecting on what else the Pope can do, either
directly or through his collaborators. One of these things is sending
the two cardinals.
On Tuesday Cardinal Krajewski arrived in Ukraine to bring support and
see how he can get humanitarian aid in, and with it the presence of the
Pope.
Address to UGCC synod on consecration of Ukraine and Russia to
Mary
The Immaculate Heart of Mary is a symbol of the pain experienced by the
Mother of God through the death of her son Jesus. The Ukrainian people
are now joining this pain, especially Ukrainian children who are dying
from bombs or from thirst and cold, in darkness and boundless fear. This
war cannot be explained, because human life is sacred to all of us,
believers and non-believers.
(…)
May our prayer, as well as the activities of government officials,
diplomats and public figures of Ukraine and other countries bring peace
to our country and understanding between the Ukrainian and Russian
people and between all peoples.
25/3/2022 (Source)
Dear brothers and sisters, this day, which for us is Ash Wednesday and
the beginning of Lent, the Holy Father declared the Day of Lent and
Prayer for Ukraine. That is why we have come today to pray with you for
your Motherland. Congratulations to my dear brother Bishop Dionysius and
all the priests and faithful of this exarchate in Italy. We don't have
many words.
Our words are the ones we prayed for, calling on the Mother of God,
the Queen of Ukraine, to intercede for us in the face of this
catastrophe, in the face of all these victims of unjustified
invasion. Yesterday, talking on the phone, we saw the tears of His Beatitude
Supreme Archbishop Sviatoslav, who is in custody, as many Ukrainians who
are currently under bombardment are experiencing separation, fleeing.
We take to our hearts the great, unspeakable pain of mothers,
fathers, soldiers, children, fleeing. We have no words. We have no
missiles, we have no guns, we have no tanks, we have no force of
violence that wants to prevail at any cost. We have the power to humble those who despise the world and the mighty
lands.
Our only weapon - and in this we join our Pope Francis - in the face
of such a disgrace to humanity and great suffering - is what we did
today: we prayed.
And I want to say with all my heart:
may the Mother of God really ask for peace to put an end to this
abuse, this unspeakable suffering that the Ukrainian people are
experiencing. May the Mother of God accompany us, give us strength. My opinion also
reaches many of you who will have to accept your relatives, your
friends, who are fleeing from this senseless, unthinkable war. The
thought comes to those who have relatives left there who may not have
been able to escape, and that is why I want to tell you: we are all
obviously our Congregation, but
all of us, the Catholic Church, are with you and opens for you
his humble hands of fraternal devotion and sharing your pain and your
prayer. But be strong, for with us and with you is God, the crucified
Lord Jesus and His Blessed Mother. Amen
2/3/2022 (Source. Edited for clarity)
Excerpts from the communiqué of the Episcopal
Conference of Ukraine regarding the need to pray for the conversion of Russia
in the light of the apparitions of Our Lady in Fatima
The best victory over the enemy is his
awakening and conversion. Prayer is declared as the most effective weapon -
stronger than bullets.
Today, when the war continues in our country,
we can say that although times have changed and the Soviet Union is gone, the
same mentality and terrorist vision to enslave and subjugate free and independent
Ukraine remain in Russia. The extent of this drama indicates the great call and need to heal the
consequences of the long-term dominance of anti-Christian ideology. We must
constantly work in this direction. Fatima did not complete the restoration of
Russia, but she bequeathed it.
We entrust this matter to the Mother of God!
Therefore, responding to Her request, in the
rosary prayer we ask for the conversion of Russia, because our Mother and
Queen, the Virgin of Fatima, showed us such a path.
30/12/2022 (Source)
Message on the occasion of the feast of the Holy
Family
Dear Brothers and Sisters!
Dear spouses, parents! Dear children!
We turn to you with heartfelt words of
congratulations in the time of war, filled with pain and sorrow. One of
our military chaplains said the following words: “War is terrible, but the
worst thing is when the war steals you and you belong to the war. It
happens when you stop loving."
Today we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family
from Nazareth, which aims to revive love in us. We learn to love in the
family, and good family relations help us overcome various
difficulties. Even today, for many people, love for relatives and the
Motherland adds strength to life. Love pushes many men and women to
forget about their benefit, comfort, satiety, and go into the whirlpool of war
for the good of others and to protect the right to freedom. We want to say
a big thank you to you, Dear Defenders, who left your family hearth and
replaced it with the cold and dirt of the trenches. In prayer, we entrust
you to the care of the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph, whom the Eternal God
entrusted with the care of His Only Begotten Son, Jesus.
Stories about elderly and sick people who were
unable to leave the bombed cities, but their relatives and friends did not
leave them, are also impressive. And how many women, children, and parents
take care of soldiers who returned from the front wounded and despite the
horrors of the war, their love did not fade.
(…)
Dear children, dear youth! Some of you
lost your parents, who gave their lives in the war out of love for you, for the
Motherland. All of them are your and our heroes, who deserve great honour
and gratitude. They say that there are no atheists on the front
line and we can hope that each of our soldiers who died turned to the Merciful
God in the last minutes of their lives. Perhaps some of them did not
have time to leave the last instructions to their children, so we put into
their mouths the dying speech of the famous Tobit in the Bible, who addresses
his son: "When I die, bury me properly. Honour your mother, never
leave her as long as you live. Do what she likes, and don't upset her
heart with any of your actions. Remember, my child, about all the dangers
she suffered because of you when you were in her womb" (Tob 4,
3-5a).
(…)
Faith and the experience of God's love gives us
the strength to believe that the Lord will open the gates of heaven for those
children who did not have time or could not escape from the war and were
murdered.
Let the Gospel about the escape of the Holy
Family be a balm for the soul of those who have fled abroad and have remorse
about it. God's Word tells us that there is a time to flee and a time to
return. God gives signs when to flee and when to return, as we see in the
lives of Mary and Joseph. So, Brothers and Sisters who are now abroad
in Ukraine, listen to the voice of God and He will tell you when and how to
act. Now maintain relations with your relatives, pray for Ukraine,
organize humanitarian aid to the best of your ability, and be grateful to the
people who opened their hearts to you.
(…)
Many soldiers talk about God's extraordinary
intervention in the course of military operations, about the action of the
"Hand of God", so to speak. After the Act of Consecration of
Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the
enemy army retreated from Kyiv and Chernihiv. It was a miracle! So
that we don't forget this power of prayer and God's help, so that we don't
think that we win only by our own human strength. God proves to us that He is faithful
despite our many sins. God grant that after the victory we live by the
power of God's grace, and not return to our sins.
Dear families! Do not let the war steal
from you what is most important: mutual love and faith. Draw strength
from Jesus, who is the source of love and has conquered all evil. Take
care of each other, be understanding and forgiving, take your time to take
offense and forgive quickly. Consider the fact that each person reacts
to the war in his own way and experiences it in his own way, often he himself
cannot understand what is happening to him. Therefore, be patient and
gentle, give yourself kindness and forgiveness. Take care of personal and
joint family prayer, participation in the Sunday Eucharist, time spent together
in communication and just be together.
Dear spouses, who are present here together and
who for various reasons cannot be together, Jesus, whom you have invited into
your life in the sacrament of Marriage, is with you in joy and sorrow. Be
faithful to Him, remaining faithful to your marriage vow of love, honesty,
honor, which you will renew today!
29/12/2022 (Source)
Message for Advent
Starting the new liturgical year, on the First
Sunday of Advent, we turn to you with a message that God's Mercy carries with
it. We send this message in a difficult time for our Motherland. We direct
it to you, believers, as well as to all people of good will, so that in the
midst of tragic war events and their consequences, we do not forget and do not
lose mercy. That is why we decided to declare the Year of Mercy, because
the wounds and devastation caused by the war are so great that we will need to
make a lot of efforts over many years to heal them and rebuild what was
destroyed.
(…)
We need strength to live, to love, to defend
our country, to serve others with our work. We need deep peace in the heart and
unbreakable hope. We need a strong faith that will shape our decisions and
actions. Today, we are experiencing the horrors of the Russian-Ukrainian war
and are experiencing the consequences of the actions of people who, not knowing
God's mercy, came to our land to kill and destroy. How much evil, violence,
lies, meanness and cynicism the enemy carries. All this points to the coldness
of an empty soul that has rejected God. But we are also in danger of cooling
our hearts and making them unfit for life through self-centeredness,
indifference, despair, weariness, hatred or discouragement.
(…)
We especially want to draw your attention to
the military, who protect our common Home at the cost of their lives and
health. Let us wrap them in our prayers, let us accompany them with patience
and delicacy, especially when the wounds of war make themselves felt, let us
help to satisfy their vital needs at the front. Let us remember them in the
Prayer of the Faithful during the Holy Mass, both for the living and for the
dead. Let's console
those from whom the war took away relatives, friends, and acquaintances. Let's
open the doors of our homes for orphans. Let's not forget the elderly people
who were driven out of their hometowns or villages by the war, destroying their
homes. Let's be close to the forced migrants, let's let them feel the kindness
of our hearts, so that another place of residence and unknown surroundings are
not bitter and unbearable for them.
We ask the Lord to give us, those who are
allowed to live in Ukraine in this time of war, the desire, wisdom, courage and
strength to be witnesses of His Mercy. May the deeds of mercy done by us make
others want to know the love of the Heart of Jesus, which is overflowing with
mercy.
25/11/2022 (Source)
Address on the day of Dignity and Freedom
This holiday is established as a sign of honouring
the patriotism and courage of the citizens of Ukraine, who in 2004 and 2013
stood up for the defence of democratic values and the European choice of our
people.
(…)
On this year's Day of Dignity and Freedom, we
especially pray to God to confirm these two great gifts in our people, to give
us strength and courage, wisdom and prudence, patience and confidence for the
victorious struggle against those who, without knowing their own dignity,
plunder and destroy Ukraine and Ukrainians. We ask the Merciful God for all those who
have allowed or are allowing evil to rule over their minds, words and deeds for
remembrance, conversion, sincere regret for the evil done and reward for the
crimes committed.
21/11/2022 (Source)
Call for prayer and fasting for peace
Russia's war against Ukraine, which we have
been experiencing for so long and exhaustingly, is not abating. In recent days,
the escalation of the military conflict draws our attention to the need to
intensify prayer for the end of the war and for peace in our country!
Therefore, we order that the whole of
October, which is dedicated in a special way to Mary the Queen of the Rosary,
in every church, community and family, pray the prayer of the Holy Rosary
(together or personally) with the intention of peace in our country.
We also declare every Friday in October a day
of fasting on bread and water for all Catholics of the Latin rite throughout
Ukraine, with the same intention.
We also ask you to join in the joint prayer and
fasting of all believers in God and people of good will, because prayer is
the power of peace directed to victory over the darkness of war.
Thank you all for your perseverance in prayer
and for your sacrificial service to others.
Remaining in prayer unity with you, accept our
pastoral blessing for this spiritual struggle.
30/09/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from message at the end of the Year of
the Holy Cross
When in November 2021, during the Conference of
the Episcopate of Ukraine, the idea arose to declare the Year of the Holy Cross
, none of us assumed that it would be the time of a real Way of the Cross for
our Motherland. No one could have guessed that such a great test, which is war,
would come upon us all.
The first intention of this year should not
have been patience, but affirmation of faith and thanksgiving for the saving
passion of our Lord Jesus, affirmation in the love that God the Father bestows
on us by sending his Son to accomplish salvation.
However, it did not happen quite like that, our
stay at the cross took on a different dimension and it is expressed in the
call: "We humbly ask for Your unspeakable kindness, God: give away the
deadly poison of the snake." A poison that brings death and destruction.
The poison that took away our peace. The poison that is hatred.
The sign of the cross approached us, but we
also approached it. Standing next to the mystery of the Lord's cross, we
touched and touch the mystery of our cross. For many of us, this mystery is an
innocent patience and at the same time an expression of the greatest love. Just
as the cross was an undeserved punishment for Jesus, so it is for us. Just as
through the cross Jesus completed the victory of life over death, so we believe
that our faithful persistence at the cross will bring the victory of good over
evil, peace over war. We have no other alternative. We have no other way. There
is only the way of the victorious cross.
08/09/2022 (Source)
Address on the occasion of the Independence Day
of Ukraine
In an extremely difficult time, we have to
celebrate the Independence Day of Ukraine this year. Freedom, liberty and
independence never come easily. Today, we pay a high price for the right to be
independent, protecting our Motherland from a large-scale attack by the aggressor
for half a year. Today, all our people have rallied in the struggle for
independence: defenders of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, civil servants and
diplomats, doctors and medical workers, volunteers and entrepreneurs. Everyone
who cares about the fate and future of the Motherland in their place is making
efforts for victory and a just peace.
We, as people who believe in the Triune God, do
not stop begging the Lord with confidence for strength in the fight and for an
early end to the war. In daily prayer, let us trust in His mercy for the
military, residents of the territories under occupation and threatened by air
and missile attacks. We pray for the wounded and captured. Let us help and
support to the best of our ability those who were forced to leave their homes.
Let's beg the All-Merciful Father to accept those who "gave their souls
and bodies for our freedom" to their Home in heaven. May He have mercy on
all those who died during these military operations. May the Sacred Heart of
Jesus fill those who have lost their loved ones with its closeness and comfort.
Let's not forget about constant concern for our
personal conversion and a worthy Christian life. After all, as the Book of
Proverbs teaches: "The Lord hears the prayer of the righteous" (Prov.
15:29) and "the prayer of the righteous is pleasing to Him" (Prov.
15:8). Let us seek first of all God's Kingdom and its righteousness (cf. Mt
6:33), let us deepen our faith, let us express our love for God and our neighbour
through our deeds.
We ask for the intercession of the Immaculate
Heart of Mary, to whom we dedicated our Motherland and Russia together with
Pope Francis and the entire Catholic world on March 25 of this year, asking for
the grace of conversion. Let us not abandon the practice of the First Five
Saturdays of the month in the intention of reparation for sins and blasphemies
against the Immaculate Heart of the Mother of God, as Mary revealed in Fatima.
Therefore, let a good and righteous life,
sincere and zealous prayer, honest and conscientious work of everyone become
our daily contribution to victory and peace.
May the blessing of our Heavenly Father, who
loves and desires good and eternal salvation for each of his children, rest on
Ukraine and on all people of good will.
24/08/2022 (Source)
Dear brothers and sisters, dear compatriots!
Unfortunately, this morning a new page in our history has begun. In this situation, when Russia has launched a full-scale war against Ukraine, the responsibility of each of us is important.
Foremost, let’s not let desperation take over us. Christians are people of faith and hope because our Savior Jesus Christ
proved by his resurrection that the last word is not for death, but for
life! Elsewhere in the Scriptures, we read: "If the Lord does not keep the
city, the watchman is in vain." (Psalms 127.1 B). Therefore, our hope is
in God.
The present time requires us to unite in prayer: in our families, with
our neighbours, in prayer communities and in every parish. We encourage priests today, after each Holy Mass, in addition to singing
the supplication, to pray for the act of dedicating Ukraine to the
Immaculate Heart of the Mother of God.
May this time of trial also be an opportunity for reconciliation with
our relatives and friends, neighbours and colleagues, and with God
Himself. Realising our own sinfulness and limitations, we apologise to
the Lord, proceed to the sacrament of reconciliation, fulfilling the 5
conditions of a good confession. Let us try to participate in the Eucharist more often and receive Holy
Communion, to take care of the purity of our hearts, so that God’s grace
fills us.
Let us pray together a rosary or other prayers in the intention of
peace, for the rulers of our state, for our army and all those who
defend our homeland, for the wounded and dead, as well as a reminder
for those who started the war and were blinded by aggression. Let us protect our hearts from hatred and rage against our enemies.
Christ clearly instructs us to pray for them and bless them.
The Church is a community. Let parishes and prayer groups become a
place of unity and a centre from which prayers for peace and God’s
protection are sent. We don’t know what the future holds for us, but let
the parish community not leave the most defenceless and needy to their
fate, regardless of their religious affiliation. We will provide special care for the elderly and sick.
The prince of this world wins individual battles, forcing us to succumb
to manipulations, believe lies and spread them. May our help in the search for truth be God’s word, as well as the
highest truth, which is Christ. In addition, do not give in to the panic
that the aggressor can sow.
We will be ready to defend our homeland in accordance with our
capabilities and responsibilities
– in the army or at our workplace, in hospitals or by providing first
aid, material support or a word of comfort, prayer or sacrifice of
suffering. Let us respond courageously to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, who
will give his light at the right moment.
For the time of trial and fervent prayer, we give our pastoral
blessing: in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit!
24-2-2022 (Source. Edited for clarity)
Statement on Independence Day
August 24, 2022 - 6 months of full-scale war, which the Russian Federation started against Ukraine. We are losing sons and daughters of our people, we are losing territories, but Ukraine is still an independent state! And today, more than ever before, we value and honor this independence of ours. And we know that every drop of blood and sweat, every life, all our prayers, tears of wives and mothers, all the pain and fear that have accompanied us for 6 months - everything is not in vain. Today we prove to ourselves that we are worthy and worthy of this gift of God, which is independence, and we are ready to fight for this gift. Someone with a weapon in their hands on the front line, someone with a rosary in their hands in the church or at home, someone driving trucks with humanitarian aid, someone in the operating room, in the fields and factories, someone at the checkpoints, but all with prayer on their lips and in their hearts, begging God for protection and support, because "when the Lord does not build a house, its builders work in vain. When the Lord does not protect the city, the watchman watches in vain. (Ps. 126,1).
24/08/2022 (Source)
My dear brothers in the fullness of the Priesthood of Christ, the bishops of Germany who fight for minority rights and care for climate change; silent bishops of Belarus and Russia!
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Catholics of Germany, Belarus and Russia. Why are you silent while we are being killed? Where is your voice of solidarity with the innocent victims of Putin's Russia? Where are your actions that show love; deeds without which our Christian faith is dead; where is your active position? Some of the leaders of your countries support aggression, others are its source, and you are silent? Is this your version of Christianity? Do you still remember that keeping silent about sin is also a sin?
An independent democratic country in the heart of Europe with tanks, missiles and machine guns aimed at civilians is being forced "into peace" by a country that itself took away this peace from us in 2014. The Russian army came to us in Donbass and Crimea, brought death and destruction, political repression and fear. But we did our best to maintain a peaceful sky over the rest of our homeland. And we did not attack anyone. We did not provoke anyone. And on February 24, 2022, Russia started a war throughout Ukraine.
We are being shot in front of you, live, and you Christian brothers, what are you doing at the moment? "Cain attacked Abel his brother and killed him. And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? He replied, “I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper?” (Gen. 4: 8-9).
28/2/2022 (Source. Edited for clarity)
Excerpt
of summary of Bishops’ meeting in St. Petersburg
The
bishops renewed the call addressed to Catholics and believers of all
denominations to pray for peace for all mankind, and, in particular, for people
in Ukraine and Russia, accompanying prayer with fasting and works of mercy. The
bishops expressed their special gratitude to the staff of Caritas of the South
of Russia and to all those who help refugees of all backgrounds and views. At
the same time, the members of the Conference expressed their intention to
cooperate with all people of good will both in this area and in caring for the
needy in general.
In the
current atmosphere of tension, the CCER calls on clergy to make efforts to
protect the rights of the Church, and, above all, the right of the faithful to
freedom of religion, in particular in hospitals, places of detention and other
institutions.
10/11/2022
(Source)
Address in connection with the announcement of
partial mobilization
The confrontation in Ukraine has grown into a
full-scale military conflict that has already claimed thousands of lives,
undermined trust and unity between countries and peoples, and threatens the
existence of the entire world. Like six months ago, we want to repeat the teaching of the
Church, following the Holy Gospel and ancient Tradition: war has never been
and never will be a means of solving problems that arise between nations;
“We lose nothing because of the peace and we can lose everything because of the
war” (Pius XII, 1939).
Today, our hearts are filled with grief and
powerlessness from the inability to do something or even just find the right
words that could decisively change the situation and prevent further victims. Together
with you, brothers and sisters, we are listening to the words of the Holy
Father, spoken during his visit to Kazakhstan: “Let's not get used to war,
let's not resign ourselves to its inevitability. Let's come to the aid of those
who are suffering and let's insist on trying really to achieve peace. The only
way out is peace, and the only way to it is dialogue.” Conscious of our impotence, we pray to live in
the spirit of the consecration of Ukraine and Russia by Pope Francis to the
Immaculate Heart of Mary, in full trust in God's care for His children and in
His boundless mercy; the only way to live this way is to be humble peacemakers
and defenders of justice, as much as our gifts and circumstances of our lives
allow us to be.
The partial mobilization announced in Russia
has placed many of our believers before a most serious moral choice. We
know that under certain circumstances, state authorities not only have the
right, but must also use weapons and require citizens to fulfill the duties
necessary to protect the fatherland, and those who honestly serve the
motherland in military service serve the common good. All of the above is true
if military actions are aimed at the speediest end to the conflict and avoiding
the multiplication of victims (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church
2307-2317).
Ultimately, the question of the admissibility
of participation in hostilities is a question of human conscience, which is
man's most secret and sacred sanctuary, in which he is alone with God, and
whose right judgement he is always obliged to obey (Ibid., 1795, 1800).
On the other hand, the Church reminds the
state authorities that they “must find a just solution in cases where a person,
out of conviction, refuses to take up arms, while remaining obliged to serve
the human community in another way” (Ibid., 2311). This right is
enshrined in part 3 of article 59 of the Constitution of the Russian
Federation, and we call for its consistent observance.
As for the clergy and monastics of the Catholic
Church, it should be emphasized that it is categorically impossible for them to
participate in hostilities, both in accordance with the most ancient church
rules and in accordance with current international conventions.
To all our believers, we renew the call for
increased prayer and fasting for the establishment of a just and secure world.
We ask the priests to celebrate the Holy Mass for the preservation of
peace and justice, using the Eucharistic Prayer for Reconciliation, reading the
prayer from the breviary "For Peace and Fatherland" and including in
the Prayer of the faithful petitions for a cessation of hostilities and the
preservation of human lives.
No date on site, but published during first week
of October (Source)
Beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, dear congregation in the
priesthood!
We, like all of you, are deeply impressed that, despite enormous
efforts to reconcile, the political conflict between Russia and Ukraine
has turned into an armed confrontation.
This confrontation brings death and destruction and threatens the
security of the whole world.
The peoples of our countries are united not only by a common history,
but also by the great suffering that has befallen us in the past because
of the madness of war. Our peoples deserve peace, and not just peace
without war, but peace that is determined to respect other people, other
peoples and their dignity.
Let our contemporaries know that they will have to give a strict
account of the military actions they have committed. After all, the course of future centuries largely depends on their
current decisions (cf. Const. Lumen gentium, 78, 80).
We call on all politicians on whom this decision depends to do their
utmost to end this conflict. "God is the God of peace, not war, the
Father of all, not just some, and He wants us to be brothers, not
enemies," Pope Francis told us. And
we also call on all people, especially the Christian brothers, to
resist lies and hatred, and to be a source of reconciliation, not a
multiplication of hatred and violence.
We ask all our believers to dedicate these days to intensified prayer
and fasting for the salvation of human lives – especially on Ash
Wednesday, March 2, in response to the call of the Holy Father. Priests
are asked to serve Holy Mass for the preservation of peace and justice,
using the Eucharistic Prayer for Reconciliation and reading the Prayer
for Peace and Fatherland.
Conference of Catholic Bishops of Russia
Archbishop Pavlo Pezzi Metropolitan of the Archdiocese of the Mother of
God in Moscow
Bishop Joseph Wert Ordinary of the Transfiguration Diocese in
Novosibirsk
Bishop Clemens Pickel Ordinary of the Diocese of St. Clement in Saratov
Bishop Kirill Klimovich Ordinary of the Diocese of St. Joseph in
Irkutsk
Bishop Mykola Dubinin Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of the Mother
of God in Moscow
24/2/2022 (Source.
Edited for clarity)
Address to the faithful by Archbishop Paolo Pezzi, of Moscow
I invite all the faithful to pray together, here in the Cathedral, the
Rosary in communion with Pope Francis, at the end of the month of May on
Tuesday, May 31, which as we know, is dedicated to the Holy Virgin Mary.
We join the Pope and, through him, the universal Church, to implore the
gift of peace in Ukraine and in every part of the world where conflicts
are taking place that are often forgotten
26/05/2022 (Source)
(The first messages were sent by Metropolitan Hilarion, who died in May 2022. Messages sent after that date are from Metropolitan Nicholas)
Excerpt
of Greeting to Primate of Ukrainian Orthodox Church
It is with great concern and pain that we
follow the events on the territory of Ukraine: the military conflict, the
repression of true Orthodox Christians and the suffering of those who are
“quiet in the land” (Psalms 35:20), that is, the common folk: my
sinfulness, and all the archpastors, pastors, monastics and faithful children
of the Russian Church Abroad who are with me, prayerfully extend to you a hand
of support and love, laying all of our hopes in God, Who “spoke peace unto His
people” (Psalms 85:8). May this Divine peace reign in the hearts of man and may
they possess the “great peace who have they which love God’s law” (Psalms
119:165).
9/12/2022
(Source)
Paschal greeting to Metropolitan Onophry, of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Moscow Patriarchate
We all live in a world where the consequences of the freedom of human will leads to sufferings, illness and death. Only the Innocent Sufferer, God-Man, could destroy this shameful cycle of servitude to sin, bringing forth Himself in Sacrifice, “for us men and for our salvation.” Therefore, following Him “in the Lord’s wandering,” enduring His abandonment on the Cross as a mortal, we hope and believe that the present tribulations and calamities will lead us Orthodox Christians to “the unwaning day of the Kingdom of Christ.”
Now, prayerfully standing before Christ the Life-Giver, we humbly beseech on Your behalf, for Your brother archpastors, pastors, monastics and the multitude of children of the persecuted Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the beleaguered hearts of all those who have suffered from this war, that which is sung during Paschal night: “O Pascha, deliverer from sorrow!” May “this chosen and holy day” bring consolation and joy, a torrent of mercy, help and Divine aid for you all!
22/04/2022 (Source)
Dear in the Lord Brothers and Sisters:
As we approach Great Lent, this salvific time of profound prayer and self-correction, and in connection with the events in the Ukrainian land, I turn to all with a heartfelt plea: to refrain from watching television, following newspapers and the internet, to close our hearts to the passions ignited by mass media, while doubling our fervent prayers for peace throughout the world, for overcoming enmity and discord, for help for the suffering, for the repose of those who have departed into the eternal life and the consolation of their friends and relatives, so that we all first and foremost remain humane and Orthodox Christians in these difficult times.
The forthcoming Great Lenten period is our path towards the Pascha of Christ. This path leads away from indolence, impatience, fuss and constant anxiety in our spiritual life, and towards wholeness, humility and love. This pious experience does not arise within us without effort, but through adhering to the other world in our churches – the world of light, joy, hope and kindness. Without participating in the divine services of Great Lent, which creates a special atmosphere in our homes and in our lives, attaining such a spiritual state is very difficult, it may even be impossible. Striving towards God, establishing peace within our hearts and participating in the sacramental life of the Church of Christ, wherein lies our personal relationship with God, we reduce the level of evil in this world, we inspire others towards labors and spiritual feats of the Gospel, we enhance peace and brotherly relationships, and do not succumb to the temptations of various discords and divisions.
Therefore, I urge everyone to take advantage of every opportunity offered by the Church to preserve peace and goodness in our hearts, to spend this blessed time of salvation, so that we can all together meet and spend the luminous night of Pascha in unity of spirit and brotherly love, in the renewal of all of our powers and the spiritual joy in the Resurrected Christ and the victory of good over evil! Amen.
24/02/2022 (Source. Edited for clarity)
Statement on the situation in Ukraine
On February 24, 2022, Metropolitan John of
Dubna, Auxiliary Bishops Symeon of Domodedovo and Elisha of Reutov and members
of the Board of Directors of the Archdiocese of Orthodox Churches of Russian
Tradition in Western Europe "expressed their dismay at the dramatic
situation created by the invasion and the accompanying military operations in
Ukraine, (and) deplored the resulting loss of life and suffering”.
A few days later, Monsignor Jean sent a letter
to Patriarch Kirill of Moscow expressing the deep trouble aroused by his homily
evoking "the metaphysical fight in the name of the right to stand on the
side of light, on the side of God's truth", and thereby justifying
intervention in Ukraine. He begged the patriarch “to do everything possible to
put an end to this appalling war which divides the world and sows death and
destruction”.
The war has now been going on for eight months
during which many Christian authorities around the world have addressed
Patriarch Kirill directly asking him to intercede for peace.
We note a deep disarray within most of our
communities who only wish only to work for peace in the name of the Gospel.
Many Russians and Ukrainians are members of our places of worship and suffer
with all of us from this situation.
In particular the affirmation that "he who
remains faithful to the calling he has received and dies in the exercise of his
military duties, certainly performs an act which amounts to sacrifice... and
that this sacrifice washes away all the sins that 'he committed' (homily of
September 25), was received with great pain and incomprehension.
We again ask Patriarch Kirill to encourage the
peace process, through his patriarchal authority, inviting all officials and
leaders of the Russian Federation.
While calling for constant prayer, especially
during the divine liturgies, Metropolitan John, the auxiliary bishops, the
members of the diocesan council pray to Patriarch Kirill to say a word in favour
of an immediate end to this fratricidal war which today poses too serious a
threat to the world.
13/10/2022 (Source)
Open letter to Patriarch Kirill
In these dark days when war is raging in the middle of Europe following
the military intervention of the Russian Federation in Ukraine, allow me
to convey to you the dismay of the entire Archdiocese and our total
solidarity with the victims of this conflict.
The troubles and disorder caused throughout the world by this violent
attack have not spared the Orthodox community of Western Europe and
above all the archdiocese of Orthodox parishes of Russian tradition in
Western Europe, which brings together faithful of all origins.
Our very unity is threatened by the situation that has thus arisen.
Our faithful expect their pastors to bring the voice of the Church and
an evangelical message of peace.
We learned with emotion of the appeal made to you by the members of the
Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, asking you to intervene
with the political authorities of the Russian Federation to stop this
bloodbath.
On behalf of all the faithful of our Archdiocese,
I appeal to you to raise your voice as Primate of the Russian
Orthodox Church against this monstrous and senseless war and to
intercede with the authorities of the Russian Federation so that this
murderous conflict ceases as soon as possible, which until recently
seemed unthinkable between two peoples and two nations united by
centuries of history and their common faith in Christ.
Your Holiness, in your “homily” for the Sunday of Forgiveness,
delivered in the Patriarchal Cathedral of Christ the Saviour on the 6th
March, you imply that you justify this war of cruel and murderous
aggression as “a metaphysical battle”, in the name of the “right to be
on the side of the light, on the side of God’s truth, of what the light
of Christ reveals to us, His word, His Gospel… ”.
With all the respect that is due to you, and from which I do not
depart, but also
with infinite pain, I must bring to your attention that I cannot
subscribe to such a reading of the Gospel. Nothing can ever justify
that the “good shepherds” that we must be should cease to be “artisans
of peace”, whatever the circumstances.
Your Holiness, humbly, with a heavy heart, please do all you can to end this terrible war that is dividing the world and sowing death and destruction.
09/3/2022 (Source)
Statement by Metropolitan John and the
Archbishop's Council
Until recently, a war between Russia and
Ukraine, neighbouring countries sharing a common history and with a large part
of the population confessing the same Orthodox faith, seemed impossible. Metropolitan
John and the Council of the Archdiocese express their dismay at the dramatic
situation created by the invasion and the accompanying military operations.
They deplore the loss of life and the resulting suffering.
They express their solidarity and union of
prayer with their Orthodox brothers and sisters in Russia and Ukraine involved
in this conflict.
They invite all the parishes and faithful of
the Archdiocese to remain united and to raise their prayers for all the victims
of this conflict and for the return of peace in Ukraine.
24/02/2022 (Source)
Statement of the WCC general secretary on
continuing attacks on civilians in Ukraine
The WCC denounces the continuing attacks on
civilians and civilian infrastructure in Russia’s ongoing illegal war against
the people of Ukraine.
The latest attacks have added 40 more civilian
lives to the terrible toll of human suffering resulting from Russia’s invasion
of the sovereign nation of Ukraine.
We appeal once again for respect for the
principles of international humanitarian law regarding the protection of
civilians, for the attacks that deliberately target civilian infrastructure to
stop, and for an end to this war and its violent violations of law and
morality.
16/01/2023 (Source)
Statement on ongoing Russian attacks on
civilian infrastructure in Ukraine
The World Council of Churches is gravely
concerned by the continued attacks by Russian forces on energy facilities and
other civilian infrastructure and areas in Ukraine, including most recently a
maternity unit in which a new-born baby was killed. Moreover, recurrent missile attacks close to
the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant risk catastrophe for people throughout the whole
region.
The WCC reiterates the appeals issued by the
11th Assembly in Karlsruhe in September 2022 for respect the principles of
international humanitarian law, including especially with regard to the
protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure, and urging all parties to
refrain from military action in the vicinity of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power
plant.
Again, we join in prayer for all the victims of
this tragic conflict, and of the ongoing missile attacks against civilian areas
far from the battlefield. We commend all those organizations, communities and
churches that are providing care and assistance to those affected by the
violence. We appeal once more for an end to this deadly, destructive and
unjustifiable war against the people of Ukraine.
25/11/2022 (Source)
Excerpts of statement on “War in Ukraine, peace
and justice in the European region”
As we meet in Karlsruhe, tragically, we are
witnessing a war afflicting Europe. The thoughts and prayers of all
participants in the 11th Assembly of the WCC are focused on the people and
country of Ukraine, and the tragic consequences they have and are suffering
since the Russian invasion on 24 February 2022, in addition to the thousands of
casualties including many civilians in the East of the country and hundreds of
thousands of refugees and displaced people since 2014.
During this six month period, there have
been over 13,000 Ukrainian civilian casualties and cities such as Mariupol have
been laid in ruins. At this moment close to 14 million people – almost
one-third of the entire population of Ukraine – have been forced to flee their
homes (according to UNHCR). Moreover, there are many reports of atrocities that
may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity, including sexual and
gender-based violence, as well as greatly heightened vulnerability to human
trafficking. In addition, we are very concerned about the risks of
catastrophic consequences resulting from damage caused to the Zaporizhzhia
nuclear power plant by military activities in its vicinity - as well as
containment security at the site of the Chornobyl disaster of 1986.
At its meeting in June 2022, the WCC central
committee deplored the war as “illegal and unjustifiable”, lamenting the awful and continuing
toll of deaths, destruction and displacement, of destroyed relationships and
ever more deeply entrenched antagonism between the people of the region, of
escalating confrontation globally, of increased famine risk in food insecure
regions of the world, of economic hardship and heightened social and political
instability in many countries.
This Assembly strongly affirms the position
expressed by the central committee, and denounces this illegal and
unjustifiable war.
As Christians from different parts of the world we renew the call for an
immediate ceasefire to halt the death and destruction, and for dialogue and
negotiations to secure a sustainable peace. We appeal to all sides in the
conflict to respect the principles of international humanitarian law, including
especially with regard to the protection of civilians and civilian
infrastructure, and for the humane treatment of prisoners of war.
We also strongly affirm the central committee’s
declaration that war is incompatible with God’s very nature and will for
humanity and against our fundamental Christian and ecumenical principles, and
accordingly reject any misuse of religious language and authority to justify
armed aggression and hatred.
We urge all parties to withdraw and refrain
from military action in the vicinity of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant
and other such locations that may risk unimaginable threats to current and
future generations.
We join in praying for all the victims of this
tragic conflict, in Ukraine, in the region and throughout the world, that their
suffering may cease and that they may be consoled and restored to lives of
safety and dignity, and we assure them of the love and accompaniment of the WCC
global fellowship of churches. We commend the local churches, specialized
ministries and all humanitarian organizations that are supporting the suffering
people in all parts of Ukraine and beyond, and who are receiving and caring for
refugees in full respect for their God-given human dignity fleeing from the
war.
(…)
In the meantime, we reiterate the central
committee’s appeal to our Christian brothers and sisters and to the leadership
of the churches in Russia as well as in Ukraine, to raise their voices to
oppose the continuing deaths, destruction, displacement and dispossession of
the people of Ukraine.
We call on WCC to provide a platform for all voices for peace to be heard and
amplified and we pray that this war will come to an end very soon.
(…)
Background (for information)
1) The war in Ukraine
One of the many tragic consequences of the war
in Ukraine is the greatly intensified militarization, confrontation and
division on the continent of Europe, with an enormous and largely uncontrolled
proliferation of weapons in the region, and a renewed and escalating threat of
nuclear conflict which would cause a catastrophe of appalling and likely global
magnitude. A new dividing line is being drawn across the continent, bristling
with arms on either side. The history of the Cold War period gives us a clear
picture of what may follow, and the risks it will entail.
There is a danger that the invasion of Ukraine
could lead to other cases of larger countries seeking to conquer smaller
neighbours on the pretext of national interests. Given the inevitable human
cost, war must be avoided and churches have a key role in advocating for this. Despite past failures, multilateral
diplomacy – especially through the United Nations at the global level – retains
a vitally important role in preserving peace.
Meanwhile, increased government spending on
defence inevitably means that there is less money available to spend on poverty
alleviation, social protection, health, education, climate action and
sustainable development. Inevitably, the poorest will be most affected. Whilst
warfare is directly destructive, the social and economic consequences of
militarisation cannot be overlooked. So many people are suffering in other
places in this world from the effects of this war. The skyrocketing cost of
food and the energy crisis in the wake of the war are plunging people into
hunger and misery. The global humanitarian impacts of the war in Ukraine were
underlined by the WCC Executive Committee at its meeting on 30 May-2 June 2022.
08/09/2022 (Source)
Statement on global humanitarian impacts of the
war in Ukraine
The conflict in Ukraine continues to cause a terrible
toll of death, destruction, displacement and misery for the Ukrainian people,
with thousands of civilians reported to have been killed, and more than 14
million people – well over a quarter of the entire population – forced to flee
from their homes.
In addition, the impacts of this war are being felt far beyond the borders of
Ukraine or the European region, producing a downward spiral effect on a global
economy already battered by COVID-19 and the climate crisis. Prices of food,
fertiliser and energy have risen rapidly in many parts of the world, given the
important roles played by Russia and Ukraine in these markets.
As reported recently in The Economist, together
Russia and Ukraine supply 12% of traded calories globally. Over 30 countries
depend on them for at least 30% of their wheat supply, and almost 40% of total
African wheat imports come from Russia and Ukraine. The war is seriously
exacerbating a pre-existing global food crisis resulting from climate change,
the COVID-19 pandemic and conflicts elsewhere, as well as underlining the
fragility of corporate-dominated food systems. Ukraine’s exports of grain
and oilseeds have almost ceased, and those from Russia are greatly impeded.
Food prices are currently at their highest since records began 60 years ago,
worsening hunger in many of the world's poorest and most vulnerable regions.
Wheat prices had risen by more than 50% since the start of 2022, even before a
further 6% increase on 16 May after India announced it was suspending its
exports because of an extreme heatwave affecting its own harvests.
The number of people facing acute food
insecurity has more than doubled - from 135 million to 276 million - since
2019. A total of 44 million people in 38 countries are teetering on the edge of
famine, and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine threatens to push them over the
edge.
Moreover, the increased prices of basic
commodities compounded by the impacts of the conflict in Ukraine are generating
social and political instability in several countries around the world.
Accordingly, the WCC executive committee,
meeting online 30 May-2 June 2022:
·
Reiterates the urgent call for a ceasefire in Ukraine, and for dialogue
to achieve a sustainable peace for the people of the region, and stability in
the wider world.
·
Stresses
the need for sustained and strengthened international response to hunger and
other humanitarian crises around the world that are being exacerbated by the
conflict in Ukraine.
·
Reaffirms
the central importance of the international community addressing structural
drivers fuelling hunger and malnutrition – including climate change, unresolved
conflicts, and persistent extreme poverty – to prevent recurrent food crises.
·
Calls
on nations and communities to envision a new global food security strategy that
focuses on building resilience at the local level, supporting smallholder food
producers, promoting and scaling up agro-ecological food production, reducing
food waste, building food reserves, curbing speculation and reducing reliance
on deregulated markets.
·
Emphasises
the human right to food, based on principles of dignity, non-discrimination,
self-sufficiency and solidarity, which should form the basis of a new food
security strategy.
·
Acknowledges
and welcomes the establishment by the UN Secretary-General of a Global Crisis
Response Group on Food, Energy and Finance (GCRG) to support developed and
developing countries in facing these converging crises, and commit the full
collaboration of the WCC to this initiative.
02/06/2022 (Source)
Letter to Patriarch Kirill, of Moscow
Your Holiness,
It is with great pain and with a breaking heart that I am writing to
Your Holiness. The tragic situation of the war in Ukraine has brought tremendous
suffering and loss of lives. Many of our brothers and sisters had to
leave their homes—including the elderly, women, and children—to save
their lives.
The whole world is looking with concern and expects to see a sign of
hope for a peaceful solution. I receive letters every day from different parts of the world, from
church leaders and the faithful of our WCC constituency asking to
approach Your Holiness to mediate so that the war can be stopped and
the great suffering ended.
In these times of hopelessness,
many look at you as the one who could bring a sign of hope for a
peaceful solution.
I write to Your Holiness as acting general secretary of the WCC but also as an Orthodox priest. Please, raise up your voice and speak on behalf of the suffering brothers and sisters, most of whom are also faithful members of our Orthodox Church.
Today Western Christians celebrate Ash Wednesday, the day of repentance as the beginning of Lent; likewise, we, as Orthodox, will celebrate this coming Sunday the “Sunday of Forgiveness” to mark our beginning of Lent next Monday. These powerful moments in our liturgical calendars call us to repentance, peace and reconciliation.
While celebrating these spiritual moments,
with filial respect and consideration, I write to Your Holiness to
intervene and mediate with the authorities to stop this war, the
bloodshed and the suffering, and to make efforts to bring peace
through dialogue and negotiations.
Respectfully Yours in our Lord Jesus Christ,
Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca
Acting General Secretary
World Council of Churches
2/3/2022 (Source)
Address to mobilised Russian Jews
My address to the Russian Jews who fell under
the mobilization:
For the sake of life - surrender yourself!
Ukraine respects all international conventions
and human rights.
[This is followed by a video address in Russian,
which I have been unable to translate]
07/10/2022 (Source)
Rosh Hashanah greeting
Friends! Happy Rosh Hashanah to everyone, I
wish you a good and sweet year, written in the book of life and complete
victory in the new year!
Separately, I would like to address Russian
Jews: the Russian government has announced a mobilization. Don't have any
illusions that it won't affect you – everyone is being drafted! And you can
become one of those who are sent to kill innocent people who are just defending
their homeland, including your Jewish brothers! So I appeal to all of you and
urge you, not to carry out the evil orders to avoid mobilization! As a last
resort, surrender at the first opportunity. Choose life rather than death!
25/09/2022 (Source)
Excerpt
of interview with DM
In
March, you recorded an emotional appeal to the Russians and Jews of Russia with
an appeal to stop the war. Now, more than six months after the start of the
war, do you still believe that the Russians can stop it?
It was
the cry of the soul. It wasn't even a special staged video. Babi Yar was just
fired on that day, three rockets hit it, and I already had such an emotional
cry from the soul.
First
of all, this appeal was important for the Russians to open their eyes, because
they sit, watch TV, which lies to them 24 hours a day, and then smartly go to
kill people here. And it's terrible. I tried to dezombify them, to explain to
them. We must try to do it. The doctor says that the patient is mortally ill, but still we must
treat him, because the doctor is not the Almighty. What if it can be cured?
It's exactly the same here. You can not say that they are all zombified. I
tried to dezombify them. And the fact is that people I know called me after
that, some of them got zombified.
Do
you communicate with Jews who remain in Russia?
Yes, I
communicate, but I don't call them myself, because I'm afraid. It's dangerous
for them to do it now. Here, in Ukraine, we have a danger to life, even in
safe places a rocket can fly. But we are spiritually free, we are not slaves,
we can say what we want. Here I am giving an interview, telling the truth - no
one is forcing me. And there you can only talk in the direction of the
"policy of the party."
I
called on the Jews to leave Russia, because, in my opinion, and not only in
mine, an iron curtain is descending, and then, when they want to leave, it will
be too late. 20,000 people have already repatriated to Israel from Russia
lately. Most, of course, perfectly understand what is happening, prefer
silence. Or they
go, as Rabbi Goldshmidt and Avigdor Nosikov did.
(…)
When
people in Russia hear from you that there are no Nazis in Ukraine, do they
believe you?
90
percent of people believe, they know that I do not cheat. There are those who
say: "Oh, you are talking like that because you are being forced." I
tell them - come to visit and see with your own eyes. You see, in this
zombieness is expressed - they know better from TV what is happening here than
I do.
A
popular narrative in Ukraine is that "good" Russians do not exist. Are
there "good" Russians?
Of
course, there are "good" Russians. I'm not a racist.
One
Jew who left Russia told me that many Russians understand everything and they
are against the war. Especially in developed cities - in Moscow, in St.
Petersburg, there are much more of them than sociology shows. But they cannot go to the
demonstration, because immediately with batons - and in jail. The Russians are
hostages today, what can they do?
I told
them: you must show your civil position. Yes, it's not easy. The chief rabbi
of Russia, Lazar, wrote at the very beginning of the war that peace was needed.
I say that this is already a feat - to write "we are for peace", and
not to write "we are for a special operation."
There
are many good people. I hope that they will take to the streets and rebuild
this terrible state, which is becoming fascist.
In
Ukraine, they call the Russian military "Rashists". Do you think they
look like Nazis?
I was
in Bucha , Irpen the next day after the liberation by Ukrainian troops. I saw
crushed cars, buried one of our parishioners in Bucha, who was shot. He was
killed with machine guns.
(Russian
military. - Ed. ) behaved differently ... They raped, robbed, brutally tortured
- all this is true. They behaved like... Well, how did the Nazis behave? The only difference is that the
Wehrmacht troops marched first, they fought, and then the SS marched - punitive
troops. And they performed both functions. They fought and were punitive
troops. What is fascism? In the sense that we understand it. This is such an
atrocity.
Do you
know what they (the Russians. - Ed .) did the worst thing? They privatized
the victory over Nazism. They said: "We are anti-fascists." But there
was also a second front - the Americans, the British, the French resistance,
many people fought against fascism, Nazism. And they privatized the victory,
they said that they were anti-fascists, while others were fascists. They say
that not only Ukrainians, but also Americans, Europeans are also fascists. What
is a fascist? We were brought up in such a way that a fascist is not a person,
a non-human. When a person is told that this is a fascist, then he is impersonal,
he can be torn to pieces, killed without trial or investigation, crushed by a
tank, erased, burned. They were told: if they are fascists, do whatever you
want with them. So, in their eyes, these are not people. We see that this is
how they have it in their heads.
Do
they forget that Vladimir Zelensky, the President of Ukraine , is a Jew ?
Yes,
this is generally the very first checkmate. After all, they cannot come to
terms with this, understand, do not know how to work with it. It seems that the
Nazis, and the Nazis elected a Jew as president.
You
recently returned from Israel. We also met with Israeli President Yitzhak
Herzog. Ukraine does not see significant support from Israel: the supply of
weapons, sanctions. What is your impression - is there any chance that this
will change?
Israel
is still fighting for its survival. There are countries that want to destroy
it. Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and many more enemies who sleep and
see Israel thrown into the sea. Therefore, Israel must first of all think about
its survival. Since Russia is also on the Israeli border in Syria, Israel has
to reckon with this.
Therefore,
I cannot say to Israel: "You are wrong." I explain to them that yes,
I understand you, but let's do what we can. Let's not have an offensive weapon,
but a defensive one, like the Iron Dome, something that protects civilians.
I meet
with different politicians, I try to change their views, I explain what is
really happening. Ukraine has done a lot, it has shown that the Russian army is
not the same as it was scared. And Israel must be together with the Western
world.
How
do you see the end of this war?
In
recent days, the Ukrainians launched a counteroffensive and went so powerfully
that they cannot be stopped. Maybe peace will come soon. With God's help. I
think that there will be a wonderful victory. I believe in miraculous help.
What
is a victory for you?
It's
a win. Not a truce, but a victory. Full.
17/09/2022
(Source)
Excerpts
from interview with Ukrainian Pravda
Everything
in the Soviet Union was a lie, with which Ukraine is now fighting. This lie has
an end. Today we are witnessing the metastases of the empire. Soon it will fall
like a house of cards. Like the Soviet Union, which was much more powerful than
the Russian Federation.
The
war will put everything in its place.
It's
a golden time for Ukraine. A chance to make a fair country without
corruption, thieves and corrupt judges. Moreover, it should be done now,
without waiting for the end of the battle.
(…)
Russia
could have gone the other way: to realize the crimes of Stalin and the whole
gang. In the early 1990s, they were supposed to ban the Communist Party
and hold a trial over the crimes of communism. Lenin to be
buried. Get on your knees. To wash off all this blood and cleanse the
karma. But they didn't.
They
wanted to restore the USSR. They began to say that Stalin was
good! He killed millions of your Soviet people. Hitler is also a
terrible villain, but he killed other people, not his own. And these
slaves, when they were shot, shouted: "Long live Comrade
Stalin!". This is a diagnosis!
Do
they really want it all back? Do they not understand that they will
suffer? This crocodile, this monster will eat its own.
The
golem you mentioned grinds first others, and then its own. A terrible
system of cannibalism has formed in Russia, in which, after external enemies,
they will begin to look for the guilty in the country. They will first
be the ministers, then the bourgeois, the oligarchs, and finally the people
themselves.
(…)
All
foreign media first of all ask me about Nazism in Ukraine. I'm already tired of
answering (laughs): Russians need to denazify themselves first. Who have you
come to denazify? Mariupol, Kharkiv? Neither the Ukrainians, nor the Russians,
nor the Jews asked you for this.
The
Russians did a very simple thing: for years they speculated on the topic of
fascism, supported the image of non-humans who kill, torture, and burn. You can
do anything with such inhumans: kill them, run them over with a tank. Any
execution, even the most sophisticated, will be appropriate, because he is a
"fascist", "SS".
For
years, they labeled Ukrainians "fascists" and depopulated them. And
now a Russian soldier is committing crimes in Ukraine. He was convinced that it
is possible to wipe everyone off the face of the earth - women, children, because
there are complete non-humans here.
(…)
Denazification?
Rockets landed in Babyn Yar. In Drobitskyi Yar in Kharkiv, they just hit a
monument. Two synagogues were destroyed in Mariupol. The Jewish cemeteries in
Bila Tserkva, Glukhov were affected. The projectile hit the roof of the Kharkiv
yeshiva.
(…)
In our
holy books it is written like this: do not judge another until you have been in
his place. But I can judge because I've been there. I was in the USSR, I was
interrogated by the KGB. I left the "scoop" because I did not agree
with his lies and evil. And now I would do the same as Goldschmidt [Rabbi of
Moscow, who left Russia because he did not support the war] – I would leave
everything.
When
you are free, your conscience is clear.
If the
Jews of Russia hear me, I would advise them to repatriate. So far, it is easier
to travel from there than from the USSR, but the iron curtain is gradually
closing.
In
Russia, people are now safer (albeit temporarily), but in a spiritual sense
they are slaves. They are afraid of and subjugate the authorities, which do
real evil.
One
should fear only the Almighty. There is such a Hasidic song: "I fear no
one but God alone."
In 1927,
the sixth Lubavitch Rebbe Yitzchok was arrested by the communists and
threatened with execution. When one Chekist put his muzzle to his temple, the
Rebbe replied: "This can scare someone who has one world and many gods. I
have one God and two worlds."
(…)
By February
24, it was clear to everyone what the power of the Russian army was: many
tanks, guns, missiles, planes, and ships. And in Ukraine, there is
practically no navy, no nuclear weapons, almost no aviation left. And so
she stood up to such a monster!
I am
sure that what is happening is, first of all, God's help. It is
obvious. Secondly, all this is the merit of Ukrainians. The
scriptures say: those who come to be purified are helped from above.
Until
Ukraine began to fight for itself, the West did little. They thought
Ukraine would fall. They wanted to send a plane to Zelensky so that he
would escape – everyone judges for himself. But suddenly something went
wrong...
People
always have freedom of choice. If they show unity, fight for good, then
the Almighty joins them. When the Tower of Babel was built, the people
were united, but they were united in a bad cause. That is why the tower
fell.
Ukrainians
protect their land, country, wives, husbands, children and parents. They
do it selflessly, sacrificing their lives.
The
Almighty sees this and helps Ukraine.
02/09/2022
(Source)
Facebook
post
A
terrible tragedy in Vinnytsia! Came here and seen it all in person.
I think
the leaders of Ukrainian and world clergy can't be silent! Everyone must
scream about the crimes of the Russian army against the civilians of Ukraine!
The
other day we planned to install new air conditioners in Vinnytsia hospital.
We'll try to do it as soon as possible!
14/07/2022
(Source)
Facebook post
The Chief Rabbi of Moscow Pinchas Goldschmidt
has left Russia for good.
He refused to support the war against Ukraine,
and yesterday he was officially dismissed from all positions he had held for
about 30 years –
including the Chief Rabbi of Moscow, the Head of the Rabbi's Court, and so on.
I respect the worthy decision of Rabbi Pinchas
Goldschmith and wish him great success in his future life.
07/07/2022 (Source)
Facebook post
HORROR!!! The whole world needs to know this!
Today the Russian army "denazified"
in the Kharkiv region, two Jewish objects at once – a Russian missile destroyed
the monument to tens of thousands of victims of the Holocaust in Drobitsky Yar,
and fragments of another Russian missile hit the Kharkiv synagogue!
26/03/2022 (Source)
Facebook post
As a child, my peers and I were brought up by
the feat of 28 "Panfilov" heroes, who kept the defense of Moscow from
the pressure of half of German tanks, and at the cost of their lives, prevented
fascist barbarians from taking the Capital.
Now, I am seeing the heroic defense
of the defenders of Kiev, who fight back attack after attack, and prevent
hundreds of Russian tanks and columns from breaking into Kyiv killing civilians.
I think that after this war, the next
generations in Ukraine, Russia and all over the world will be brought up on the
feats of the heroes of the defense of Kiev and other cities of Ukraine!
Glory to the heroic defenders of Kiev, Kharkov, Nikolaev, Mariupol, Sumy
and other cities of Ukraine!
Glory to Ukraine!
10/03/2022 (Source)
The Jewish community is an integral part of Ukraine and stands with the Ukrainian people, government and armed forces in defending Ukraine.The Government of Ukraine has stood by the Jewish community since Ukraine became independent in 1991.— Chief Rabbi Bleich (@Ukrainerabbi) February 25, 2022
Address to Russian people
People, stop the war! Don't believe what you are told on TV – they are lying to you! A war crime is taking place here. The Russian army bombs civilians today – Kyiv, Kharkiv… Babi Yar has just been shelled. It is symbolic – they kill innocent elderly, women and children in Babi Yar, where 200,000 murdered Jews lie. Today, Jews are calling me from all over Kyiv, and not only Jews – Ukrainians, Russians – asking for help. Every day, I try to help and save civilians – the elderly, women, and children. Elderly women call saying they are dying without medicines. Mothers call and say that children suffer from bombings. They also need food. Our volunteers are endangered throughout Kyiv and the Kyiv region.
I haven't left because I am not indifferent, and I will not leave my
community.
I am a rabbi of Ukraine, and I am proud to have been honoured to save
people and be on the side of the Light, not on the side of the
murderers. I was silent for a long time – I can't be silent anymore…
I'm not afraid to die. Even in my worst dreams, I never thought I
might have to die under Russian missiles – I was born in Russia, I
went to school and I have many friends there. Those friends are now silent – nobody called.
People call from all over the world, Jews and non-Jews, even Arabs call me
from Israel and support me. When targeting terrorists, the Israeli army
uses high-precision missiles so that, God forbid, civilians are not
harmed.
Here they hit us with "Grad" artillery, tanks, rockets, airstrikes –
this is not a high-precision weaponry. What's going on? War! War! People, wake up, I beg you.
1/3/2022 (Source. Edited for clarity)
From an interview with CNN
It [Putin’s references to denazification of Ukraine] reminds me of
World War II. It reminds me of a dictator who says I want to save my
people, and therefore I’ll kill them. It reminds me of a person who says
I want to save my people, and therefore I’ll kill others, who I think
maybe want to do something bad to my people.
I have lived in Ukraine for 32 years. The Jewish community has
blossomed in the last 30 years, since independence. We have Jewish
schools, we have synagogues, the Government is there for us, we’re
there for them, we are part of the society. The denazification should
be taking place in Russia, not in Ukraine, and the Nazi who should be
denazified is Vladimir Putin.
What they have been doing this last week? The first day, ok, they were
attacking military objects, from Friday it went from a war against the
Ukrainian army, to against the people. I’m not going to call it a
genocide, because he’s just killing anybody indiscriminately, he doesn’t
care what their genetics are, where they are coming from.
He’s killing the people he said he wants to protect. He’s bombing
Kharkiv, which has many Russian speaking people. Wasn’t he coming to
save the Russian speaking people?
He’s bombing these cities that have people who want to make the choice
themselves, not have him help them make their choices.
All the stuff he says about democracy, denazification, its all the same propaganda. As a good friend of mine said, “how do you know Putin is lying? His lips are moving”.
2/3/2022 (Source)
Dear friends!
Gd has awarded every person with the freedom of choice and it is also
our responsibility, following the example of the Almighty, to make
efforts to preserve the world. And
this is achievable only if everyone, for their part, is focused on
peace, and first of all thinks about the safety of people.
We see that
only one thing can be opposed to disunity and conflict — solidarity
and unity based on respect for neighbours and their rights. The word “peace” in Hebrew literally means “integrity”, peace is
possible if there is a common understanding of basic moral values and
there is a desire for a fair, equal treatment of all people.
The peoples of Russia and Ukraine are not simply united by a common
centuries-old history, common victories and common times of sorrow and
disaster. But more than that, we are mentally close to each other. At
the level of horizontal connections, at the level of communication of
ordinary people, we do not need translation, the similarity of our
vision of things and understanding of the foundations of life is not
artificially cultivated, but in a fundamental sense – related.
And
that is why the Jewish communities of the former USSR never knew what
separation and borders were. We have always felt like a united
community, and at the moment we feel it even more sharply. At such a time, the main task of religious organizations is
humanitarian assistance and spiritual support for those in need. In this
regard, the Jewish community strengthens charitable programs and is
ready to support all good public initiatives.
We also have a special duty to pray for the prevention of further
casualties and for the speedy return of balance in international
relations.
All Jewish communities are praying for peace these days!
May our prayer be heard by the Almighty and He bless all the peoples of
the Earth, and also send understanding and opportunities for a peaceful
resolution of events!
25/02/22 (Source)
[In June, Said Ismailov stepped down as Grand Mufti to dedicate himself fully to his work as a paramedic with the Ukrainian forces]
As-Salamu aleikum, dear Ukrainians! Dear brothers and sisters!
In this difficult time,
I urge all of you to protect Ukraine from Russian armed
aggression.
Those of you who can be warriors, join the ranks of the Armed
Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard, the territorial defense
battalions. And those who cannot be warriors, volunteer and help the
army. Only together we will withdraw aggression and liberate the occupied
territories of Crimea and Donbass. In our unity and joint efforts, the
path to a strong, free prosperous Ukraine.
Muslim warriors have been writing to me today, some already called
from military units, others heading there and asking for prayer for
them and their families back home.
I appeal to the Muslims of Ukraine, and urge as in 2014 to stand side
by side with all Ukrainians, and to be the only unbreakable rock of
Ukrainian defense. We are the only Ukrainian nation, we have one
country on all, and one native land under the feet on which our
children walk.
The life, dignity and property of a Muslim are inseperable. And no one has the right to deprive us of our land, our freedom, and
our country.
To the
prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him!) a man came and asked: what
should I do if a criminal with a weapon comes to take away what is
mine? The Prophet of Islam said: you take weapons and defend
yourself!
Brothers and sisters, I urge you to defend Ukrainian statehood and
independence, and to support the armed forces and all our defenders.
With the help of the Almighty Allah, we will win! Truth and justice
are with us!
May the Almighty Allah be gracious to Ukraine and the whole
Ukrainian people!
23/02/2022 (Source. Edited for clarity)
Sometimes foreign
journalists ask me how we will restore spiritual ties with the
Muslim leaders of Russia. I answer “no way, it won't be”, me my Ukrainian dignity and my conscience will not allow me to
stretch out my hand. Look how the major muftis of Russia approved
the Kremlin's aggression against Ukraine, and without any hesitation
blessed the bombing of all Ukraine, under which we are the Muslims
of Ukraine
[Refers to statement posted below]. I think you all understand why
there will be no reconciliation?
28/02/2022 (Source)
Dear brothers and sisters.
My name is sheikh Said Ismailov and I am the Mufti of the Religious
Administration of Muslims of the Ukrainian Umma. And in this short
video I appeal to Muslims all over the world.
Now
Russia’s war against Ukraine is going to kill us, to kill our
people, destroy our statehood, our freedom!
First, it is an unjust war of aggression, where Putin’s troops
are killing civilians and destroying homes, killing women and
children. I call on Muslims all over the world to be on our
side.
Support Ukraine, support it with funds, support with information,
support the military. Help us do everything we can to stop and
defeat Putin’s Russia, for
Ukraine to emerge as a free and independent state, where Islam is
a respected religion, where we have unheard of rights and
freedoms, where the Muslims of Ukraine are completely free to
practice Islam and are an organic part of our country.
Unlike the Russian invaders, where Muslims can do nothing, where
Muslims are second class people, who the state and society treat
disrespectfully.
And we are a European developed country, and the Muslims of Ukraine
are a part of Ukraine.
Therefore, I urge Muslims all over the world to be on our side and
help and support Ukraine with everything you can help us with:
information, prayers, money, and the provision of everything you
have. I ask you to be on the side of justice for the sake of Allah
Almighty.
Dear brothers and sisters, Assalamu Alaykum.
07/03/2022 (Source. Edited for clarity)
Statement regarding shelling of Mariupol mosque
Right now, Russian monsters are demolishing the mosque of
Sultan Suleiman and Roxolani in Mariupol.
In the basement of the mosque there are about 80 Muslims with
children, mostly citizens of Turkey. We can’t get through to them, and we don’t know what condition
they are in. We pray to Allah that everyone can survive!
This is one of the new most beautiful mosques of Ukraine. I was at its
opening, and in 2014, after leaving Donetsk, I was a month imam in
this mosque.
May God punish the thieves who raised their weapons in the place of
peace and prayers! They have neither humanity nor morality.
12/03/2022 (Source. Edited for clarity)
Statement regarding position of Russian Muslim leaders
So I'll answer this one more time:
I do not consider people who have blessed and supported the
killing of women, children and anyone on our Ukrainian land to be
spiritual leaders. They have forever shamed themselves by
supporting outright injustice, sin and violence. They know that dozens of authoritative Muslim sheikhs and muftis
from Europe to al-Azhar condemned Russian aggression and the killing
of Ukrainians. They can't not know this. Therefore,
the choice of these Russian characters is completely conscious,
they deliberately turned to the side of crime and are accomplices
to what is happening.
The Holy Quran says: “And what is [the matter] with you that you
fight not in the cause of Allah and [for] the oppressed among men,
women, and children who say, "Our Lord, take us out of this city of
oppressive people and appoint for us from Yourself a protector and
appoint for us from Yourself a helper?” (Quran 4:75). Reading this
verse reminds one of Mariupol, Kharkiv, Volnovakha, Sumy, Chernihiv,
Bucha, Irpin, Kiev and other cities and villages of Ukraine.
In this verse, the Almighty Allah urges the believers to stand up
for the protection of the oppressed, and allows believers from
around the world to fight defending the victims of aggression. But
the Russian so-called "spiritual leaders" on the contrary turned
on the side of the aggressor and murderers, and their faith
allowed them not only to be cowardly silent, but even to approve
this genocide of the Ukrainian people, including us – the Muslims
of Ukraine, who stood in the protection of our beloved homeland. Understanding that this is their conscious position – we have
nothing to call these muftis, they have made their choice, and they
themselves will be responsible for it before Almighty Allah. I have
informed them that they are doing zulm (sin and injustice). And
when I am asked how we will restore spiritual ties with Russian
Muslim leaders, I answer – no way, we don't need any ties with
their so-called "spirituality". The blood and death of dead
Ukrainians lay between us, and Muslims differ in principle, I will not infringe upon my
Ukrainian dignity by extend my hand to them.
16/03/2022 (Source. Edited for clarity)
Today I made a phone call from an area of the Kiev region, where it
is very unsafe, to an 87-year-old Tatar woman. She said that she is
dying, can't get out of bed and can't move. She asked a young man,
who also lives there, to wrap her in a blanket and bury her after
her death. She asked me to promise that after the territory is
liberated, I would bury her with prayers in a Muslim cemetery. I
agreed.
To the Russian Muftis who have approved this attack on our
country, I will send you all a photograph of this woman.
23/3/2022 (Source)
Interview with Ukrainian newspaper
You have already mentioned that you hold prayers for soldiers.
And what is the situation with mosques in other regions of
Ukraine, where fighting is currently taking place?
Three mosques were shelled: in Kostiantynivka, Donetsk region,
after that a mosque in Mariupol was damaged, and then a mosque in
Severodonetsk, Luhansk region, was shelled. At the moment I do not
know what is happening in Kharkiv with our mosques, of which there
were several.
Imams from our mosques were gathered in the temporarily occupied
territory of Luhansk region. They were abducted for two days, then
handcuffed to the Luhansk Cathedral Mosque and forced to renounce
further cooperation with our spiritual administration, and
recognize subordination to Russian spiritual administration. And they posted the news on many resources that the communities
of the so-called "L/DNR" are now coming under the control of the
Moscow Spiritual Administration.
Did they agree?
Who would not agree if they were kept there for about two days? You
see, people are all people.
The main muftis of Russia approved the Russian invasion of
Ukraine. Have you tried to contact them and explain what is really
going on?
No, I did not even try to contact them. I know Russian reality very
well.
Absolutely all [Russian] muftis are controlled by the FSB, it's
no secret to me. And when the war broke out, I addressed the
Muslims of Russia in Russian. For this I was accused of extremism.
But it doesn't matter. When our women and children are killed, when they try to destroy
our country, there is no sentimentality in the war and no diplomatic
courtesy.
The enemy must be called an enemy and be fought on all fronts: information, armed, economic and, including spiritual.
The Russian muftis were once again gathered on March 16 in the
North Caucasus, and they signed a new petition in which they fully
approve of Putin's Russian policy in the sense of war against
Ukraine. They signed and blessed it.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine stated that
Russia is hiring people in the Middle East for the war against
Ukraine. How do you view the actions of Muslims who agree to
this?
Extremely negative. I also appealed to Muslims in the Middle East
and around the world. I said that they would be on the side of sin,
crime and injustice if they agreed to it. I tried to convey
objective information about what was happening.
I warned that if they sided with the aggressor, it would mean
that they would be in favour of sin, violence, death and murder.
Was there any reaction to this appeal?
Yes, many Muslim TV channels from all over the world asked me to
comment on what was really happening.
There is strong Russian propaganda and the Arabic-speaking
Russian channel has been broadcasting its propaganda to Muslim
countries for many years. And many people believe that.
Will you stay in Kyiv until the victory?
To victory. And if necessary, I will go to the border. I am one of
the members of the battalion and generally thought that I would be
needed as a warrior, not a spiritual figure. Therefore – only to
victory. And if necessary, then continue.
26/03/2022 (Source)
Caption of photograph of Ukrainian stamps featuring sunk Russian warship "Moskva"
Bought stamps, will write letters to Russian muftis that approved
the war against Ukraine and called it jihad. I will send through
third countries to reach the address.
14/04/2022 (Source)
Interview with RBC - Ukraine
Many prominent and influential figures, Russian muftis - have
spoken out in support of Russian aggression against Ukraine, they
call us "Nazis" and so on. The vast majority of them, or is
there still an internal split and some leaders are silent or stand
for us?
There were religious figures who were silent. And even when
they were gathered for these conferences – the last of which took
place on March 16 in Vladikavkaz - they also remained silent, did
not speak and did not make any statements. There are muftis who
remained silent, but did not oppose.
There were a number of prominent Muslim figures, including Mufti
Talgat Tajuddin, Russia's supreme mufti and head of Russia's
Central Spiritual Administration, Salah Mezhiev, Mufti of
Chechnya, Albir Krganov, and others, who openly support, bless,
and call on Russian Muslims against Ukraine.
Some agreed that they called it "jihad" – that it was allegedly a
war on the path of Allah Almighty against Ukraine. This topic
is constantly pedaled by the Mufti of Chechnya, who was not even
ashamed and wrote a personal appeal against me personally for
eight minutes, where he said that he does not know me and does not
want to know that I am such an "impostor" and so on. But it's
all funny to me.
The fact is? They know perfectly well and monitor what is
happening here. And, we can say, react to it. At the very
beginning of the war, mufti supporters of the war spoke
separately. And then they were gathered on March 16. They continue to repeat the same rhetoric: they say that it is
necessary to go to war with Ukraine and that Muslims who are at
war with Ukraine are allegedly carrying out jihad.
Those who are silent and do not take part in anything – their
insignificant minority. And nobody spoke against.
(…)
The fact is that immediately after Putin's first presidency, in
the 2000s, the process of taking control of all Muslim clergy in
Russia was launched. Now all the muftis there are either FSB
officers or cooperate with the FSB. In any case, they are under strict control. And
they continue the Kremlin's political line.
Everyone is trying to please the authorities, as you said – run in
front of the locomotive. They make statements that are absolutely absurd from the point of
view of Islam. For example, that Russia's war against Ukraine
is a jihad, that it is a war waged for the sake of Allah Almighty.
(…)
This is absolutely complete insanity. In the Muslim world,
many authoritative spiritual leaders have not simply condemned
Russia's aggression – they have sided with Ukraine. It turns
out that Russian Muslim leaders, in expressing such a position,
are not simply contradicting the Muslim world – they are in fact
distorting Islam. Because they replace the notion of just
war, just protection from aggression with some slogans that they
must liberate Ukraine from "Nazis", "fascists", "Bandera" and
others.
At the same time, I think they understand perfectly well that
they are lying. But they all want to serve the authorities
and show their maximum loyalty and usefulness. At the same time, they are fulfilling the task of mobilizing
the Muslim population for this war.
(…)
Note that now, at least during the conditional first stage of the
war, from February 24 to today, the main "cannon fodder" are not the central regions of
Russia. The most dead are Dagestan. They throw most
people from the Far East, Dagestan, Tatarstan, Buryatia. That
is, it is the outskirts of Russia, where the standard of living is
low, where the population is poorly educated and low-income.
And if we take purely Muslim regions like the North Caucasus,
then there, of course, the word of the spiritual leader is
authoritative. Therefore, when the mufti declares and
convinces the believers that they are waging a good war for the
sake of Allah Almighty, people from some mountain villages in some
Rutul or Tabasaran districts think to themselves: "once the mufti
said – he can not talk nonsense."
Therefore, they play a mobilizing role. They persuade ordinary
believers to sign contracts, go to war, motivate them to do "good
deeds" and so on.
(…)
The fact is that in the Arab-Muslim world, we, unfortunately, see
great sympathy and support for Russia. And all these videos
are designed exclusively for Muslim audiences. I'm even sure
it's being shot to show in Arab countries – in Iran, in Pakistan,
in Syria. To show: "Look, the Muslims of Russia are so
religious, so right, they are fighting here with these
nationalists and fascists – Ukrainians." All this is exalted in this way.
And this is a protrusion of their religiosity – it is not because
they are really so religious. And because they need to remove
content that will be aimed at the Arab-Muslim world in order for
Russia to have support there and be able to pursue its policies
there, to support it in the international arena, to fund, help
circumvent sanctions, admire Russia as a country, which opposes
America.
In principle, in the Muslim world, all this is presented not as
Russia's war against Ukraine, but as a war against
America. And Ukraine was simply unlucky to be on the
battlefield. Therefore, if we talk to the media of Muslim
countries, they do not consider us a subject at all, they say that
Russia's war against America is taking place on our
territory. And when you start explaining to them that there are no
Americans here, Ukrainians are fighting here, we are defending our
homeland, they say that this is all nonsense and that they are
allegedly using us.
And, of course, the opinion and desire of Ukrainians themselves to
have their own statehood, to pursue their own policies, to have
their own point of view are not taken into account at
all. Russian propaganda has long dispelled the idea in
Arab-Muslim countries that all of these countries can be
neglected. And in this case I am talking not only about
Ukraine. The same with Georgia, the same with Moldova, the
Baltic countries, and now even Poland and beyond.
(…)
For example, the situation in Syria. It is a country torn
apart by years of civil war. There is an independent committee of Muslim scholars, which
recorded a separate video appeal in support of Ukraine. And
the official mufti of Syria, who is supported by the Assad regime,
stands for Russia and categorically against Ukraine.
That is, we have a situation where there are popular religious
leaders in exile in the country, and from abroad, with the support
of the masses, they express their position and the Syrians listen to
them. And the official mufti supports the line of power and
makes his statements on behalf of the people he does not
represent.
Many Muslim leaders, Sheikh Karadaghi, Sheikh Didu, this Syrian
committee, Sheikh al-Azhara, and even Ahmadinejad, the former
president of Iran, have spoken out in support of Ukraine. In fact, all educated, intelligent people understand what is
happening. But there are official, as in Russia, religious
figures who will voice the position that the government will
say.
(…)
Turkey is the only country in the Muslim world that has always
consistently supported Ukraine. But Turkey has its own
interests. Therefore, Turkey will not sever diplomatic
relations with Russia, will not quarrel, will not close air
services, it will receive Russian tourists.
Everyone has their own interests, and they will, of course, bargain
in case, with the support of Ukraine, they also want to get
something.
(…)
This war acquired an ontological character. There can be no compromise in this war, here is one of two:
either they will destroy our statehood and us as a people, or we
will destroy them. If we do not defeat Russia, it will gather
strength and attack again in a year or two.
If we do not survive, they will simply destroy us. Any sensible person, looking at footage from Mariupol, Kharkiv,
Volnovakha, Okhtyrka and other cities that are being destroyed,
will understand that they do not care – it's women, children, the
elderly – they just kill people. One should not think that
with other regions of Ukraine, if the boots of a Russian soldier
get there, it will be different. The farther west, the
harder. All the central and western regions of Ukraine will be
destroyed with terrible fury and hatred.
Look at what they did with eastern Ukraine, which has always been
more pro-Russian than central or western, spoke Russian and voted
for pro-Russian politicians - that didn't stop them from being
completely destroyed. And if they move further west, the
scale of the extermination of the Ukrainian population will only
increase.
18/04/2022 (Source)
Prayer on the 27th night of Ramadan, the night of
power
This year I urge all Muslims to pray for victory in the war with
Russia, for the release of all occupied territories, for God's
protection for all Ukrainian soldiers, for quick recovery for all
wounded, for the mercy of God to the dead, for the quick punishment
of occupants and a quick disgraceful defeat for them, for eternal
shame for all the collaborators, for the collapse of the Russian
economy and statehood, and for the forgiveness of all our sins.
27/04/2022 (Source)
May 18 - Day of Remembrance of the victims of the deportation of
the Crimean Tatars.
On this day in 1944, the tyrannical Stalinist regime mercilessly
deported all Crimean Tatars from their homeland.
It is impossible to imagine the terrible pain and bitterness of the
suffering, the disbelief that the people had to endure during such a
genocide. About two hundred thousand people were deprived of their
homeland at the same time, half of the deported died during their
transport to Siberia and Central Asia, and in the early years of the
genocide. But, despite the difficult trials, the Crimean Tatars kept
the most important thing – Islam – faith in Almighty Allah and hope
for victory and return home, and therefore this strong people
defeated the deportation and returned to their native Crimea. The
memory of this terrible crime, as well as those killed during
deportation, lives in the heart of every Crimean Tatar, and every
Ukrainian who cares about our common homeland.
Crimean Tatars, who had to overcome the hard way home at that time,
have since found themselves in an extremely difficult situation
again, due to which they are suffering from various forms of
oppression, repression and persecution in the temporarily occupied
territories of Ukraine.
Muslims of Ukraine today pray for all victims of deportation.
We ask the Almighty Allah to have mercy on the souls of the
killed Muslims tortured by bloody regimes. And we also ask the
Almighty Allah to grant victory to Ukraine in this war, the
release of all temporarily occupied territories, and freedom of
all prisoners of conscience!
18/05/2022 (Source)
We fight for the right to be an independent free country, for the
right to be a civilized Ukrainian nation, so it is impossible to
be silent about wild cases of xenophobia, even during the war.
Yesterday in chernivtsi, there was a beating and xenophobic
statements were made: "Black", "Gypsy", "pig", "dog", "Georgian",
and such, addressed to the imam of Zaporizhzhia region, sheikh
Muhammad Mamutov.
Sheikh Muhammad was walking with an eight-year-old son, and the
child lost a backpack with a tablet at the bus stop. When the father
found out, they returned to the bus stop, but the backpack was gone.
Let's go see, maybe someone found it, and they saw a guy with the
same backpack. There was a conversation in which the guy assessed
Muhammad's question as aggression, hit him and knocked him to the
ground. Passers-by rushed in and prevented him from getting up from the
ground, because one of the men sat on the Imam's back and held him
on the ground in front of the eight-year-old child until the
police arrived, while those around him shouted abusive words. Police arrived and called investigators. Until the
investigators arrived, the abusive screams continued, it's good that
at least they were allowed to rise from the ground. As investigators
arrived, the crowd of "brunette fighters" dissolved. Statements were
accepted from both sides, the parties apologized for the
misunderstanding. Well, these are conflicts that occur in life, but the behaviour of
passers-by leaves an unpleasant impression. Our society needs to
outgrow the disease of hunting brunettes, people of colour, and
other anthropological signs.
Here in the war where I am now, Ukrainians and Georgians, Tatars and
Chechens are fighting, people of many nationalities defending
Ukraine. We have all here divided only to those who love and
protect Ukraine, and those who do not love and destroy it. There
are no other signs. We are all brothers in battle. We pray in
different tongues and speak in different tongues. When I'm
carrying the wounded, I don't care at all if it's Ukrainian or
Tatarin, for me it's my brother, and I have to do everything to
bring him alive to the operating table. So, you out there be
people while our boys and girls here shed their blood to earn us
the right to be people.
09/06/2022 (Source)
The Bismillah Islamic Cultural Center of the city of
Severodonetsk, on the ground floor of which the same-named mosque,
was completely destroyed, reported the Imam of Muslims of Severadonetsk and Luhansk region
Sheikh.
As a result of the shelling, the second floor of the building
collapsed, and there was a strong fire. Inside the mosque housed
dozens of civilians who chose the site of worship because the
community had a drinking water well and the inhabitants of the
destroyed city by the occupiers could get drinking water
here. According to witnesses, there are at least 17 burned bodies that
cannot be identified under the ruins of the mosque.
We opened this mosque on September 30, 2019. This was the easternmost mosque in Ukraine. Back in March, this very mosque was affected by Russian
shelling of the city, from now on it is completely destroyed.
Russia brings death, destruction and suffering, and Russian
Muftis continue to bless the actions of their criminal power.
19/06/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from speech
When the
threat of the destruction of the country, the multinational people, the seizure
of the God-given wealth of our land came, in the very first months of the Great
Patriotic War, on behalf of the Muslims, muftis called for the defense of their
Motherland and declared Holy Jihad against the Nazis and fascism, based on the
call of Allah and on the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet Islam Muhammad (saw), who
said: "Love for one's country comes from faith."
Today, when the President of the country announced a partial mobilization, I
call on our Muslim clergy to support this call and convey to ordinary believers
the words about the need to fulfill their civic duty to the state and society,
to their families, to their children, to their native land. And of course,
Russian Muslims should not stand aside and come to the aid of our Fatherland in
this difficult situation.
Realizing that our cause is right and just, and Allah Ta'ala is all in helping
those who are on the right path. Therefore, truth and justice will
certainly prevail by the grace of Allah, insha'Allah.
23/09/2022
(Source)
In the name of God, the Gracious, the Merciful!
Dear brothers and sisters! Dear compatriots! The Almighty
Creator addresses all mankind: Do not commit wickedness and
violence on earth, take care of peace and order, do good! With pain
in the soul and heart we perceive everything that happens in these
moments. As a mufti and a believer, I deeply empathize with everyone
and lift up my prayers for peace and tranquillity. Islam is a
religion of peace, friendship and equality of all nations.
We urge you to do everything possible to avoid casualties.
Russian Muslims have always stood for the preservation of people's
lives, for the prosperity of our peoples and states.
Dear brothers and sisters!
I urge you to maintain unity and calmness, to rally around the
prayer for peace, to ask the Almighty to save lives and restore
fraternal ties between peoples.
We ask the Almighty to prevent the most terrible scenario – a
full-scale war! In this regard, I call on all religious figures,
imams of mosques and religious communities, as well as the entire
Muslim ummah, during the Friday service, to turn to the Almighty
Creator with a prayer for peace and tranquillity!
I call on all of you, dear compatriots, to pray for peace and the
preservation of human lives, to remain reasonable, to use every
opportunity to help refugees and all those in need in these
difficult times.
And may the Lord of the worlds keep us all!
24/03/2022 (Source)
We do not want war and we pray for peace. I am sure that our
prayers will be heard by the Lord, and politicians will sit down at
the negotiating table.
The West has built a world that it considers the only possible
global world order, and does not hear Russia. The duty of the
President is to preserve the unity, integrity and security of
Russia. The West hoped that the imposed sanctions would turn the
people away from the President, but it turns out the opposite –
the people rally in his support.
3/3/2022 (Source)
Central Spiritual Board of Muslims of Russia
For 30 years, Russia has been treated with cynical deceit and
lies, with attempts to pressure and blackmail, while shamelessly
expanding the presence of the military machine of the North
Atlantic Alliance, which, despite all the concerns and protests from the Russian
side, has steadily advanced and continues to move close to the
borders of the Russian states.
In this regard, on behalf of the Central Spiritual Administration
of Muslims of Russia, 20 Regional Spiritual Administrations and more
than 2,200 communities and parishes as part of the Central Spiritual
Directorate of Muslims of Russia, millions of Russian Muslims, in
unity and solidarity with the vast majority of followers of the
traditional confessions of our vast Motherland and all Russians,
we fully share the assessment the situation in the Donbass, as
stated at the last meeting of the Security Council of Russia.
With full understanding of the clear and frank appeal of the
President of our united state, which has united 193 peoples large
and small for centuries,
we sincerely support the decision to conduct a special military
operation on the territory of Ukraine to protect the population,
demilitarize and eliminate the threat of the revival of Nazism in
this long-suffering region, accepting these steps as key security
measures for Russia itself.
Mufti Salah Mezhidov, of Chechnya
"The war in Ukraine is jihad, and those who participate in it (on
the side of Russia) fight in the way of Allah."
Appeal to the World Council of Churches on
Russian terroristic attacks on Ukrainian civilians
Russia as a terrorist state is not slowing
down!
The Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious
Organizations appeals to the World Council of Churches with a request to assist
Ukraine in the fulfilment by the Russian Federation of requirements of
international humanitarian law, especially in terms of compliance with the
provisions of the III and IV Geneva Conventions.
In recent days, the Russian army has brutally
violated the right to life of Ukrainian civilians by committing criminal armed
actions against the civilian population. In the past few days, the Russian
Federation has significantly stepped up the execution of acts of terror and
genocide against the civilian population of Ukraine, using a wide and large
arsenal of missile armaments. More than two hundred cruise missiles and
Iranian-made kamikaze drones hit peaceful Ukrainian cities and villages, which
cannot be justified by military necessity.
As a result of these barbaric and cynical
attacks, dozens of civilians were killed and even more injured. A
significant number of facilities of social (medical and educational
institutions, kindergartens) and critical infrastructure, primarily the energy
sector, were impacted. This led to considerable problems with electricity and
water supply, as well as providing the population with communication.
At the same time, Russian officials do not
hide their criminal desire to destroy the vital infrastructure of Ukrainian
cities on the eve of cold temperatures and the winter period in order to
destabilize the socio-political situation in Ukraine, sow fear, and panic,
minimize the ability of Ukrainians to resist Russian aggression, encourage
the Ukrainian leadership to resume negotiations with the insidious and
unprincipled enemy on his terms, demonstrate the ostensible indifference of
Western partners to the problems and interests of Ukrainians and, most
importantly, deprive the civilian population of its cherished right – the right
to life.
In addition to the above, in the circumstances
of demonstrative non-compliance with the provisions of the Geneva Conventions on
the treatment of prisoners of war and illegally detained civilians by the
aggressor state, as well as the lack of a reliable mechanism for interaction
with the Russian side to decide the future fate of these categories of persons,
currently we, the members of the Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious
Organizations, consider our main mission to be the search for all possible ways
to release our prisoners.
Today, thousands of our defenders and civilians
are being held captive by the Russian invaders in terrible inhumane conditions,
and are being subjected to severe torture, suffering, physical and
psychological pressure. Russia does not provide any information concerning the
fate of most of them, not even allowing representatives of the International Committee
of the Red Cross to visit them and ignoring all norms of international
humanitarian law.
With this in mind, we appeal to the World
Council of Churches with a request for assistance in the return home of all
Ukrainians affected by Russian aggression. We also ask the WCC to appeal to the
officials of the Russian Federation concerning the necessity to comply with the
requirements of international humanitarian law in relation to Ukrainian
citizens.
We are grateful in advance for your assistance
to the long-suffering people of Ukraine! We pray for peace and speedy victory
of good over evil!
20/10/2022 (Source)
Statement regarding the
terrorist shelling of Ukrainian cities by Russian troops
The All-Ukrainian Council of
Churches and Religious Organizations categorically condemns the terrorist
attacks on Ukrainian cities carried out by Russian troops with the aim of
intimidating our people. All who participate in these brutal attacks on
peaceful cities, both the leaders who give orders and the direct executors, as
well as all who justify acts of inhuman cruelty, must know that they will be
answered before the Most High and punished for their crimes.
We sympathize with those who suffered from the attacks, we pray
for the victims, we ask God to bless our defenders.
We appeal to the international community, to the religious
leaders of the world, with a call to condemn the acts of state terror carried
out by Russia. The terrorist state must be stopped as soon as possible!
10/10/2022 (Source)
Statement on referendums in Russian-occupied
territories of Ukraine
These days, the Russian occupation authorities
have announced the holding of pseudo-referendums on joining the Russian
Federation in the temporarily occupied territories of the Donetsk,
Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson regions of Ukraine.
In this regard, the All-Ukrainian Council
of Churches and Religious Organizations declares the following:
1. The sovereignty of Ukraine extends to its
entire territory. The territory of Ukraine, within the boundaries of the
existing, internationally recognized and constitutionally established border,
is integral and inviolable.
2. The full-scale war launched by Russia
against Ukraine aims to seize part of Ukraine's territory and destroy the
Ukrainian state, contrary to international law.
3. The holding of pseudo-referendums in the
temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson
regions of Ukraine under the barrels of machine guns, in the conditions of
military occupation, when there is no personal freedom and respect for the
dignity of human life and a call to it, as something probable, is a mockery of
democracy and the discrediting of legitimate state institutions that operate on
the basis of international law, since a real show of will or any other
voting is impossible in such a situation.
4. Such arbitrary actions of the occupier are
an illegal, violent attempt to annex part of the territory of Ukraine, just as
it was done in 2014 with regard to the Crimean peninsula, an arbitrary
violation of international legal norms, as well as the contractual obligations
of the Russian Federation to Ukraine.
In view of this, the All-Ukrainian Council
of Churches and Religious Organizations urges:
·
all countries of the world not to recognize the pseudo-referendums held
by the Russian occupying power in the temporarily occupied territories of
Ukraine;
·
all citizens of Ukraine living in the temporarily occupied territories
of Ukraine not to participate in pseudo-referendums and to be aware of their
responsibility to God, their own conscience, previous, current and future
generations, as well as to the Ukrainian people;
·
the authorities of the Russian Federation to abandon the criminal plan
of annexation,
which violates not only the human laws of the coexistence of peoples, but also
the corresponding prescriptions of the Christian, Islamic and Jewish Holy Scriptures.
God the Great, the One, save Ukraine for us!
23/09/2022 (Source)
Dear brothers and sisters, Ukrainian people!
Unfortunately, the efforts of many people around the world, as well as
of our Council, to prevent the outbreak of war have not been a success. There was an unprovoked attack by Russia and Belarus on Ukraine.
In these circumstances, we urge you to remain calm, not to give in to
panic, and to comply with the orders of the Ukrainian state and military
authorities. "The truth and the international community are on the side of Ukraine.
We believe that with God’s help, good will prevail!"
We support the Armed Forces of Ukraine and all our defenders,
bless them for defending Ukraine from the aggressor, and offer our
prayers for them.
We appeal to the religious and political leaders of the world – now do
everything possible to stop the aggressor’s offensive in Ukraine.
We ask God to bless our people in this bitter time of trials.
24-2-2022 (Source)
Statement of the Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations on the shelling by the Russian invaders of civilian objects in Ukraine
Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale military invasion of the
sovereign territory of Ukraine, we are seeing first-hand how
Russian invaders resort to the most cynical and prohibited by
international humanitarian law methods of warfare. In fact,
Russia is waging a war against the civilian population of Ukraine, as it purposefully fires ballistic missiles, including from the
territory of Belarus, and conducts air raids at residential areas,
schools, kindergartens, maternity hospitals, hospitals, and critical
infrastructure facilities that are necessary to ensure the life of the
civilian population, sometimes with the use of prohibited cluster and
vacuum ammunition.
Blatant examples of unjustified cruelty and unrestrained aggression of
the Russian invaders are the shelling of humanitarian corridors,
evacuation buses, and even ambulances.
The disdainful attitude of the Russian leadership towards human life,
which we see in regard to Russian soldiers who were thrown into the
jaws of the war of conquest, is now manifested in relation to the
civilian population of Ukraine, which is forced to escape from Russian missiles and occupiers,
migrating to safer regions of our country and to neighbouring states of
the European Union.
Moreover, Russia's military attack on Ukraine is accompanied not only
by
shelling and bombing of peaceful infrastructure and residential
buildings but also of churches. As an example, in the village of V'yazivka, in Zhytomyr Oblast, the
Russian invaders destroyed the
Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos, built in 1862.
As a result of Russia's shelling of the centre of Kharkiv on March 2,
the Holy Dormition Cathedral of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was
damaged. On March 7, Russian shells hit the
prayer house of the "New Life" Evangelical Church in the city of
Izyum, Kharkiv region – the church building was completely destroyed.
After the shelling, an
Orthodox Church caught fire in the village of Zavorychi,
Brovars'kyi district, Kyiv Oblast.
From various fronts of the Russian invasion, there are reports of
shelling of churches, even those where refugees have been
sheltering. Even the immense spiritual shrine, the St. Sophia's Cathedral of
Kyiv, is under threat of an attack.
With this in mind, the
Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations once again
calls on NATO, as a security partner of Ukraine, the UN, the European
Union, the OSCE, and the Council of Europe to take urgent measures to
introduce a no-fly zone over Ukraine and to provide the Armed Forces
of Ukraine with modern air defense equipment, including fighter
planes, in order to protect our greatest value – human lives and civilian
infrastructure – from barbaric shelling and bombing by Russian
invaders.
08/03/2022 (Source. Edited for clarity)
If the army of the Republic of Belarus joins the war against Ukraine,
an avalanche of suffering will descend upon thousands of Belarusian
families who will no longer see their husbands, fathers, and brothers
alive and well. The
spilled blood and taken innocent lives of peaceful citizens of Ukraine
will become an eternal condemnation
for all those who is now justifying the Russian military aggression
against Ukraine and advocating for the Republic of Belarus to join it.
(…)
It is especially painful to realize that missile and bomb strikes on
peaceful Ukrainian cities in Kyiv, Chernihiv, Rivne, and other regions, as
well as the invasion of Russian Ground Forces on the sovereign territory
of Ukraine, are taking place from the territory of the Republic of
Belarus.
Next, even more cynical and cruel step can be an attempt to directly
involve the Belarusian army in the war against Ukraine on the side of
Russia as a terrorist state.
10/03/2022 (Source)
Appeal about the necessity of the introduction of a no-fly zone over
Ukraine and the response to humanitarian disasters in select regions
Millions of civilians of different nationalities and faiths who lived
peacefully in Ukraine are facing a humanitarian catastrophe caused by
Russia's military invasion, air and missile strikes on residential
areas, food warehouses, hospitals, maternity hospitals, schools, and
other critical infrastructure facilities in Ukrainian cities.
As a result, since the beginning of Russia's full-scale war against
Ukraine, at least 82 children have been killed and more than 100
children have been injured. Russian troops damaged or destroyed more
than 200 schools, 30 hospitals, and 1,500 residential buildings,
including apartment buildings, and these numbers continue to increase.
Hundreds of thousands of civilians were besieged by Russian troops in
the Kyiv region, Mariupol and Volnovakha in Donetsk region, without
food, water, medical care, and other means of subsistence. At
least 2187 civilians have already become the victims of the Russian
blockade in Mariupol – they were killed as a result of constant
shelling, including during attempts to evacuate through pre-agreed
humanitarian corridors.
Since there is nothing more valuable than human life, the Ukrainian
Council of Churches and Religious Organizations repeatedly calls on
world leaders, OSCE member states, the EU, and NATO to take urgent
measures to introduce a no-fly zone over the territory of Ukraine or
to provide the Ukrainian army with modern air defence systems and
fighter jets that can protect Ukrainian civilians from regular bombing
and missile strikes by the Russian invaders.
In addition, the Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious
Organizations
appeals to the leadership of the Russian Federation, international
organizations, church hierarchs, and religious figures of the peoples
of Russia to take urgent measures to organize humanitarian corridors
for the evacuation of residents of Ukrainian cities and towns from
areas where active hostilities continue to safe places of their own
choice, as well as the immediate exchange of prisoners of war between
Russia and Ukraine.
We emphasize once again that
in order to avoid any provocations, the evacuation of the civilian
population through humanitarian corridors can be carried out by
civilian volunteers and ministers of Churches and religious
organizations, either accompanied by Ukrainian police officers or
without their participation.
Even in times of the greatest upheavals, wars, and disputes, we must
not forget about humanity and mercy. Each of us must do everything
possible to preserve human life and establish peace through
negotiations.
13/03/2022 (Source)
Appeal to the Russian religious leaders and clergy regarding prisoner
exchange between Russia and Ukraine as a manifestation of mercy
The whole world now sees what tragic events are taking place in Ukraine
as a result of the invasion of the Russian army on the sovereign
territory of our state. Despite this, the Armed Forces of Ukraine show
humanity towards captured Russian soldiers: they receive medical care,
food, water and are kept in warm rooms.
With this attitude, the Ukrainian army proves that it adheres to the
norms of international humanitarian law. Ukraine seeks to end the war
and bloodshed which is possible as soon as Russian troops and fleets
return to their permanent bases, and aircraft and ballistic missiles
stop destroying peaceful cities and villages in Ukraine.
On your part, as people of faith and endowed with the spiritual
authority of religious leaders, each of you can contribute to saving
the lives of people caught in the jaws of this terrible war. First of
all, make every possible effort to enable the exchange of prisoners
between Russia and Ukraine as an expression of mercy.
The Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations calls on
every religious leader and clergymen in the Russian Federation to
facilitate the return of captured Russian soldiers to their families,
and Ukrainian soldiers to their own.
And May the All-Merciful Lord help us in this act of good!
15/03/2022 (Source)
Appeal on the provision of air defence for Ukraine and humanitarian
corridors for the rescue of civilians
In more than a month of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine, at least
153 children were killed, and more than 245 children were wounded.
Thousands of Ukrainian civilians have already suffered from constant
Russian bombing and missiles aimed at residential areas.
Russian troops shelled about 859 educational institutions, 83 of which
were completely destroyed. The bombing also destroyed at least 100 manufacturing plants, 150
healthcare facilities, and 4,500 residential buildings, including
apartment buildings, and these figures continue to increase. The UN has
recorded dozens of incidents of bombing and missile attacks that have
damaged medical facilities, including 50 hospitals.
As a result, millions of civilians of different nationalities and
faiths who lived peacefully in Ukraine now face a humanitarian
catastrophe caused by Russia's military invasion. The situation is particularly complicated by the shelling of food
warehouses and convoys with humanitarian aid, as well as the blockade of a
number of Ukrainian cities, which the Russian invaders are resorting to.
Thousands of people in the Kyiv region and tens of thousands of people in
Mariupol, Donetsk region, are still under blockade by Russian troops
without food, water, medical care, and other means of subsistence.
Almost 5,000 civilians have already become the victims of the Russian
blockade in Mariupol – they were killed as a result of constant
shelling, including during attempts to evacuate through pre-agreed
humanitarian corridors. Kyiv, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Donetsk, and Luhansk
regions are currently under constant shelling, bombing, and missile
attacks.
Every human life is an extraordinary value, therefore, the Ukrainian
Council of Churches and Religious Organizations repeatedly calls on
world leaders, OSCE member states, the EU, and NATO to take urgent
measures to introduce a no-fly zone over the territory of Ukraine or
to provide the Ukrainian army with modern air defense systems and
fighter jets that can protect Ukrainian civilians from regular bombing
and missile strikes by the Russian invaders.
In addition, the UCCRO appeals to the leadership of the Russian
Federation, international organizations, church hierarchs, and religious
figures of the peoples of Russia ‒ to take urgent measures to stop the
blockade of Mariupol, Berdyansk, Kherson, and other cities of Ukraine
and to organize humanitarian corridors in order to evacuate residents of
Ukrainian cities and towns from areas where active hostilities are
taking place to safe places of their own choosing.
Even in times of the greatest upheavals, wars, and disputes, we must
not forget about humanity and mercy. Each of us must do everything possible to preserve human life and end
this Ukrainian-hating war of aggression launched by Russia as soon as
possible.
1/4/2022 (Source)
Statement regarding the facts of the genocide of the Ukrainian
people, committed by Russian troops in the Kyiv region
Entire
Ukraine and the whole world were horrified by the numerous facts of
cruelty and inhuman brutality that Russian soldiers committed against
innocent civilians in the captured cities of the Kyiv region. The month of temporary occupation of Bucha, Irpin, Hostomel, and
surrounding villages by the Russian troops led not only to the
large-scale destruction of beautiful newly built residential areas,
playgrounds, hospitals, and other social infrastructure but also to the
total destruction of the civilian population of the region.
In recent days, in Bucha, liberated from Russian invaders, 15 people
were found shot in the head with their hands tied on one of the streets
alone.
There is evidence of Russian soldiers tormenting Ukrainian women and
even children who, after collective rapes, including in front of their
relatives, were shot and abandoned in mass graves or just on the
streets. Hundreds and possibly even thousands, of innocent Ukrainians,
were tortured and killed in a few weeks of Russian occupation.
Such a terrible, bloody trail of the Russian occupiers on the
Ukrainian land, as well as the support of their humanity-hating
actions by their mothers, wives, and the general public in Russia, is
evidence of a complete distortion of the worldview and moral
degradation of the Russian society. The war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Ukraine are a
convincing argument in favour of
comprehensive and non-exclusive sanctions against the Russian economy
in all its sectors, and should finally encourage world leaders, NATO,
and the EU to provide Ukraine with all the necessary weaponry to
defeat Russia as a terrorist state, including air defence systems,
fighter jets, lethal offensive weapons, tanks, and anti-ship missiles.
The whole world should realize that
this is not a “Ukrainian crisis”, it is not even a “war of Russia
against Ukraine” – it is a war of humanity, moral values, virtue with
concentrated evil that has a satanic fascist nature. The cult of war
and chauvinism have been celebrated in Russian society for decades –
they began to worship the war, built a temple dedicated to it in
Moscow, and with the slogan "We can repeat it" justifies new
sacrifices to its bloody idol.
Now every state in the world should not remain silent! Every state in
the world should recognize the genocide of the Ukrainian people during
the Russian invasion in 2022 and
condemn the ideology of the "Russkiy Mir" as one that is justifying
the genocide of peoples and the destruction of entire states.
We offer prayers for the eternal peace of all innocent residents of
Ukraine who were killed in the Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Sumy regions, in
Kharkiv, Mariupol, Kherson, Melitopol, Berdyansk, and other cities where
the Russian invaders encroached.
We pray for the complete victory of Ukraine over this evil, for the
defeat of the Russian occupation forces, the overthrow of the
humanity-hating regime in Russia, and the eye-opening and repentance
of Russian citizens blinded by propaganda.
06/04/2022 (Source)
Appeal regarding safety during religious holidays
This year, according to the Western church calendar, Christians
celebrate Easter on April 17, and according to the Eastern church
calendar, on April 24. From the evening of April 15 to the evening of
April 23, Jews celebrate Passover. Until the end of April, Muslims
celebrate the fasting month of Ramadan.
As representatives of the religious community of Ukraine, we appeal
to stop the shelling of cities and villages in Ukraine and to slow
down offensive hostilities, at least for the duration of the sacred
days for all three religions.
We are convinced that if there is a desire and goodwill, the Russian
side, within the framework of the ongoing negotiation process and in
contact with competent representatives of Ukraine, could reach
agreements that would provide civilians of Ukraine the opportunity to
meet and celebrate the next sacred days without shelling and risk to
their lives.
May the Almighty God inspire with wisdom and mercy all those on whom
the solution of this issue depends.
15/04/2022 (Source)
Appeal to Russian religious figures on the evacuation of civilians
and wounded defenders of Mariupol from Azovstal
Currently, tens of thousands of civilians in Mariupol are on the verge
of survival. Many of them have found shelter at the Azovstal plant, where they are
hiding from constant shelling and bombing. Among them are children, women,
and the elderly, as well as many sick and wounded people who need urgent
medical care. They do not have food, water, hygiene products, and
necessary medicines due to the lack of a humanitarian corridor and the
impossibility of evacuation.
Their lives can end at any moment if nobody stand up for them right
now!
The Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations calls
on every Russian religious figure, regardless of confessional
affiliation, to make public and non-public requests to the Russian
authorities to organize the evacuation of civilians and wounded
defenders of Mariupol from the Azovstal plant.
Their exit will take place under the control of an international
mission throughout the entire process, up to the delivery of people to
the territory controlled by Ukraine.
At the same time, Ukrainian defenders can be exchanged for captured
Russian soldiers and other persons detained for anti-Ukrainian
activities.
On these holy days for most believers – the celebration of Easter,
Passover, and Ramadan – we call on everyone to make every possible
effort to save the lives of thousands of civilians in Mariupol who are
under blockade and need immediate evacuation!
22/04/2022 (Source)
Protest against the St. Javelin mural
Religious figures call on the Kyiv authorities and city activists to
adhere to the norms of Ukrainian law, which obliges to treat the
religious beliefs of our fellow citizens with due respect.
"The walls of high-rise buildings in the capital are not a private
gallery, but a public space, so when creating the latest art products,
we ask you to comply with Ukrainian law, which requires due respect for
religious beliefs of Ukrainian society", said the Council of Churches.
This mural has already been painted without proper public discussion on
the house at 13 Aviakonstruktora Antonova Street in the Solomyanskyi
district of Kyiv. It is alleged that the Mother of God is holding a
portable anti-tank missile system FGM-148 "Javelin", which Ukrainians
use to stop Russian aggression.
"We, the believers of Ukraine, categorically reject and protest such
expressions of public pseudo-art, which use religious feelings and
symbols as an object of parody" – said Ukrainian religious figures.
Earlier, the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious
Organizations called on the Ukrainian public to remain soldiers of the
Light (…).
23/05/2022 (Source)
APPEAL OF THE PRIESTS OF THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH FOR RECONCILIATION AND AN END TO THE WAR
We, the priests and deacons of the Russian Orthodox Church, each in our
own name, appeal to everyone on whom the
cessation of the fratricidal war in Ukraine depends, with a call for
reconciliation and an immediate ceasefire.
We send this appeal after Last Judgment Sunday and on the eve of
Forgiveness Sunday.
The Last Judgment awaits every person. No earthly authority, no
doctors, no guards can protect one from this judgment. In our concern for the salvation of every person who considers
himself a child of the Russian Orthodox Church, we do not want them to
appear at this judgment bearing the heavy burden of this mother's
curses. We remind you that the Blood of Christ, shed by the Saviour for
the life of the world, will be received in the sacrament of Communion by
those people who give murderous orders, not into life, but into eternal
torment.
We mourn the trial that our brothers and sisters in Ukraine are being
undeservedly subjected to.
We remind you that the life of every person is a priceless and unique
gift of God, and therefore
we wish the return of all soldiers – both Russian and Ukrainian – to
their homes and families, safe and sound.
We bitterly think about the abyss that our children and grandchildren
in Russia and Ukraine will have to overcome in order to once again
begin to be friends with each other, respect and love each other.
We respect the God-given freedom of man, and we believe that
the people of Ukraine should make their choice on their own, not at
gunpoint, without pressure from the West or the East.
In anticipation of Forgiveness Sunday, we remind you that the gates of
paradise are opened to anyone, even a serious sinner person, if he asks
for forgiveness from those whom he humiliated, insulted and despised, or
from those who were killed by his hands or at his orders.
There is no other way but forgiveness and mutual reconciliation.
“The voice of your brother's blood cries out to Me from the ground; and
now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive
the blood of your brother from your hand,” God said to Cain, who was
envious of his younger brother.
Woe to every person who realizes that these words are addressed to
him personally.
No non-violent call for peace and an end to war should be forcibly
suppressed and considered as a violation of the law, for such is the
divine commandment: "Blessed are the peacemakers."
We call on all warring parties to dialogue, because there is no other
alternative to violence. Only the ability to hear the other can give
hope for a way out of the abyss into which our countries were thrown in
just a few days.
Let yourself and all of us enter Great Lent in the spirit of faith, hope
and love.
Stop the war.
Priests and deacons of the Russian Orthodox Church who wish to sign the
letter can write to russianpriestsforpeace@gmail.com
(The letter has been signed by 278 priests and deacons by 5/3/2022. The full list can be seen on the original website. There is no date on the letter.)
Russian Church Christians of the Evangelical Faith Pentecostals
RCCEF leadership address to all churches
Recent events in Russia and Ukraine have shown how quickly things can
change and how fragile the world in which we live can be. Many processes
are so intertwined, affecting the destinies of brotherly peoples, that it
inevitably echoes in our hearts with pain.
Jesus Christ affirms that “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth
speaks”, therefore let our hearts and lips lift up in prayer to the God of
peace, mercy and order, crying out according to His will, in the hope of
His answers.
We call all the faithful of the Russian Church Christians of the
Evangelical Faith Pentecostal to heartfelt prayer with fasting. Because
God is looking for those who would stand “in the breach for this earth”.
We have something to present with our hearts and lips before His
Heaven.
From February 27 to March 31, 2022, we declare a fasting and prayer
marathon.
Let us pray and fast:
1.
That those on whom peace depends may see these ways and bring peace to
the nations. Let us remember that the hearts of kings and rulers are in His hand
(Proverbs, ch. 21, v. 1).
2. For the willingness of the churches to sacrificially serve the
afflicted.
3. For a deeper understanding of the purpose of the Church of Christ “to
be light and salt”.
“My heart says of you, ‘Seek my face’; and I will seek your face, O
Lord.”
(Psalm 26, verse 8)
With prayers, Bishop Eduard Grabovenko and members of RCCEF Board
Archimandrite Seraphim (Pankratov) – Priest of the Sumy Eparchy, of
the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Moscow Patriarchate
Open letter published on the Ethos website
How we set Ukrainian society against us
(…)
We are not victims of someone else's unjust hatred, not bearers of
Light, who are hated only because they have the Light of Truth in
them, we were hypocrites and lied to ourselves, parishioners and
society. The majority did so unintentionally, which, of course, does not
justify the very lies and hypocrisy.
The future of our Church depends on how we comprehend what
happened. If we are guilty, then only by repentance can we firmly
count on God's mercy.
WE SUPPORTED THE MOST DESTRUCTIVE FORCE INSIDE THE COUNTRY
(…)
Our episcopate and the majority of the faithful of our Church for
many years supported the most destructive force in our country,
probably the largest internal atrocity against our people and our
country over the past 30+ years. Those who created a system of vertical corruption in our
country. Corruption, of course, accompanies any state, Ukraine was
no exception. But corruption is different. Only the Donetsk
clan managed to turn the entire state, at all levels, into a system of
unfair money extraction, it is unlikely that there will be at least a
dozen countries with such a system in the world.
I remember how it started here, in the Sumy region. When the
Donetsk clan promoted its own to the governors of the Sumy region, the
heads of law enforcement and regulatory agencies were immediately
replaced. Then the business takeover began. They would come to
a big businessman (at first to a big one, then they took up a medium
one), they offer to buy his business for half the price, he, of course,
refuses. Then they begin to iron it and roll it out with endless
checks: tax, firemen, sanitation station, etc. etc. And, of
course, violations are found or fabricated, cases are filed. And
more often than not, the unfortunate person was either forced to give up
his own for nothing, or found himself not only without a business, but
also in prison.
This tumour grew throughout Ukraine, infecting those areas that they
managed to get their hands on. But this is not yet a system of
vertical corruption. It was built by the one whom they first promoted to prime
minister and then to president - Yanukovych, whom many church people
supported as their own, "Orthodox", despite an obviously criminal
past
(in which European country is it conceivable to elect a person convicted
twice for criminal offenses?!).
(…)
I will cite the story of a familiar priest from another diocese (I will
not name it). This priest ministered to the prison and told how he twice told his
bishop: “Vladyka, the prisons are full of people who have had their
business, property, and freedom taken away, and you put those who did
this to them in places of honor, closer to you in the temple and sit
with them at the same table at meals! I have already met many of
those imprisoned by them in prison.” And he just irritably waved:
“Father N, what are you talking about, what are you inventing!”
(…)
The majority of the faithful of the UOC came out in support of evil,
justified it and opposed themselves to those who fought against this
evil. And the one who turned Ukraine into a total corruption
scheme with the use of violence and the taking of property was not
only supported by the majority of our hierarchs, clergy and believers,
but they dared to compare him with the Good Thief! With a man who not only repented of his evil deeds, but also in
the hours when the closest disciples despaired of the victory of Christ,
in Jesus dying on the cross he saw the victorious Messiah and confessed
the victory of His Kingdom. Who and when heard the repentance of
Yanukovych, not to mention the feat of faith?! It was obvious
madness to support such a person and rebel against the majority of our
fellow citizens, who, of course, did not fight for Yushchenko's victory
in the first place (peacefully!), but against Yanukovych and the
destructive force for the country that stood behind him. And why did they support it? Firstly, because he is Orthodox,
and secondly, because he is for a close relationship with
Russia. Orthodox? And if the devil suddenly stands in the
temple in the service, donates money to the Church and casually
crosses himself, will he also be Orthodox?
(…)
THEY DENIED THE OBVIOUS ABOUT THE WAR IN THE DONBASS AND DID NOTHING
EXCEPT PRAY TO END IT
As you know, the city of Akhtyrka (…) suffered especially from the
Russian invaders. The city resisted, but almost daily suffered
powerful bombing, rocket, or artillery strikes. During the first
shelling of the city with rockets from the Grad multiple launch rocket
systems (from the side of Velikaya Pisarevka, that is, from where the
occupiers were exactly), a 7-year-old girl and, if I am not mistaken,
two adults were killed. This was the first child who died in
Ukraine, and this case immediately became widely known both in Ukraine
and abroad.
A day or two later, one of our nuns is sent a video by a Russian nun,
the video says that it turns out that the Ukrainian army shelled
Akhtyrka in order to blame everything on Russia. In the continuation of this war, we could all observe the constant
lies and a huge number of fakes from the Russian side. They lied
about the goals of the campaign, constantly changing them (first,
denazification and an obstacle to the creation of nuclear weapons by
Ukraine, then demilitarization, then an obstacle to the creation of
bacteriological weapons in supposedly existing American laboratories
in Ukraine, from where viruses should have been carried to the
territory of Russia by specially trained birds), they lied that they
hit only military targets, that supposedly the population of Kherson
and Mariupol joyfully greeted the "liberators".
Preventing the exit from the besieged cities, they lied that it was
not they, but allegedly the Ukrainian terrorist defence, that did not
allow people to leave and shot them in the back, that the Ukrainians
allegedly set up a “black transplant” on the battlefields – trading in
the organs of dead and dying soldiers, etc. etc. But this
constant lying about Ukraine, its military, and the Ukrainians
themselves is a longstanding Russian tactic. And for a long time,
many of our bishops and priesthood and the faithful were the
sing-alongs and translators of this lie.
Already five years ago, in a series of interviews, a retired lieutenant
colonel of the FSB, the first minister of defence, the
so-called. DPR Igor Strelkov (Girkin) also spoke about the
participation of his group in the seizure of Crimea (of course,
coordinated with the military command of the Russian Federation), and
about how the war in Donbass began, that the local population DID NOT
WANT TO FIGHT and that if not his unit, there would have been no war
there, and that the first militias were recruited, among other things,
by force, that there are no longer any militias in the Donbass, but
there are contract soldiers, or "people's militia", which is included as
a separate unit in the Russian Armed Forces.
And here in the UOC they kept talking about the “fratricidal civil
war in the East of Ukraine”, prayed about “strife, strife and
divisions in our state”, not only repeating the Kremlin’s theses in
essence (as if this is an internal conflict in Ukraine, Russia has
nothing to do with it), but even using the same phraseology.
Already in the first days of the war with Ukraine, Russian troops began
to abandon military equipment due to a lack of fuel (a column of
abandoned armoured vehicles stood 20 km from me a couple of days ago),
and now,
by the 20th day of the war, they write about supply problems
everywhere. Then how could the inhabitants of Donbass fight on
their own for 8 years, while having a lot of heavy equipment?!
For the majority in the country (and abroad), Russia's participation
in the war in Donbas was obvious, but not for the UOC! (…)
Of course, the majority in Ukrainian society perceived all this
behaviour of the UOC either as a game on the side of Russia (that is,
a betrayal), or as a conscious lie.
(…)
Our Church, except for prayers, and even with such dishonest
formulations, has done NOTHING practical to achieve peace, except for the protests of just a couple of our bishops (for which
we sincerely bow to them, it is gratifying that among them is our
Metropolitan Evlogy).
Our Church, which was supposedly defended by Russia from the
infringement of our rights, whose reaction in Russia was looked upon
as a litmus test, whose voice would definitely be heard both in the
Russian Orthodox Church and in the ruling circles of Russia, did not
raise her voice in any way, refused to call a spade a spade (that the war in the Donbass was
provoked by Russia, that it was Russia that promoted the
fascist-Bandera-right-wing phobia, which made it possible that Strelkov
still managed to recruit people into the militia in the Donbass, and
there were many volunteers in Russia). But this is exactly what was
expected of her in society.
(…)
Eleven times (!!!) Ukraine and the UN initiated the issue of bringing a
UN peacekeeping contingent to Donbass in order to stop the war
there. But 11 times one single country blocked the entry of
peacekeepers with its voice. This country is Russia! Because
she needed the war as an instrument of blackmail and weakening
Ukraine.
(…)
All of us have become witnesses these days of the fact that it was
the Orthodox Church majority in Russia that not only did not try to
stop the war between Russia and Ukraine, but in every possible way
supports this war directly, approving or justifying
(Patriarch Kirill and such famous personalities as Archpriest
Artemy Vladimirov, Archpriest Andrey Tkachev, Prof. A.I. Osipov and
others) or indirectly, that is, without opposing, moving away from what
is happening.
We have witnessed the most cruel and inhuman atrocities of the
Russian army in Ukraine, and the Russian Church, in which many saw
hope in resisting evil, turned out to be unable to say a word against
the absolutely obvious and great evil, because it not only fell under
the influence, but also became part of the official
propaganda. How will she be able to resist evil of a different
kind, if this evil is suddenly imposed by the Russian state power,
before which the episcopate of the Russian Orthodox Church endlessly
fawns and pleases it in everything?!
(…)
The Church should not set as its goal Slavic, or some kind of
Indo-European, or African unity, since it is called to unite people of
the most diverse nationalities in Christ, it is
supra-national. What about our parishioners, Georgians, or
Assyrians (we have them in Sumy), or other non-Slavs before Slavic
unity, should they also implement it? (…) This is what in the language of theology is called the heresy
of ethnophyletism.
Secondly (and this is the most important),
having almost blind trust in Russia, carrying out these non-church,
political ideas, unwittingly set Ukrainian society against itself
(which has long seen the idea of the Russian world and Slavic unity
as ideological manipulation, and in Russia as a threat), we have
deprived ourselves of the opportunity to influence this society.
The doors of schools and universities have been closed for our
Church, we are not allowed into state institutions and into the
army. We have lost the opportunity to preach to society and,
accordingly, to defend Christian ideas in society. And all this –
for the sake of fantasy about some last bastion of righteousness in
unity with Russia. We were supposed to be this bastion of
Christianity for our society, and instead of Christ and truth, we
palmed off political ideas. We are called by Christ to educate
the society, and we ourselves have refused this calling and we also
shift the blame for this on the society, saying it is unfair and
aggressive towards us.
Thirdly, on the sly, in addition to these political ideas of the
Russian world, through the same systematic indoctrination, the idea of
autocephaly was discredited in the eyes of our church
majority. Speaking endlessly about unity with Russia and the
Russian Church,
our faithful were told that autocephaly is some kind of evil,
practically a schism, that, having disconnected from the Russian
Orthodox Church, we will in no way be able to stand in Orthodoxy, we
will definitely end up with some kind of union, we will definitely
begin to kowtow to the Ukrainian authorities. The lie of these
suggestions is that autocephaly is in fact the NORM of church
life. This is the perfect and only norm for the Ancient Church
(each diocese had actual autocephaly), and autocephaly for a church
located within the boundaries of a separate independent state is the
norm of the present time.
(…)
Dependence on the Russian Orthodox Church prevented our Church from
fulfilling the mission entrusted to it by Christ, not only in relation
to society, but also in relation to those whom we called
schismatics. But here it is worth first talking about the guilt
that lies almost exclusively on us, and not on the Moscow
Patriarchate. Our attitude towards those who fell away from the
fullness of the Church was either indifferent or, most often,
aggressive, with no attempts to bring them back or bring them into the
bosom of the Church. “The schismatics are graceless, the sacraments
are not celebrated among them, they are actors in Orthodox vestments,
they lead those who believe in them to death” – we had to hear such
explanations constantly from our episcopate, from the priesthood and the
laity.
But what feelings should perishing and erring people evoke in
Christians? Is it not concern for their enlightenment and return to
the Church? Was this a concern? When our Church is seriously
concerned about something, then, at a minimum, additional petitions
appear in litanies about this problem. There were such petitions
when the schism had just taken place. And then they
disappeared. Instead, there appeared a very aggressive rhetoric
against those who fell away. In many articles and angry sermons,
the image of unprincipled deceivers and hypocrites was
created. What were the opuses of Vasily Anisimov worth, which a
normal person could not read without a feeling of disgust, and he was
handed the official mouthpiece of the UOC!
All this did not give rise to concern, not compassion for those who had fallen away, but condemnation and hatred. And this only repelled us even more, only increased the gap. After all, when they say about you that you do not believe in God, but act, or that you have replaced God with a national idea, that all your efforts of faith are empty (the sacraments are not performed, then all this is self-deception, and not spiritual life), that your hope on Christ is vain, while they sincerely hate you, you are unlikely to want to join such canonical Orthodox as soon as possible, you are unlikely to discern the real Church of Christ in them. And how much temptation this caused among the little-church and non-church people! How many times have we heard: “If you, church people, have such a squabble, then we don’t want to have anything to do with you and your church!”
But even when they wanted to be reunited with us, we were unable to
accept them! In 2006, the Primate of the UAOC, Metropolitan
Methodius (Kudryakov), held tacit negotiations with Metropolitan
Volodymyr (Sabodan) of Kiev and All Ukraine to overcome the schism by
reuniting with the UOC. And it was not only his personal
desire. The episcopate of the UAOC was already ready for this, it
was discussed how exactly the need for such a step would be conveyed
to the flock (a representative of the UOC invited me as a photographer
to the Bishops' Council of the UAOC, so I know all this not by
hearsay).
Three options for such a connection were previously
considered. With one of the three options, just as the ROC accepted
the Church Abroad, with the preservation of the primate and the synod,
the episcopate of the UAOC agreed, it was possible and acceptable in the
opinion of Metropolitan Vladimir. The most problematic issue here
was the issue of the canonical status of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church,
which did not even have full-fledged autonomy within the
ROC. Nevertheless, the bishops of the UAOC understood that in the
event of their reunification with the UOC, a number of new opportunities
opened up before the latter, related to the further improvement of its
status, up to autocephaly.
It is clear that after preliminary tacit agreements it was necessary to
launch the process of negotiations openly, officially. And
suddenly, before this step, Metropolitan Vladimir suddenly curtails the
negotiation process. To the bewildered question of his confidant,
he replied that Moscow would never allow this to take place and he was
afraid of their response. And in Moscow at that time, most of all,
they were concerned that the number of supporters of autocephaly among
the episcopate of the UOC did not exceed the permissible
limits. Metropolitan Vladimir was afraid to take a step that was
necessary, although it might be risky for him personally. As one
bishop later explained to us (not my ruling one), he was afraid, not
without reason.
In this regard, the question cannot but arise: if the UOC, which
proclaims itself the Church of Christ in Ukraine, does not fulfill the
duties assigned to it by Christ to recover those who have fallen away,
and, as its bishops and priesthood affirm, the perishing schismatics,
and does not even care about this, when Himself Christ brings these
fallen back to the Church and it turns out to be unable to accept them,
and because of the cowardice of her primate and because of the lack of
freedom in relation to the Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church,
in which she allowed herself to be placed and with which she agreed,
then this will not have any negative consequences for her?! We called them perishing and did nothing for them, cultivated mutual
hatred, and when they wanted to join us, we could not accept them, but
when Constantinople accepted them, we resist this with all our
might. If the Church does not fulfill its salvific
mission, then God Himself will do it, but in ways that are
painful for us, which we observe. We did not let them in, and we prevent others from
accepting.
SUPPORTING THE ROCOR IN ITS OUTSIDE-CHURCH POLICY, WE COMMITTED A GREAT
SIN AGAINST THE COMPLETE ORTHODOXY
A complete and, most likely, irreversible split in the Orthodox world
was about to occur, which has so far been prevented by the covid
epidemic (at least such a reason for the cancellation of the Bishops'
Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, at which Patriarch Bartholomew
was to be condemned, was voiced by Metropolitan Hilarion
(Alfeev)). And it all started not at all with the intervention of
Constantinople in Ukrainian church affairs, but earlier. Most of the faithful of the UOC do not know that the “invasion” of
the Patriarch of Constantinople into Ukrainian church affairs and the
granting of Tomos to the OCU was not at all sudden, unexpected and
“treacherous”, as it was presented by representatives of the Moscow
Patriarchate and, unfortunately, following them, the media, officials
and the hierarchs of the UOC, but was provoked by the very specific
actions of the ROC with the support of our hierarchs
(I hope not quite conscious).
The IV Ecumenical Council endowed the Patriarch of Constantinople with
special powers, which only the Pope of Rome had previously possessed –
the right of the highest judicial power in the Church, namely the right
to arbitrate in disputes between Local Churches, to accept appeals from
clergy (“if anyone is offended by his metropolitan, then let him be
judged by the exarch his region or the Throne of Constantinople”, the
17th canon of the 4th Ecumenical Council and the similar 9th canon of
the same Council). He also has the right to convene a council of
all Local Churches and preside over them, the right to grant autocephaly
(and even deprive it). These rights were recognized by the Russian
Church (the Stoglavy Cathedral, the Great Moscow Cathedral), but in the
20th century it began to develop its own special ecclesiology, that is,
the doctrine of the structure of the Church and the rights of
Constantinople were constantly challenged by it.
The Russian theologian and canonist monk Diodor (Larionov), describing
the classical ecclesiological model, calls it patristic, since it is not
only sanctified by the Tradition of the Church, but also has a coherent
internal logic – the supreme judicial power of Constantinople is the
crown of the system of organization of the Church, which is reproduced
on all its levels: from the community-parish to the diocese, from the
diocese – to the metropolitan district, then – to the level of the Local
Church, and even further – to the Pan-Orthodox, inter-church
level. The Russian vision of the structure of the Church, as a
federation of Churches completely independent of each other, Father
Diodor calls the “federal model” and in his article “What is papism, or
about accusations against Patriarch Bartholomew by representatives of
the Moscow Patriarchate” explains its shortcomings, internal
inconsistency and risks.
(…)
Returning to our main topic of relations with the Ukrainian society,
let us summarize that
this irresponsible and, perhaps, thoughtless following of the
criminal policy of the Moscow Patriarchate in the inter-church arena,
eventually led to another round of information warfare on the part of
the UOC over the Tomos, and therefore to yet another seduction of
people and again exposed our Church in the eyes of the Ukrainian
society as an opponent of the independence of the Ukrainian Church,
and, accordingly, of the Ukrainian statehood itself (for many of our
compatriots, these are interconnected things).
I am writing about this for several reasons. Firstly, because it
hurts a lot and is very bitter for the fooled faithful of our Church,
including several of my parishioners. Secondly, statements by our
officials have already been made that our UOC has always been united
with its people and the current service of our Church to Ukrainian
society during the war proves the complete groundlessness and
groundlessness of past accusations and suspicions of disloyalty against
us. But people who faced our hypocrisy in the past cannot be
convinced by this (well, they are not fools!), Such a position will not
return the trust of society to us. Only by admitting our mistakes
openly, we will have such a chance.
Secondly, our humble group of authors of the letter on the termination of the commemoration of Patriarch Kirill and the letter on the need for our Church to receive autocephaly, faced not only a full set of fears on the part of many fellow ministers and parishioners, inspired by the above-mentioned dubious or false ideological attitudes, but also, what is the saddest thing, with the attitude of some "to martyrdom" – to stand in their confession of unity with the Russian Orthodox Church to the end, even if we are expelled from churches and deprived of the opportunity to openly celebrate worship. Martyrdom for what? Is it for Christ, or for our foolishness, insincerity, cowardice? What good fruits has being in the bosom of the Russian Orthodox Church brought us in recent years? And the bad fruits are already evident! Will we try to save our Church and restore trust in us, or will we continue to fight for false non-church ideals?
31/3/2022 (Source)
Sergei Chapnin - Former editor of the Moscow Patriarchate Magazine
Why have you forgotten the truth of God? An
open letter to the bishops of the Russian orthodox church
Your Eminences!
My letter is addressed to the Orthodox bishops
in Russia. I have intentionally not collected signatures or involved any Church
structures or public organizations, because I am addressing not the episcopal
body, not the leaders of the Moscow Patriarchy, but each of you personally. My
letter’s addressee is an Orthodox Christian who took holy baptismal and
monastic vows, was elevated to the dignity of bishop, and who in his heart
recognizes that it is impossible to govern the Church without striving to love Christ,
seeking His truth, and serving Him and not Caesar.
Under the circumstances I feel forced to
violate Church etiquette by not asking your blessing. This would sound a false
note at the very beginning of our conversation. My words may provoke antagonism,
vexation, and even wrath on your part. Being conscious of it, I can scarcely
hope that you would sincerely bless such conversation, and a ritual blessing
just to demonstrate episcopal power means little. If you agree that this
conversation is meaningful, simply pray for me and write at least a few lines
in response. I pray for you, too, though today this is hard and painful.
But I deeply believe that there is a blessing
from above upon such a conversation, that we are called upon to talk about the
one thing needful (Lk.10,42, KJV), about our faith, about the love of Christ
which is unthinkable without keeping His commandments: If a man love me, he
will keep my words (John 14:23, KJV)
It is no secret that your episcopal office is
temporary. Love of Christ, striving to follow His Word, to be faithful and
grateful to Him in joy as in sorrow—this is what belongs to the eternal. You
can put brocade vestments and a costly panagia into a coffin, but you cannot
take along a rank and a title. Still less is it possible to defend yourself
with rank and title at the Last Judgement.
I am addressing you, as I feel exhausted by
the tormentingly long expectation of a sincere pastoral word from you,
exhausted by your never-ending silence about what is most important. And I beg
you to treat what I am going to say as words uttered from a position of
weakness and infirmity, not of strength and self-assurance.
I understand very well that the episcopate of
the Russian Orthodox Church is a large and complex body. I know many of you
personally, we have prayed together, worked together. There was a time when we
were able to speak with mutual trust. There was a time when we heard and
understood one another. Or was that an illusion?
Now, during the military attack of Russia on
Ukraine, I have totally ceased to understand you. I hear you uttering nothing
but state propaganda clichés, disguised as pious words of Church message, and
dubious theological formulas which lead you and your flock away from the Gospel
and towards an imperial pagan cult centered on power, wealth, and violence.
I think you share the blame for it. I see that
for many of you it is a conscious choice.
Maybe you are driven by fear of the patriarch,
whose dream has been to become Putin’s ecclesiastical double, the sole ruler of
the ROC, and who has succeeded in attaining this goal. Heartlessness, cunning,
cruelty—I suppose you have witnessed Patriarch Kirill manifest these qualities
to the utmost degree more than once.
Maybe you are driven by fear of the security
services. You are familiar with the system of power in Russia and how dangerous
it is to oppose the security services. I am sure that its officers visit you
regularly, talk to you, and instruct you.
In short, you understand very well that in
Russia any dissent is punishable, and, most likely, many of you have punished
more than once the members of the clergy who allowed themselves to disagree
with the officially prescribed picture of the world, to think independently, to
object and not to keep silence. The Moscow Patriarchy has long demanded from
its clergy a total and unconditional loyalty. This stifling atmosphere has
become a hallmark of the Russian Orthodox Church. The rare exceptions only
confirm the rule.
This state of things could last for decades
longer, were it not for the war. Now, a year after the beginning of Russian
aggression, I must say directly: Patriarch Kirill is the first among those who
justify war crimes. In his sermons he proclaims “war theology,” using arguments
that flagrantly contradict the Gospel and the teaching of the Church. I will
not speak about them in detail. You certainly know them all and probably repeat
them regularly.
But let us pluck up our courage and look into
the future. The years of Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev’s rule are dark pages in
the Church’s history. The Church’s renaissance broke down, and now it is not
sinners being saved by divine grace who are its members, but embittered
castle-builders swilling the cocktail of imperial myth, resentment, and unbelievably
primitive eschatology.
All of that is quite enough to recoil from, and
yet in a great many photos you are there, next to the patriarch, smiling,
receiving his blessing, offering him flowers and expensive gifts.
Once again: you stand by a man who justifies
war crimes and has betrayed the Church. You repeat his words, retell his
criminal arguments.
And even if you say nothing—can your silence
make us doubt that you are on his side? Can this silence of yours be recognized
as an attempt at resistance? The bloody war does not offer you this chance.
But we remember the words of St. John the
Theologian: perfect love casteth out fear (1 John 4:18, KJV). You still have a
chance to be witnesses and disciples of Christ, who was guiltlessly condemned,
suffered, and was crucified. I pray that at least some of you use this chance
and return to the vows you gave in holy baptism and monastic tonsuring.
I remember in a comparatively recent time, at
the end of the 1980s, how dangerous it was to speak about the new martyrs, and
only the most bold and fearless preachers dared to mention them from the ambo.
But by the early 90s this ideological taboo was lifted. I am sure that you,
too, preached about the new martyrs, holding up their feat of faith as an
example, drawing inspiration from them. Now tell me: were those merely words
unrelated to your deeds? If so, your preaching was hypocritical and false. How
I wish I were mistaken!
I am perfectly aware that I myself am in a weak
and vulnerable position. The reproach that may be thrown at me is obvious: “You
left Russia, you are now safe, do you have a moral right to utter these
reproaches?”
I have found more than once that this argument
is used with the sole intention of silencing the accuser. Nevertheless I will
attempt to respond.
First, during my last ten years in Russia I
spoke about the same things. I spoke and I will speak, because for me the words
about those who hunger and thirst after righteousness are not an empty phrase.
The quest for truth is necessary; the wish to shield yourselves from the truth
by propaganda or pious babble is pernicious. Our means of mass communication
allow us to see the world more clearly and to speak the word of truth more
loudly than ever before. This resource can never be taken away.
Second, who prevents you from leaving, too? If
you disagree, if you see the risks and threats connected with the free
manifestation of your position, leave, just as hundreds of thousands of Russian
citizens have left. Many of them are Orthodox; they need priests and bishops.
They wait for free preaching, for spiritual support. Remember that after the October
revolution dozens of bishops left Russia and established Russian churches
outside Russia, and now not a single one of you has done the same. This, too,
says a great deal about the state of the present-day Russian church. Yes, it is
always a great risk to leave your country, but it is unimaginable that local
churches will turn you away, though by no means all of them will treat your
decision with respect and attention. It is painful to admit, but some of the
Orthodox Churches express solidarity with Patriarch Kirill’s aggressive
anti-West rhetoric and second it.
Finally, third, I do hope to return. I hope
that Orthodox Christians in Russia will have the chance to build a free Church
in a free Russia. The big question is what role the present-day episcopate will
be called upon to play in it. Right now it is not merely losing authority and
trust. You must agree that quite possibly the new and free church will simply
have no need for such an episcopate.
The words of St Sophronius of Essex, words of
great hope, did not come true. He said that “the Russian Church experienced an
extraordinary spending of itself in suffering for the name of Christ” and
therefore “a question of perfection stands before the Russian Church, which
proceeds from the eternal spiritual law: the fullness of spending itself
foreshadows the fullness of perfection ».
Alas, after the spending of itself what came
was not an era of perfection, but an era of satiety, material well-being and
riches, an era of heartlessness, hypocrisy, and lust for power. Today the
Russian Church is further from Christ than anyone could have imagined.
Your Eminences! The disgraceful, catastrophic
silence of the majority of you in the course of Russia’s war against Ukraine
puts an indelible stain upon the entire Russian Orthodox Church.
Can your attitude towards the Ukrainian
Orthodox Church and Metropolitan Onuphrius personally be called anything but
treachery? You betrayed, you handed over to destruction a considerable part of
your own Church. You did not trust Onuphry and mistook the patriarch’s lie for
the truth.
When the Russian authorities began to use the
Church’s arguments for their propaganda, the cost for the Ukrainian Church was
very high: the pressure on the Ukrainian state and a major part of Ukrainian
society was the natural result of the aggression.
The responsibility for that will be
shared—perhaps not equally—not only by those who publicly supported this
aggression, but also by those who were silent.
The present-day Russian state wants the
economics, education, and culture of the country to be re-oriented along a
military line. But not only that. The Church which in recent years has been
fawning at the feet of the state authorities, now also has to serve this
terrible war.
I beseech you to actively oppose lies and
falsehood.
To stop supporting and justifying the war.
To stop blessing the soldiers and the weapons.
To make it clear that those guilty of military
crimes cannot cross the threshold of the church without repentance, still less
take part in the Holy Mysteries.
To call everyone to a just peace.
The Russian Church will have to re-learn
speaking about truth, about compassion, about genuine peace-making, about a
just peace. The Russian Church will have to see the sufferings of the peaceful
people of Ukraine and the crimes that the Russian army has committed on the
occupied territories. Not only to see, but to recognize them, to comprehend
them, and to bring itself to offer repentance for having taken part in them.
Without that it will have no future.
To do righteousness and justice is more
acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice (Proverbs 21,3).
Think: your sacrifices of today may not be
pleasing to God.
Think: in your prayers of today there is no
truth.
And in the end: who you are serving?
And who needs you such as you are?
05/02/2023 (Source)
Em complemento destas declarações. parece-me importante esta carta ao Patriarca Cirilo do responsável das Igrejas orodoxas de tradção russa na Europa Ocidental:
ReplyDeletehttps://archeveche.eu/lettre-ouverte-a-sa-saintete-cyrille-patriarche-de-moscou/
Obrigado. É importante, sim. Vou incluir.
Delete