VATICAN CITY. “God is only the God of peace, he is not the God of war, and those who support violence profane his name”. This is the warning that Pope Francis gives at today’s Angelus in St. Peter’s Square. Words that mark an unprecedented distance from what he has always considered “a brother”, the patriarch of Moscow Kirill, who gave political, moral and even metaphysical explanations to support the war waged by Vladimir Putin in Ukraine.
The Pontiff launches a new appeal to stop “the unacceptable armed aggression” in Kiev before it “reduces the cities to cemeteries”: “In the name of God, I ask you: stop this massacre!”, He shouted on this Sunday, March 13, ninth anniversary of his election as Bishop of Rome. Jorge Mario Bergoglio recalled the victims of Mariupol, the “barbarism of the killing of children, innocent people and defenseless civilians”, thanked for the welcome of the many refugees and asked everyone to multiply their moments of prayer for peace , as evidenced in an analysis in Vatican News by Andrea Tornielli, editorial director of the Vatican Media, who contributes to deciphering the Pope’s diplomatic messages today.
In the final part of his speech, “Francis used clear and firm words on the distorted use of religion to justify the massacres in progress:” God is only the God of peace, he is not the God of war and those who support violence profane his name “. These are the same expressions – underlines Tornielli – used many times in recent years by the Pontiff and his predecessors St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI, to warn against the instrumental use of the name of God to justify hatred, violence, terrorism”. But, this time, “the recipients of the papal appeal are not jihadist fundamentalisms – specifies the Vatican Director – but anyone who thinks that there may be a religious” cover “- a religious explanation to be offered to believers – for the war in Ukraine that he sees Christians who share the same baptism fall under the bombs ”.
The reference to Kirill is therefore not explicit but clear. In the shock sermon delivered a week ago on “Forgiveness Sunday”, the Patriarch spoke in justificationist terms of the war in Ukraine after “for eight years there have been attempts to destroy what exists in the Donbass”, “where there is a fundamental rejection of the so-called values that are offered today by those who claim world power ”. For Kirill, «today there is a test for loyalty to this government, a kind of passage to that ‘happy’ world, the world of excessive consumption, the world of visible ‘freedom’. Do you know what this test is? It is very simple and at the same time terrible: it is a gay parade ».
In his sermon at the end of the Divine Liturgy in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, the Orthodox Patriarch, known for his pro-Putinian position, first referred to that “this spring has been clouded by serious events linked to the deterioration of the political situation. in the Donbass, practically the outbreak of hostilities ». Then he centered his entire argument on the need to fight against the patterns of life promoted by gay parades: “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 behavior, then human civilization will end there. ” And gay parades “are designed to demonstrate that sin is one of the variations of human behavior. That is why to enter the club of those countries it is necessary to organize a gay pride parade. Not to make a “we are with you” political statement, not to sign agreements, but to organize a gay parade. And we know how people resist these demands and how this resistance is repressed by force. This means that it is a question of imposing by force a sin condemned by the law of God, and therefore, of imposing by force on people the denial of God and of his truth ”. According to Kirill, «what is happening today in the field of international relations, therefore, does not have only political significance. We are talking about something different and much more important than politics. It is a question of human salvation, of where humanity will end up ». Everything I “say has not only a theoretical meaning and not only a spiritual meaning. There is a real war around this topic today. Who is attacking Ukraine today, where the repression and extermination of people in Donbass has been going on for eight years? Eight years of suffering and the whole world is silent: what does it mean? But we know that our brothers and sisters are really suffering; moreover, they can suffer for their fidelity to the Church. All of the above indicates that we have entered a struggle that has no physical, but metaphysical meaning – he insisted on the need to fight – I know how, unfortunately, the Orthodox, the believers, choosing the path of least resistance in this war, do not reflect on everything we think about today, but humbly follow the path that the established powers show them ». He added: “We do not condemn anyone, we do not invite anyone to climb 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 boundary between holiness and sin, and even more so with those who promote sin as an example or as one of the models of human behavior “. Today “our brothers in the Donbass, the Orthodox, are undoubtedly suffering, and we can only be with them, especially in prayer”. At the same time, “we must pray for peace to come as soon as possible, for the blood of our brothers and sisters to stop, for the Lord to incline his mercy towards the suffering land of Donbass, which has carried this sad sign for eight years, generated by human sin and hatred ”.
And a few days later the Patriarch returns to defend Putin’s war in response to a letter from the World Council of Churches (WCC), the organization of Christian Churches that had asked him to intercede with Moscow for the end of the conflict against the Ukraine. This conflict “did not start today. I firmly believe that its promoters are not the peoples of Russia and Ukraine “who” are united by common faith, saints and common prayers and share a common historical destiny. The origins of the confrontation lie in the relations between the West and Russia. In the 1990s, Russia was promised that its security and dignity would be respected “but” year after year, month after month, NATO member states have strengthened their military presence, ignoring Russia’s concerns “, writes Kirill. .
Always referring to NATO countries, the Orthodox Patriarch says that “they have tried to make fraternal peoples, Russians and Ukrainians, enemies. They spared no efforts or funds to flood Ukraine with weapons and war instructors. However, the most terrible thing is not the weapons, but the attempt to “re-educate”, to mentally transform the Ukrainians and Russians living in Ukraine into enemies of Russia ». Then Kirill talks about the “ecclesiastical schism created by Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople in 2018. It put a strain on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church”. And again: «Already in 2014, when the blood was shed in Maidan, and in Kiev and there were the first victims, the WCC expressed its concern. It was then that an armed conflict broke out in the Donbass region, whose population defended their right to speak the Russian language, demanding respect for their historical and cultural tradition. However, their voices remained unheard, just as thousands of victims among the population of Donbass went unnoticed in the Western world ». According to the Patriarch of All Russia, this “tragic conflict has become part of the large-scale geopolitical strategy aimed, first and foremost, at weakening Russia. And now Western leaders are imposing such economic sanctions on Russia that will be harmful to everyone. They make their intentions blatantly obvious: to bring suffering not only to Russian political or military leaders, but especially to the Russian people. Russophobia is spreading in the Western world at an unprecedented rate “, concludes Kirill, hoping that” the Ecumenical Council of Churches can remain a platform for impartial dialogue, free from political preferences and a unilateral approach “.
And according to sources from Oltretevere, at a liturgy in Moscow, after another homily by Kirill in favor of the war, the word would have been given to an army representative to explain why the military operation against the Nazis would proceed more slowly than planned.