Authored by Georgian theologian Mamuka Putkaradze
Russia’s war against Ukraine is of a religious nature as the ROC called the war “holy”, and the occupation of Ukraine – an Orthodox Crusade!
It became known as early as 2014-2015 that Russia is waging a full-scale religious war with Ukraine.
According to the new doctrine of the ROC operatives, active implanting of Catholicism and destruction of the ROC MP churches is underway in Ukraine.
Orthodox churches are allegedly on fire, while Orthodox priests are being persecuted and looking for ways to flee Ukraine.
A new concept of conflict is “Holy War.”
The idea of a “holy war” has already been voiced by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who said at a meeting in Geneva that: “Orthodox Christians are being persecuted not only in the Middle East. In Ukraine, where a fratricidal war has been waged over an unconstitutional coup, nationalist radicals have set out to incite interfaith hatred. Orthodox churches and monasteries are being destroyed, and priests and believers are being intimidated and harassed.”
“Three Orthodox priests with the ROC were killed. Many clergymen moved to Russia, fleeing threats from extremists,” Lavrov went on to lie without hesitation.
Of course, Mr. Vladimir Gundyaev, known as Patriarch of Moscow, could not stay away from the idea of ”holy war.”
Gundyaev’s words also speak about his involvement in the new concept of the “Holy War”:
“The Nazis are doing everything to eradicate the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine. It should be recalled that it was the Banderites who staged a real terror against Orthodoxy in Ukraine in 1941-1945. Over the five years, the UPA has exterminated more than 900 Orthodox priests, planning to create the much-desired independent Ukraine with its own independent church.”
How cynical are the words of the so-called Patriarch Cyril after several priests under the canonical subordination of the Moscow Patriarchate were killed in the Russian strikes in Ukraine, while and dozens of churches of the Moscow Patriarchate were destroyed in these attacks.
Due to the Russian aggression and the actual approval of the invasion by the top hierarchs of the Russian Church, the ROCinU has suffered significant losses among the clergy and believers in Ukraine. That’s mostly because the war with Russia reduced to zero the level of trust in the ROCinU.
More than twenty dioceses run by the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine ceased to mention the name of Patriarch Cyril in worship, while parishes have begun to move en masse to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
The parishioners of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine are not coming to their churches anymore, realizing that by attending temples run by the aggressor state’s organization, they would commit a sort of treason.
It would seem that it’s Christians who should be the first to oppose wars. The sixth commandment says, “Thou shalt not kill.” Based on this, the Orthodox believers of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia expected from the ROC leadership calls for a ceasefire and peacekeeping operations. But in his sermons, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church practically supports the Russian government.
In his first address since the beginning of the war, Patriarch Kirill spoke rather strangely. He did not condemn the war, only calling on “all parties to the conflict to do everything possible to avoid casualties among civilians.” Later in his sermons, he said that Russia had become so strong that some foreign forces sought to weaken it, and that this war had “metaphysical significance.”
Sometimes it is better to remain silent. The patriarch could also remain silent or offer, as a last resort, some abstract pious phrases. However, I believe I’m exaggerating. He is still called to give a moral assessment of what is happening. Instead, in fact, he showed that he was on the side of evil, in fact blessing the war and calling on the ROC clergy to “wipe the Ukrainian nation off the face of the earth.”
The Russian Orthodox Church is generally prone to flattery or servility to the authorities. The Moscow patriarch never contradicted the positions of the Russian government. It was simply not very striking when the question of choosing a position was not so acute, when there was no such radical and painful demarcation.
But Patriarch Cyril, instead of choosing to stock to the “thou shalt not kill” commandment and not blessing the war, preferred to take an openly pro-government stance, like Judas, and supported the aggression by becoming a “Z-patriarch.”
