In his Sunday sermon on September 25, Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Cyril Gundyaev said that a victim “by performing military duty washes away all their sins,” LB.ua reports with reference to the Russian media.
“We know that today many people die on the battlefields of internecine warfare. The Church prays that this war will end as soon as possible, that as few brothers as possible will kill each other in this fratricidal war. And at the same time, the Church realizes that if someone, motivated by a sense of duty, the need to fulfill an oath, remains faithful to their vocation, and dies while performing military duty, then they are undoubtedly committing an act equivalent to a sacrifice. They sacrifice themselves for others’ sake. And that’s why we believe that this sacrifice washes away all the sins that a person has committed,” Gundyaev’s sermon says.
