The head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Metropolitan Epifaniy, recalled the terrible tragedy of the Babyn Yar slaughter, calling on believers to make every effort to ensure that cruelty no longer takes human lives.
“Our Lord Jesus Christ, saying goodbye to His disciples, said, “A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” (John 13:34). What could be further from His greatest commandment, the commandment of love, than the deliberate destruction of entire nations, destruction of human lives, which, unfortunately, so often happens in human history?” Metropolitan Epifaniy wrote on Facebook.
He added that one of the painful pages of World War 2 eight decades ago was the mass killing in Babyn Yar, when in just two days, September 29-30, 1941, nearly 34,000 civilians were shot dead.
During the Nazi occupation, more than 100,000 Jews, Roma, and Ukrainians were killed at this site. According to researchers, the youngest victim of the Babyn Yar shootings was only two days old!
“Remembering today those terrible events, honoring the memory of those innocent people killed 80 years ago, we must make every effort to ensure that cruelty and inhumanity never again reach such proportions, that human hatred never destroys human lives. We must carry God’s love and preach God’s word among people, love others, and act out of love. And then there will be less evil and cruelty in the world,” Metropolitan Epifaniy summed up.
