“… Without active, passionate participation of church this war wouldn’t be possible. It was the Moscow orthodox patriarchy that transformed “Love Thy Neighbor” into “Kill thy neighbor, he deserves God’s punishment”. 

When visiting Ukraine in 2010, the Moscow patriarch Kirill famously called Kyiv “our Jerusalem”. Meaning the spiritual role of Ukraine’s capital as the birthplace of Christianity in this part of Europe. 

What he forgot to mention though was that a decade later he personally would co-create a bloody religious crusade, a holy war and treat Ukrainians like “Saracens” to be ousted and destroyed. Apparently, history does have a tendency to rhyme.  

There are dozens of thousands of priests in Russia. Sadly, only a handful had the courage to stand up and not become culprits to the kill-thy-neighbor war. Absolute majority could not or wanted not. 

Intellectually, you understand there is nothing new to it; during centuries, at various points in history, clergy allowed itself to be used in the most horrible things humans did. But emotionally you cannot help but asking: “Father, why do You let them use Your name to create this horror?”

And spiritually – you pray. Pray that this darkness does not devour your home, your people, your faith. Pray that God gives justice to those who started it, blessed it, or simply looked away while it was fought in His name. 

But most of all, you pray that the world finally hears the Commandment as it was given by God, and not as Moscow patriarchy rewrote it. The faithful of the world cannot look away as “Kill thy neighbor” becomes the theme of the 21st century.”

From Ambassador Olexander Scherba’s new opinion piece in The Citizen News, full is available via link: https://www.citizen.co.za/news/opinion/how-moscow-patriarch-transformed-love-thy-neighbour-into-kill-thy-neighbour/