UOC hierarch: A Christian cannot wage a predatory war

Archbishop Victor (Kotsaba) of Baryshivka, the head of the UOC Representation to International European Organizations, believes that even defending his country with a weapon in hand, a Christian does so because he loves, not because he hates. Archbishop Victor wrote about this in his Telegram channel.

"Today, people often cannot understand where so much evil comes from in their souls. Everything boils down to the explanation there is warfare around, which means that evil in military conditions is a completely natural state of the soul, hence there is hatred, embitterment, aggravation... And all this has the right to life in suiatuations of war, as many are convinced,” writes the UOC hierarch. “People enjoy footage of the killing of those they consider their enemies, wish for more deaths of those on the opposite side. And it seems that this is justified, since there is a war all around."

However, according to Archbishop Victor, not everything is as simple as it seems at first glance. After all, a Christian a priori cannot be embraced by malice, cannot feel hatred towards anyone.

"Even defending his country with a weapon in his hands, he does it because he loves, not because he hates. He loves his family and friends, he loves his people, his Motherland,” emphasizes the UOC hierarch. “Precisely for this reason, a Christian simply cannot wage a war of aggression, launch ‘pre-emptive strikes’, justifying all this with the ‘good of descendants’. He can only protect and defend himself."

"This means that our people and in our society should not have malice and hatred. Defending our right to life, we should not be akin to those who want to take this right away from us. We don't have to because we want to be with Christ, who never took anything away, but only gave and taught what he preached to others," concluded the head of the UOC Representation to International European Organizations.

As reported by the UOJ, Metropolitan Onuphry called for an exchange of prisoners between the Russian Federation and Ukraine.

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