UPTs ARCHBISHOP OPPOSES CHURCH SUPPORT OF UKRAINIAN ARMY WITH WEAPONS AND PROTECTIVE DEVICES
Religiia v Ukraine, 18 December 2014
Archbishop Mitrofan, who is the ruling bishop of the diocese of Gorlovka and Slaviansk of UPTsMP, spoke out against church support of the armed forces of Ukraine with body armor, helmets, weapons, or vehicles, considering that the Ukrainian army is one of the warring sides in the war where "there are many untruths," Religiia v Ukraine reports, citing Pravlife.org.
"The church should not participate here, in my view," Vladyka Mitrofan said. "And not because there are no spiritual children there who need this support; that's not the point. The point is that in this war there are many untruths. In this war there is much that when the church deals with it, the church then takes it upon itself. It is not the church's business to arm the army." The hierarch thinks that the church may provide aid and support for wounded people in hospitals and the rear and help the needy with produce and medicines.
"The church may and should spiritually minister to those people who are bearing arms so that they will not use these arms however they fancy but should remind them that they are Christians and they should have a conscience. That is all that the church may do," Archbishop Mitrofan added.
For him, "it is not very understandable when clergy or some hierarchs buy body armor or helmets or some weapons or some automobiles and send them to the zone of armed activities. I think that the church should not deal with everything that is connected with war," the hierarch declared.
"If now those parishes that are located in the zone of the so-called ATO [Anti-Terrorism Operation] begin to buy helmets and body armor for militias, then the church will be guilty of supporting 'terrorism.' Directly. Nobody even considers this for a second. But we have two warring sides and our spiritual children are on two sides and there are Christians, Orthodox believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, on both the one and the other. And if we buy body armor for the one, then it is necessary to buy body armor for the other," Vladyka Mitrofan noted.
"And anyway, no matter what happens we should remind ourselves that we still will have to continue to live together in the future. Whether in the same state or as neighbors; this does not depend on the church because the church did not start this war," Archbishop Mitrofan said.
In connection with Archbishop Mitrofan's statement, observers note that during World War Two the RPTs donated hundreds of millions of soviet rubles to the needs of the defense of the USSR. In particular, some church money went for the purpose of constructing a tank column named for Dmitry of the Don comprising 40 tanks, half of which were equipped with the latest armaments.
We recall that clergy of the Gorlovka and Slaviansk diocese of UPTs were most often featured in articles about the support of pro-Russian armed groups by clergymen in the Donbass. (tr. by PDS, posted 19 December 2014)
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