RUSSIA RELIGION NEWS


 

Rebel official implicates Orthodox Church in separatist action

"CHIEF PROCURATOR OF LPR" CITES CASES OF SPIRITUAL NOURISHMENT BY UPTsMP PRIESTS OF REPRESENTATIVES OF ILLEGAL ARMED FORMATIONS

Portal-credo.ru, 19 June 2015

 

"Clergymen do not distinguish residents of the republic (having in mind the LPR, which is, from the point of view of the Ukrainian legal system, a terrorist organization) as soldiers fighting on the front line and civilians; they support all people who need spiritual nourishment." This was explained on 18 June on the website of the separatists, Russian Spring, by an advisor to the head of the LPR [Luhansk People's Republic] for work with religious organizations and issues of spirituality, Roman Cherneshenko.

 

"For a clergyman, there is no front line. For him there is no soldier. For him there is a parishioner, a believing person, a person who needs spiritual nourishment and support for soul and body," he noted. "Communication with a priest is an opportunity in battle conditions to feel one's self closer to home, to relatives, and to pray and beseech the Lord that the war would be ended as quickly as possible," Cherneshenko said.

 

He said the priest always goes to the people, because "the church is the priest and people and the church cannot be without the people." The priest about whom he was talking, the bureaucrat did not specify at the time. "Therefore, if the people cannot come to the church for whatever reason, then certainly the clergy always comes to them. Thus the front line is the land, the place, where the people live and they need support," Cherneshenko explained.

 

He described how priests of the Ukrainian church (UPTsMP) respond to requests to come to service personnel who are fighting against Ukraine and "to support them spiritually." At the same time, he emphasized that the people's police try to make it so that this communication not reach the front line since this causes a threat to the life of both the clergy and the fighters.

 

Cherneshenko also noted that priests support both the wounded participants in illegal armed formations and other residents of LPR who are in medical institutions. "The clergy comes, hears confession, gives communion, and supports," he explained.

 

In his opinion, the role of the Ukrainian priest for a soldier who is fighting against Ukraine is very great and important, since "the soldier cannot be without spiritual nourishment, without communication with a priest, because his soul will be continually on the alert." "And communication with a priest always places any service person on the true path. The priest always listens to the soldier's pain, responds, and blesses," the advisor to the LPR head is certain.

 

The bureaucrat also noted that for service personnel in war, "it is difficult to survive even one battle without God and without prayer, because fear sometime tries to cause panic and panicky moods in a person," which, in turn, leads to casualties. "Many service personnel always go into battle with a small cross [whether they use a cross in other situations the bureaucrat did not clarify]. This speaks about the fact that faith for a person who is fated, on the basis of the call of the motherland or an internal feeling, to define himself as a defender of the motherland is not only a defender of the motherland but is also a defender of faith," Cherneshenko emphasized. (tr. by PDS, posted 20 June 2015)


Russia Religion News Current News Items

Editorial disclaimer: RRN does not intend to certify the accuracy of information presented in articles. RRN simply intends to certify the accuracy of the English translation of the contents of the articles as they appeared in news media of countries of the former USSR.

If material is quoted, please give credit to the publication from which it came. It is not necessary to credit this Web page. If material is transmitted electronically, please include reference to the URL, http://www.stetson.edu/~psteeves/relnews/.