From the start of the conflict in Ukraine, the powerful Patriarch of Moscow, Kirill, expressed his full support for the war led by Vladimir Putin. A position that fuels the fracture within the Orthodox world, but also in the Russian Church itself.
At the beginning of March, the publication of an open letter signed by more than 350 Russian Orthodox priests did not go unnoticed. This one, specifies the daily The Republic, “demand ‘the end of the fratricidal war’, and a ‘immediate ceasefire’, followed by ‘reconciliation process’”. Furthermore, the signatories regret “the undeserved suffering suffered by [leurs] Ukrainian brothers and sisters”, which amounts to a surprisingly open critique of the conflict.
Admittedly, the signatories of the text form only a small group compared to the approximately 35,000 priests and deacons who preach in Russia. But they still constitute “the vanguard of a growing malaise within the Orthodox world”. A Church that has shown itself so far “close-knit and disciplined” in its support for the war, recalls The Republic.
The war “on the world of excessive consumption”
The line of loyalty to the Kremlin was clearly dictated by Patriarch Kirill himself. On March 6, when celebrating the Divine Liturgy in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, he defended the intervention in Ukraine and attacked “in the world
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Born in 1976, the title aims to be the newspaper of the country’s intellectual elite. Leaning on the left, with a clear sympathy for the Democratic Party, it is one of the best-selling dailies in Italy. The daily The Republic East
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