Letter from the
Chairman of the EESC to the Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia
Year:2022
Author: Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki
Warsaw, March 2, 2022
Your Holiness,
Thank you very much for the words in the
letter from Metropolitan Hilarion yesterday. I share Your Holiness's view that
hostility towards any nation is always unacceptable. We are all brothers,
therefore we perceive each misfortune of the Ukrainian or Russian people as our
own. That is why we pray with all our hearts for peace in Ukraine.
However, in order for our prayer not to
be considered an expression of hypocrisy, it must be accompanied by deeds. I
believe, Your Holiness, that you are a man of peace. Our Lord Jesus Christ
taught: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of
God" (Mt 5: 9). Therefore, I am asking you, Brother, to appeal to Vladimir
Putin to stop the senseless struggle with the Ukrainian people, in which innocent
people are dying and suffering affects not only soldiers, but also civilians -
especially women and children. One man can stop the suffering of thousands of
people with just one word - that is the president of the Russian Federation. I
am asking you, as humbly as possible, to appeal for the withdrawal of Russian
troops from the sovereign state that is Ukraine.
No reason, no reason ever justifies the
decision to start a military invasion of an independent country, bombing
housing estates, schools or kindergartens. War is always mankind's defeat. This
war - as I wrote in the previous letter - is all the more meaningless due to
the closeness of both nations and their Christian roots. Is it allowed to
destroy the cradle of Christianity on Slavic soil, the place of the baptism of
Rus?
I also ask you to appeal to Russian
soldiers not to participate in this unjust war, to refuse to obey orders which,
as we can already see, result in numerous war crimes. Refusing to carry out an
order in such a situation is a moral obligation. The time will come for these
crimes to be brought to justice, also before international tribunals. If,
however, someone can avoid this human justice, there is a tribunal that cannot
be avoided. "For we must all appear before the tribunal of Christ, that
each one may receive payment for the works done in the flesh, bad or good"
(2 Cor 5:10).
I believe that many of the Russians sent
to the war are noble people. "We don't know who to shoot at, they all look
like us ..." said one of your soldiers. So I ask you to appeal to them to
come home as soon as possible without staining their hands with innocent blood.
As disciples of Christ, we know that the
main weapon at the disposal of the Church is the spiritual weapon. "This
kind of evil spirits is only cast out by prayer and fasting," we read in
St. Matthew (Mt 17:21; Mk 9:29). In Poland, in response to the appeal of Pope
Francis, today we announced a day of prayer and fasting for the establishment
of a just peace in Ukraine. I am asking You, Brother, to call on all the
Orthodox brothers in Russia to undertake a similar spiritual work. I believe
that God will not remain indifferent to our prayers and sacrifices. I believe
that fasting and prayer change the human heart.
In Christ the Lord,
+ Stanisław Gądecki
Metropolitan Archbishop of Poznań,
Chairman of the Polish Episcopal Conference
The Man He Killed
ReplyDeleteThomas Hardy - 1840-1928
"Had he and I but met
By some old ancient inn,
We should have sat us down to wet
Right many a nipperkin!
"But ranged as infantry,
And staring face to face,
I shot at him as he at me,
And killed him in his place.
"I shot him dead because--
Because he was my foe,
Just so: my foe of course he was;
That's clear enough; although
"He thought he'd 'list, perhaps,
Off-hand like--just as I--
Was out of work--had sold his traps--
No other reason why.
"Yes; quaint and curious war is!
You shoot a fellow down
You'd treat if met where any bar is,
Or help to half-a-crown."
https://poets.org/poem/man-he-killed
Here is another Thomas Hardy poem. He thought about the sadness of things a lot. But he also loved and praised the beauty of the creation.
ReplyDeleteThis is a poem that can still make me cry. And I hope so much that Hardy and all the young Drummer Hodges have a wonderful awakening ahead of them, into an earth truly at peace.
Drummer Hodge
Thomas Hardy - 1840-1928
They throw in Drummer Hodge, to rest
Uncoffined—just as found:
His landmark is a kopje-crest
That breaks the veldt around;
And foreign constellations west
Each night above his mound.
II
Young Hodge the Drummer never knew—
Fresh from his Wessex home—
The meaning of the broad Karoo,
The Bush, the dusty loam,
And why uprose to nightly view
Strange stars amid the gloam.
III
Yet portion of that unknown plain
Will Hodge for ever be;
His homely Northern breast and brain
Grow up a Southern tree,
And strange-eyed constellations reign
His stars eternally.
https://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2022/02/28/ukraine-poland-border-refugee-damon-pkg-ovn-intl-hnk-vpx.cnn Arwa Damon is there.
ReplyDeleteUK grants 50 Ukrainian refugee visas so far
ReplyDeleteAccording to German TV the UK refuses to accept the refugees.
ReplyDelete