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French President Emmanuel Macron said the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) was allowing itself to be manipulated by the authorities in his country to justify their war in Ukraine and urged it to resist such pressure, Reuters reported.
Macron, who is on an official visit to Italy, said this in a keynote address at an international conference organized by the Italian Community of Sant’Egidio.
While he was speaking, Metropolitan Antony, the second person in the hierarchy of the ROC, was sitting in the first row of the hall.
The French president dedicated a large part of his speech to Ukraine at the conference, which was organized under the title “Call for Peace”.
Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, has given enthusiastic support to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which he says is an important shield against what he says is a decadent West, Reuters notes.
“Religious leaders also have a role to play in resisting this recklessness that we have witnessed,” Macron said.
“We know very well that today Orthodoxy is being manipulated by those in power in Russia to justify their actions,” Macron said. “It needs to be resisted.”
The French president indicated that by “resistance” he means “never justifying, never falling into the trap of supporting political projects that tend to ignore the dignity of the individual”.
Reuters tried to ask Metropolitan Antony questions during the conference, but he declined to comment.
Cyril’s opinion on Ukraine caused a rift in relations with the Vatican, but also an internal rebellion in Orthodoxy, which led to the severing of ties by some Orthodox churches with the Russian Orthodox Church.
Since Russian troops invaded Ukraine on February 24, France has constantly stressed the importance of the West keeping open diplomatic channels of communication with Moscow. Elsewhere in his speech, Macron expressed confidence that there was a chance for peace in Ukraine, even as Russia warned that the conflict could escalate further.
At the conference, the French president met with his Italian counterpart, Sergio Mattarella. Later today he will also meet with Pope Francis, and tomorrow the two will close the conference at the Colosseum in Rome.
Last night, Macron also held talks with the new Prime Minister of Italy, Giorgia Meloni.
As early as the beginning of May, the European Commission proposed imposing sanctions on the Russian Patriarch Kirill, reported AFP. The new list of those sanctioned over Russia’s war in Ukraine includes a total of 58 people, including many Russian military personnel, the wife, daughter and son of Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, after the European Parliament already condemned the role of the head of the Russian Orthodox Church in providing theological a cover for Russian aggression against Kyiv.
Let’s recall that the Patriarch in his comments in May claimed that “the Russian special operation is fundamentally different from the war, that Russia has never started wars in its history, that it did not want to go to war with anyone, but only defended itself”. Many Orthodox churches condemned the position taken by the Russian Orthodox Church. In churches under the auspices of the Moscow Patriarchate and in Ukraine, they stopped pronouncing the name of the Russian Patriarch.
Photo: pexels-дмитрий-трепольский-8299218
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