Bishop Gadecki asks Kirill to appeal to Putin: stop the war.  

Newsroom (04/03/2022 10:04, Gaudium Press) For the second time, the President of the Episcopate of Poland, Bishop Stanislaw Gadecki, writes a letter to Patriarch Kirill of Moscow. The previous note, sent on February 14, was addressed to the Orthodox and Catholic bishops of Russia and Ukraine, asking them to unite “the spiritual efforts of the followers of Christ of different religious denominations in Russia, Ukraine and Poland in order to avoid the specter of another war in our region.”

This time, the Archbishop of Poznan has sent a message to the Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow, Kirill, pointing out that “if our prayer is not to be considered an expression of hypocrisy, it must be accompanied by actions.” Therefore, he asks Kirill to appeal to Vladimir Putin: “to stop this senseless war against the Ukrainian people, in which innocent people are being killed and suffering is affecting not only soldiers, but also civilians especially women and children.”

“I ask you with the greatest humility to request the withdrawal of Russian troops from the sovereign state that is Ukraine,” the archbishop wrote, adding that “no reason, no reason can justify the decision to start a military invasion of an independent country, bombing residential areas, schools or kindergartens.”

The prelate goes further, even asking Kirill to ask Russian soldiers “not to take part in this unjust war, to refuse to carry out orders that – as we have already seen – lead to many war crimes. Refusing to carry out orders in such a situation is a moral obligation.”

With information and photo from episkopat.pl.

Compiled by Gustavo Kralj