Catholic bishops in Russia call on leaders to end conflict with Ukraine – Catholic World Report

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The Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Moscow, the Cathedral of the Archdiocese of the Mother of God in Moscow. /Kirasinkir via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Rome Newsroom, February 25, 2022 / 04:00 (CNA).

The Russian Catholic Bishops‘ Conference has called on political leaders to end the conflict with Ukraine.

In a Feb. 24 message, Catholic bishops from five dioceses in Russia warned leaders “that they will be held to strict accountability for the military actions they have taken.”

“The course of the centuries to come largely depends on their present decisions,” the bishops said, referring to Lumen gentiumthe Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of the Second Vatican Council.

“We call on all politicians on whom this decision depends to do everything decisively to end this conflict,” they added.

Catholic bishops in Russia released the message after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in the early hours of February 24.

Fighting took place at an airfield outside the Russian capital, Kiev, from the night of February 24 to the morning of February 25. The city was also affected by explosions which damaged a building.

Ukrainian forces are responding to attacks on multiple fronts after Russian troops entered the country from the east, north and south.

In their message to Catholic clergy and laity in Russia, the Bishops wrote: “We are, like all of you, deeply shocked that, despite great efforts at reconciliation, the political conflict between Russia and Ukraine has turned into a armed confrontation”.

“This confrontation brings death and destruction and threatens the security of the whole world,” they said, noting that the peoples of Ukraine and Russia were united not only by a common history, “but also by the enormous suffering that fell on us in the past because of the madness of war.

“Our peoples deserve peace,” the Bishops said, “not just the absence of war, but the kind of peace that consists of a firm determination to respect others, other peoples and their dignity.”

According to 2017 figures, there are less than 800,000 Catholics in Russia, or about 0.5% of the 144 million inhabitants, who are mostly Russian Orthodox.

The country has had a conference of Catholic bishops since 1999. Archbishop Paolo Pezzi, head of the Archdiocese of the Mother of God in Moscow, is the president of the conference.

The bishops have asked Russian Catholics to dedicate themselves to intensified prayers and fasting for the preservation of human lives, especially on March 2, Ash Wednesday, in response to Pope Francis’ appeal to Catholics around the world.

They also asked priests to offer masses for peace and justice.

“God is a God of peace and not of war, the Father of all and not just of a few, and he wants us to be brothers and not enemies,” the bishops said, quoting Pope Francis.

“And we also call on everyone, especially other Christians, to confront lies and hatred, and to be a source of reconciliation, not of multiplication of hatred and violence,” they concluded.


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