Patriarch Kirill attends a ceremony marking the 872nd anniversary of Moscow’s founding, 7 September 2019. Photo: EPA-EFE/ALEXEY NIKOLSKY / SPUTNIK / KREMLIN POOL
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, has dismissed fears of nuclear war, arguing that rather than being afraid of the end of the world, Christians actively welcome it, Russian independent media outlet Agentstvo reported on Thursday.
Addressing the World Russian People’s Council, an ultraconservative forum that promotes the rebuilding of Russia as a single state within the boundaries of the Soviet Union, Kirill said that “alarmism and speculation on the nuclear topic” were being used by Russia’s enemies as a fear-mongering tactic.
“There is no need to play along with all this. Christians are not afraid of the so-called end of the world. We are waiting for the Lord Jesus, who will come in great glory, destroy evil and judge all nations,” Kirill said.
The prospect of the apocalypse should not encourage Christians to “sit idly by”, he continued, urging them instead to act as “warriors of the Lord” to “resist evil and defend high moral ideals”.
Kirill, a staunch supporter of Russia’s invasion in Ukraine who has said that Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine would be cleansed of all their sins, regularly frames the war as Russia’s defence of its spiritual values against the “corrupting” values of the West.
In October last year, Kirill said that Russia’s nuclear weapons were created “by divine providence” to keep the country “free and independent”.
Fears of nuclear escalation over the war in Ukraine rose earlier this month when Vladimir Putin, who has repeatedly reminded the West of his nuclear arsenal, updated Russia’s nuclear doctrine to allow a nuclear response by Moscow to even a conventional attack by a nation supported by a nuclear power.
