Metropolitan Hilarion: “Many People Have Lost Sight of the Fact that War is Evil”

On the Church and the World TV programme, the chairman of the Department of External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate the metropolitan of Volokolamsk Hilarion shared his alarm caused by recent international developments. “I believe that if this is not halted and comes to a stop as soon as possible, then it may lead to very sad consequences,” he said.

The metropolitan noted with regret that many people today have lost sight of the fact that war is evil. “For seventy-six years we have lived in a state of peace. Those people who still remember the war are becoming less and less. And they are being replaced by a generation of young people which is often quite militaristic in its outlook.”

Metropolitan Hilarion pointed to the fact that a number of politicians have come out with irresponsible statements in pursuing populist aims, something which is particularly dangerous in the current climate “when the entire world is a powder keg, when a huge stockpile of nuclear weapons is available and when in the absence of any restraints the use of such weapons could lead to a global catastrophe.”

“I therefore hope that politicians on all sides of conflicts will do all that is within their power to halt all of this, hold negotiations that will lead to peace and, as often occurred in the past, avoid total conflict and global war,” the metropolitan emphasized.

Referring to the Cuban missile crisis when the war stood on the brink of global catastrophe, metropolitan Hilarion noted: “And yet at that time political leaders found the courage and wisdom to halt yet one more advance in the arms race. I hope that there is enough such wisdom today.”

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Metropolitan Hilarion: “Many People Have Lost Sight of the Fact that War is Evil”

Patriarch

Department Chairman

Sermons

Patriarch

Department Chairman

Sermons