Orthodox leaders clash over ‘holy war’

The leader of Lebanon’s Greek Orthodox Church has condemned the Russian Orthodox Church for describing Moscow’s involvement in Syria as a “holy war”, write Joseph Ataman  and Jonathan Luxmoore.

Speaking during a service in St George’s Cathedral in the Lebanese capital, Mgr Elias Audi, the metropolitan of Beirut, said: “Our Church does not bless those who kill, because he who kills another, it is as if he wanted to kill God.” He went on: “the Church does not bless wars and does not consecrate them. [It] refuses to countenance the concept of ‘holy war’.”

As Russia began airstrikes in Syria last month, the Russian patriarchate described their mission as a “holy battle”. In a statement, Patriarch Kirill said: “Russia took a responsible decision to use military forces to protect the Syrian people ... The political process has not led to any noticeable improvement in the lives of innocent people, and they need military protection.”

Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, director of the Moscow ­patriarchate’s church-society commission, scorned opponents of his country’s bombing campaign. “We have to protect the oppressed and exiled, brothers and sisters subjected to genocide – our motivation is far stronger than the Western struggle for democracy and the market or the pseudo-religious claims of the extremists,” he said. “The defeatists and pacifists who stand against this anti-terrorist struggle [are] not thinking about truth, only about preserving their everyday comforts and miserable lives with rose-tinted spectacles.”

Speaking to The Tablet, Mgr Paul Sayah, Maronite vicar ­general in Beirut, said foreign countries should help stop the war. “It’s not the Christians who asked for protection,” he said.