Church leaders have continued to appeal for peace in Ukraine, as Catholics worldwide marked a Day of Prayer amid predictions that Russia's 130,000 troops could be poised to invade during February.
“We all know how tragic war is – we have its serious consequences constantly before our eyes”, said Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican's Secretary for Relations with States. “But it is even more scandalous to see that those who suffer most from conflicts are not those who decide whether to start them, but those who are only helpless victims.”
The British archbishop was speaking at a Rome vigil marking a Day of Prayer for Peace, staged across the world at the Pope’s request.
The Vatican's nuncio to Ukraine, Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas, told a Kyiv congregation those “bringing war and violence” could not be called Christians, while the president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Cardinal Kurt Koch told Vatican Radio's German section war in Ukraine risked a wider conflict. “Wherever they stand politically, Christians share a common conviction that war is not an option,” he said.
Russia began massing forces in late October, prompting fears of a three-pronged offensive against Ukraine, where pro-Kremlin separatists declared independent republics at Luhansk and Donetsk in 2014, triggering a war which has left over 14,000 dead.
US and Russian representatives traded accusations at the UN Security Council on Monday, as Britain and other Nato allies deployed combat troops and fighter jets to bolster Eastern Europe's defences against wider moves by Russia's 60 battle groups.
Ukraine's independent Orthodox church published special prayers at the weekend for those defending against “enemies gathering to destroy us and our state and sanctuary,” while the head of the Greek Catholic Church, Archbishop Svetoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv-Halych, said the “unprecedented” Day of Prayer had united Ukrainian Christians across the world.
Speaking on the Day of Prayer, the Pope called for Ukraine to “grow in the spirit of brotherhood”, so “all hurts, fears and divisions will be overcome”.
The head of Russia's minority Catholic Church, Archbishop Paolo Pezzi, told Italy's La Repubblica daily that while relations between Russia and Ukraine are not easy, he believed Papal mediation might be possible.
Russia's predominant Orthodox Church has made no official comment on the current war threat, although its foreign relations director, Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev, insisted in a mid-January TV interview it was “quite natural” to demand “certain security guarantees so Nato weapons are not deployed directly on Russia’s borders or directed at Russian cities”.
The head of Latvia's Catholic Church warned his country and its neighbours could also be threatened and destabilised by Russian actions, including forms of “hybrid warfare” and cyber-attacks. “If Europe and the European Union preserve their internal unity, then it will also be able to preserve peace at Europe's borders”, Archbishop Zbignevs Stankevics of Riga told a weekend meeting in Frankfurt's Catholic cathedral. “But if Putin attacks Ukraine, then we, the Baltic countries, will be next, followed by Poland. If there is no dialogue, it will become very dangerous. Putin could take one step, then another and then another.”
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