A leading Catholic academic and priest will urge the world to “say no to the devil” in a sermon tomorrow in the centre of Old Prague. He will say that the blood of Ukraine is “crying out” to the Lord of hosts.
Father Tomáš Halík, professor of sociology of religion at Charles University, Prague, who under the communist regime was secretly ordained as a priest in Erfurt and was active in in the underground Church, is expected to warn: “Say no to the Devil.”
This references a song that the Czech Protestant minister and dissident Sváta Karásek sang following the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia.
“Our world is once again threatened by the powers of darkness. From the same place that sent us a great frost in 1968 – a frost that burned the yearning for freedom in our country for the next twenty years – are again coming lies, blood and the fire of destruction, tempting the world to give way to selfishness, aloofness, and the foolish belief that everything is fine, that we can avoid suffering. It is not true. Let us not lull ourselves into a false tranquillity. Let us be defiant: say no to the Devil.”
Fr Halík, awarded the Templeton Prize in 2014, is expected to describe how just a short time ago, very few could imagine that Europe would be at war again: “That Vladimir Putin’s Russia would exclude itself from the family of civilised countries: committing war crimes; violating international law; perfidiously and despicably attacking its weaker neighbour; and seeking to erase a democratic country from the map of the world by brutally killing its citizens, including women and children. The blood of Ukraine cries out to the Lord of hosts.”
He urges Christians not to “mock God’s call” by turning Lent into a time of merely giving up chocolate. “The years to come will bring more than enough asceticism. In the time of the coronavirus, God closed our churches to tell us: ‘If you have thought that your Christian faith lies in leading a decent life and attending church on Sunday, then beware: that is not enough.’ The motto of Lent is, seek the Lord while he may be found.”
Pope Francis’ call to a synodal reform is to transform the Church from an institution “where we all march in lockstep” into a network of mutual communication, a path of searching together for responses to the signs of our epochal times,” he will say.
He spoke as leading Catholics in Poland hailed its absorption of 800,000 refugees from Ukraine as a new “miracle of solidarity”.
Dr Greg Lewicki, international relations analyst and foresight consultant, a fellow at the Polish Economic Institute and researcher at War Studies University, writes in The Tablet: “Nearly 600,000 refugees entered Poland’s territory in the first week of Russian invasion on Ukraine. And the number keeps growing – after ten days, as of 5 March 2022 nearly 800 thousand have already crossed the Polish border, counting from 24 February on. And there will be many more. The Ukrainians are being absorbed by the popular mobilisation of Polish families that feed on tradition of empathy, Christian values and the memory of Poland’s own experience with Russian aggression.”