How the Patriarch of Moscow Religiously Supports State War Propaganda

Putin’s war of aggression in Ukraine, which began a year ago, is also a huge stress test for the Christian churches and the ecumenism. While the Russian patriarch Cyril theologically justifies the war, the churches in Ukraine are trying to help those in need.

At the same time, competition between the various forms of the country’s Orthodox churches is increasing. The extremely complex situation in Ukraine was the subject of the first “Forum Ecumenism” of the Theological Faculty of the University of Lucerne last Tuesday. Stefan Kube, editor-in-chief of the magazine “Religion & Society in East and West” spoke on the topic “The war in Ukraine and the role of the churches” and his analyzes attracted great interest from the public.

Story of the “Western Decay of Values”

In an interview with this newspaper, Stefan Kube confirms that the churches – as so often – play an ambivalent role in these kinds of conflicts. It is not uncommon for religion to appear as both a “fire accelerator” and a “peacemaker” in such situations.

It becomes particularly difficult when ecclesiastical actors use certain stories that are no match for reality. For example, the Moscow Patriarch Cyril repeatedly spoke of the “evil forces” from the West that caused the “events” in Ukraine.

Significantly, Patriarch Kirill does not use the word ‘war’, but always speaks of ‘events’ that took place in the neighboring country. “Like the political leadership in the Kremlin, the ecclesiastical leadership of the Moscow Patriarchate sees itself in a defensive position against evil foreign forces,” explains Stefan Kube. The Orthodox believers are said to be threatened by ‘liberal values’ such as secularization, pluralism and issues of sexual self-determination.

Conversion of perpetrators and victims

Cyril even stylized these events as an apocalyptic battle between good and evil, in which Russia had to resist the “lords of darkness”. In this context, the patriarch even uses the term ‘ecclesia militans’, the militant church – a term coined by Alanus de Insulis in the 12th century.

Stefan Kube argues that there is currently a deeply politicized church leadership in Moscow with Kyrill pursuing a “victim-perpetrator reversal”. The patriarch’s statements are an end-time threat discourse that “goes hand-in-hand with state war propaganda and underpins it religiously.”

Cruel test for Orthodox churches

Kyrill’s polarizing words are leading churches in Ukraine through a difficult trial. For example, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (OKU) and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGKK) had already made outspoken pro-Ukrainian statements before the war broke out, Kube explains.

“The OKU was formed in 2018 from the union of two Orthodox churches in the country, and the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople granted this new church ecclesiastical independence, autocephaly, in early 2019.” In protest, the Moscow Patriarchate subsequently severed Eucharistic communion with Constantinople.

The other major Orthodox Church in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), which belongs to the Moscow Patriarchate, also strongly condemned Russia’s attack on Ukraine a year ago: its leader spoke of a “fratricidal war” on the first day of the war and called on the leaders of the Russian Federation to immediately cease hostilities.

In what role does the Pope speak?

The pope’s role in dealing with the war in Ukraine is still unclear, Kube says. One still hears “ambivalent signals” from Rome. On the one hand, there is the Vatican’s humanitarian aid and the Pope’s emotional letter to the Ukrainian people dated November 22, 2022.

Furthermore, in late June 2022, Cardinal Kurt Koch clearly described Cyril’s pseudo-religious justification of Russia’s offensive war as “heresy”. On the other hand, Pope Francis has said several times that he wants to travel first to Moscow and then to Kiev. From this Kube concludes: “The Pope seems to continue to believe in the possibility of a dialogue with Putin and Patriarch Kirill.”

Stefan Kube classifies the legacy of the “strategic alliance” as particularly problematic: the Moscow Patriarchate has repeatedly stressed the need for a “strategic alliance” with the Catholic Church as a common bastion against the secularization of Christianity. However, this is a direction that can hardly lead out of the current impasse. (aargauerzeitung.ch)