Moscow, June 19, 2014
Current level of morals in Europe won't bring anything good to Ukraine, Locum Tenens of the Metropolitan See of Kiev, Metropolitan Onufry of Chernovtsy and Bukovina believes.
"Europe shows us a concrete example of life without Christ. They don't pay attention to the Lord's testaments, to His bans. On the contrary, they promote permissiveness, and according to it, life is guided by human wishes instead of God's law. But this way is not right. Unfortunately, not all human wishes are holy," Metropolitan Onufry told Interfax-Religion in his interview.
Speaking about the West, he pointed out to legalizing unisex marriages, euthanasia, tolerant attitude to abortions.
"The laws, which new European worlds is offering to us today, are not acceptable. We can't help and join this world. We should keep our unity with those who stick to the law of God. If there are no people on Earth who preserve divine order of life, human life will be doomed to death, humanity will go to self-destruction," the interviewee of the agency said.
As to the military actions in Ukraine, he said that he had met with President Pyotr Poroshenko.
"The President wishes and strives to stop the bloodshed, but as I understand, no one can offer acceptable mechanisms of peaceful settlement," the hierarch said.
He urges Orthodox militants and Orthodox home guards "not to commit the sin of murder, not to toughen their hearts, search mutual understanding, concede to each other, to conduct a dialogue.
Answering the question if Ukraine is going to celebrate traditional day of Russia's Baptism on July 28, Metropolitan Onufry said that "thousand years ago through the Baptism of Rus the Lord enlightened our people, our land, the city of Kiev."
"We will always celebrate this feast with special gratitude to the Lord. On this day we will certainly pray for our people who need spiritual help. The prayer will win over all discords. We hope for our Lord Jesus Christ and believe that peace will come to our land," he said.
