At the last moment, Father Maxim Politov, parish priest of the monumental Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Paris, did not show up for the appointment. Contrary to what had been agreed, it was Father Irénée, one of his collaborators, who received, on Thursday March 10, the president of the Conference of Bishops of France (CEF), Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, and the president of the Protestant Federation of France (FPF), François Clavairoly. Last week, the two Christian representatives had agreed to give him together the letter that each of them wrote to Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church. Their host promised that these missives would be delivered to their addressee.
The objective of this initiative, indicated the press release of the CEF, was to challenge the patriarch “on the importance of a sense of responsibility in this conflict”. ” It’s necessary [l’]to help fulfill the historic role which should be his, to invite him to fulfill his role as bishop of Christ, which is to prepare peace”, explain to World Eric de Moulins-Beaufort. Kirill’s last homilies were at the origin of this joint initiative, specifies François Clavairoly.
Since the outbreak of the Russian invasion in Ukraine, the patriarch has distinguished himself by sermons mixing religion and politics, in which he supports without nuance the military offensive of Moscow, adorning it with mystical-civilizational colors. On Wednesday March 9, he dedicated his sermon to the thesis that Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians are the components of“one people” that malicious neighbors seek to divide. “They are against our unity, against our spiritual roots and therefore, whether they call themselves believers or non-believers, they are against the will of God”, he asserted.
Three days earlier, he had dedicated his homily to the inhabitants of Donbass who, despite “eight years of repression and extermination”, reject “the supposed values proposed today by those who pretend to world power” and whose symbol is, according to him, “Gay Pride” : “Organizing a Gay Pride is a test of loyalty to this very powerful world. » “What is happening today in the sphere of international relations is not only a matter of politics, he asserted. It is about something else and much more important. It is about the salvation of man” and one “metaphysical struggle”.
Influence with Putin
From the beginning of the Russian invasion, Eric de Moulins-Beaufort had written to Hilarion, the Metropolitan in charge of international relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, whom he had met in Paris a few days earlier, to “regret the attack” and “to maintain the relationship with the Russians”. “War must not be theologized, says the Archbishop of Reims. The war between two political entities is never the war between good and evil. »
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