Press Release – April 4, 2022
For Immediate Release
OPAC CALLS FOR SANCTIONS ON RUSSIAN ORTHODOX LEADERSHIP
The Orthodox Public Affairs Committee (OPAC) decries the cruel, criminal, and senseless atrocities perpetrated in Bucha on the outskirts of Kyiv by retreating Russian military forces. The wanton disregard for civilians and the sickening slaughter inflicted on noncombatants reveals a military out of control and the complicity of the Russian Government in war crimes and what appears to be genocide.
We add to those complicit, the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church, and in particular Patriarch Kirill, who is towing the line of the Kremlin against every moral, ethical, and spiritual value of the faith he pretends to represent. We again call for full and immediate sanctions on Kirill and the Moscow Patriarchate.v
We urge the remaining Autocephalous Churches of the Orthodox Church to take immediate action against the Russian Church leadership, including excommunication and the removal of Kirill’s name from mutual commemorations (Diptychs). The Orthodox People of Russia and Ukraine cannot be asked to commemorate the wolves who support the destruction of their flocks.
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Contact: Info@OrthodoxPac.org