Patriarch Kirill believes World War II was punishment for sins of Russians

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia believes World War II was a redemptive sacrifice of Russian people for the sin of apostasy. "Some people wonder why the last war was so terrific and bloody, why so many people died!" the Patriarch has said after Wednesday Liturgy in the Moscow Sretensky Monastery.

However, he suggested that we should look at this "military catastrophe" with the eyes of our pious predecessors. The Primate believes then it becomes clear that the Great Patriotic War was a punishment for the sin, for "the terrible sin of apostasy committed by the whole nation, for desecration of shrines, for blasphemy and persecution of the Church."

"If our country had faced material prosperity and victory of ideology instead of this terrible punishment, then any sensible person would have asked where the Lord's judgment was?" the Patriarch said.

According to him, Russian history "like no other, teach our people that God's judgment comes not only in eternity, it comes in history as well."

"However, God's punishment is not a kind of despotism and cruelty as some atheists often say thus witnessing to the fact of God's existence. God's punishment is a display of God's truth, a display of God's justice and the world can not exist without it," the Primate believes.

Source: Interfax religion