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His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew delivered a forceful appeal for peace with justice as he commemorated the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, speaking at the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts in the Patriarchal Church of Saint George at the Phanar on Feb. 24, 2026.
In remarks framed by the solemnity of the first week of Great Lent, the Ecumenical Patriarch warned against the moral danger of fatigue and indifference as the war grinds on. “We cannot permit the world to view this ongoing tragedy as ordinary or inevitable,” he said, adding: “Each casualty is not a statistic; it is a sacred life, bearing the unique imprint of God.”
Recalling families separated by loss, captivity, and displacement, he reaffirmed what he called the “steadfast concern of the Mother Church of Constantinople for Ukraine,” tying that bond to shared faith and history “from the waters of the Dnieper in the baptism of Kyivan Rus’ to this present hour.” He emphasized solidarity in explicitly ecclesial terms: “when one member of the Body of Christ is pierced, the whole Body bleeds.”
At the center of his message was a sharp distinction between ending violence and achieving peace. “What we seek is not a mere cessation of hostilities, but a genuine, just, and lasting peace,” he said, cautioning that “a battlefield without gunfire is not always peace.” He argued that any settlement must respect Ukraine’s agency: “It is a moral imperative that a people’s future cannot be negotiated in secret or decided without their full and equal participation. Anything less is not peace; it is merely injustice given a diplomatic name.”
Turning Lent into a moral mirror, the Ecumenical Patriarch urged believers to match spiritual discipline with solidarity: “We cannot fast from food while feasting on indifference.” He closed with a pledge of continuing support — “The Church will not abandon you” — and a prayer that leaders “pursue the narrow path of justice,” so that “the light of Christ, which no darkness can extinguish,” may shine upon Ukraine and the world.
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