Posted on 07/25/2011 7:14:17 AM PDT by marshmallow
Moscow, July 25, Interfax - A remembrance service for victims of Soviet-era repressions was held by the Solovetsky Stone on Moscow Lubyanskaya Square on Monday.
"Many are trying to tell us that that period should be forgotten together with the great number of victims," head of the Synodal Department for Church and Society Relations Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin said at the ceremony.
The Church, the public, veterans and political repression victims "must do their best so that no one and nothing is forgotten," he said.
Society cannot live a calm life or "have a decent future" unless it learns the lessons of history, "condemns morally, politically and legally the committed crimes and restores the good names of people who were oppressed only because they were clerics, nobles, Cossacks, well-to-do and hardworking farmers, merchants or belonged to other social groups declared enemies of the people," he said.
Russia will not have a decent future unless "the criminals - Stalin, Lenin, Trotsky, Uritsky, Sverdlov - who organized the Red Terror and Stalin repressions, are named," he said.
"We know for sure that the hands of those people were stained with innocent blood and all of their merits, real or imaginary - and there are both real and imaginary merits - do not justify what they did. Our society, state and people must not only know but also declare that," he said.
He called for praying for the killed people "who died of suffering, and for the future of this country, which must admit mistakes and crimes of the past, purify its memory and conscience and become a nation living by the law of truth, peace and love."
A rally organized by the Society of Repression Victims was held before the remembrance service.
wow.
while Europe is increasingly atheist, and many of our churches now approve gay clergy and gay marriage and “Chrislam” (with readings of the Quran in church!),
the Russian church becomes more independent and outspoken for traditional Bible values.
(even a gay pride parade in Moscow was refused permission.)
it is wonderful to see Christianity growing stronger there.
"Patriarch" Kirill (Gundyaev) was fully vetted agent of the KGB's 5th directorate, along with his predecessor, Alexei.
What you are seeing is a political move...nothing more, nothing less.
And in turn, the successor of the successor of the successor of Patriarch Kiril..............
It goes on forever, doesn't it?
The war's over, pal.
Russia is walking towards the light. America is heading into darkness.
Russia is becoming Holy Russia again.
Which means some interesting challanges for the West. But I welcome it.
hey! WESTERN Europe is increasingly atheist. here in Poland I’ve lived for a year and the churches are full. It’s the same in Croatia, Slovakia and in Hungary to some extent (I’m not sure of Romania or Bulgaria)
Hey, some news from Russia that you didn’t post! Imagine them saying such things about Joe Stalin!
You’ll never hear such a lack of respect on American college campuses.
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