“Reconciliation with the aggressor does not mean compromise with evil,” head of UGCC said

Refraining from doing evil, telling the truth and communicating are important steps that can lead to reconciliation. However, we must not compromise with evil. His Beatitude Sviatoslav, the head of the UGCC, noted this at the live broadcast "Open Church" on Thursday, October 31, 2019. This time the interlocutor of the Primate was Yuri Makarov – a journalist, TV presenter, documentary filmmaker, writer.

"When it comes to the aggressor, that is, who now really kills us and denies us the right to life and existence, then, first of all, we need to clearly answer ourselves: we can not be reconciled with evil, with the open fact of aggression," His Beatitude Sviatoslav said.

At the same time, he noted that Christians do not have answers to all questions, "but we are able to search for them together." "Communicating with God, who is the truth, we can find answers to our questions that concern us," explained the head of the UGCC.

And then he added: "When someone talks about reconciliation with the aggressor in the context of open war, this type of behavior very often reminds me of the position of the Nazis in Britain at the beginning of WWII. Back then, for them, this type of reconciliation de facto meant the surrender of Britain to Hitler's aggressive policies. Therefore, to really build the right paradigms and coordinates of our search, we must tell ourselves that we cannot reconcile with war, evil and murder."

According to the head of the UGCC, there are certain steps that can help to come to a reconciliation.

"First of all, it is necessary to stop doing evil so that we can talk about any reconciliation. It is necessary to stop the aggressor, to stop the one who commits evil. I believe that the next step is to find dialogue and an opportunity to communicate. Reconciliation is possible only in the context of dialogue. One more step we have to take sooner or later is, to tell the truth. Evil must be called evil, and good must be called good. After all, without telling the truth, there will never be a just world. Without truth there is no justice, " the spiritual leader of the Greek Catholics reiterated. This is reported by the Information Department of the UGCC.