The Bishop of Essen, Franz-Josef Overbeck, compared the beginning of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine with the terrorist attacks of 9/11.
“The military attack by the Russian Federation on Ukraine is just as deep a cut in the history of many people and states, especially Europe, as September 11, 2001 was with the Islamist attacks in the United States of America,” said the Ruhr bishop according to the text of the speech on the Halde Haniel in Bottrop. “In both cases, the level of violence and the nature of the attacks far exceeded what could be imagined.”
In view of the immeasurable suffering in Ukraine, one could speak of a “real Good Friday of our culture,” said Overbeck. “The rivers of blood that flow and the suffering of so many martyred people cry out to heaven.”
The images from the front in eastern Ukraine are reminiscent of the trench warfare in World War I, “that is, a time that we really believed had been overcome,” Overbeck said.
Overbeck: Christians in Germany have a duty
The bishop of Essen, who is known as a reformer, took a hard stance on the Russian Orthodox patriarch Kirill: “The unspeakable behavior of the Russian patriarch and no fewer leaders in the Russian Orthodox Church, who support this war unreservedly (…), leave me speechless .”
Overbeck warned that Christians in Germany had a duty to stand up for human freedom and the rule of law, for democracy and a social market economy. “What the Russian rulers underestimated is the power of freedom, which drives the Ukrainians in their struggle time and again.”
Precisely because there are not a few states in which democracy is in danger of being abolished, the churches must stand up for freedom.
On Good Friday, Christians around the world commemorate the execution of Jesus. The word derives from the Old High German word “kara” for lamentation, mourning.
