UOC Primate: Society must understand spiritual root causes of pandemic

Primate of the UOC, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry. Photo: news.church.ua

Society must understand the spiritual root causes of the coronavirus pandemic, for God allows trials not for our virtues but for our sins. The Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv and All Ukraine, wrote about this in his greeting to the organizers and participants of the Ukraine 30. Coronavirus: Challenges and Answers All-Ukrainian Forum, which took place in Kyiv on February 8, 2021.

In his welcoming speech, the text of which was published on the website of the Lviv Eparchy of the UOC, the Primate emphasized the extreme relevance of the topic raised since the threats created by the global pandemic primarily concern human life and health.

“Caring for the health of a person – mental and at the same time bodily – has been and will be one of the main priorities of the Church,” His Beatitude emphasized. - (...) The Church always has great respect for medical practice, which is based on the ministry of love, aimed at preventing human suffering and alleviating it."

He recalled that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church during each liturgy prays for an end to the destructive epidemic and for doctors who bear the main burden of overcoming the pandemic.

“As we continue the fight against coronavirus infection, society must be aware of the spiritual root causes of everything that has happened. God allows trials not for our virtues but for our sins and calls us to fight against sin by repentance. Today, each of us needs to look inside ourselves and draw the right conclusions. This new trial makes us sober and gives us the opportunity to look at life more correctly, value it and build it correctly in the future so that it is useful not only on earth but also in the future in heaven,” the UOC Primate urged the forum participants.

Earlier, His Beatitude Onuphry said how to get the vaccine for eternity.

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