The Russian Foreign Ministry has stated in a statement on social media that Lithuania has been targeted by the Antichrist, however, such information was first disseminated by Russian intelligence services.
The loud and peculiar statements are a response to the decision of the Lithuanian Orthodox community to sever ties with the Moscow Patriarchate. In Christian mythology, the Antichrist is the main antithesis and adversary of Jesus Christ, who is said to arrive before the end of the world. According to Russian officials, the embodiment of the biblical villain in Europe – Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I – whom Moscow previously accused of religious division in Ukraine, has now turned his dark gaze on the Baltic states. Considering that Bartholomew I is considered the spiritual leader of the Orthodox world, such a statement by Russia is very biased.
Lithuanian Orthodox Christians severed ties with the Moscow Patriarchate after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, and the church leadership continued to support the Kremlin. Lithuanians joined the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. The Ukrainian Orthodox community took such a step already in 2019.
On the 12th of January, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service and the Foreign Ministry published a joint statement, which reported in an apocalyptic tone about the development of events in Lithuania and other European countries. The intelligence service has expressed the assumption that
Patriarch Bartholomew I is not only a religious leader, but also a metaphysical threat, an incarnate evil
that wants to expel the Russian Orthodox Church from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
Gintaras Sungaila, who was one of the first Lithuanian Orthodox priests to sever ties with the Moscow Patriarchate, criticized the Russian statement on social networks. He said he wondered whether the clergy serving in Lithuania in the Moscow Patriarchate diocese, who have Russian citizenship, would react in any way to their leadership calling the first and highest bishop of the Orthodox Church the Antichrist.
The Lithuanian Orthodox Archdiocese, subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate, said it rejected the insults and stressed that it stood for peace, harmony and social unity as an integral part of Lithuanian society. The archdiocese told LRT that it also valued peace between confessions and opposed religious fighting in any form: “We do not support insulting statements about any Church hierarchs, regardless of whether we agree with their views or actions.” The religious organization stressed that problems between churches should be resolved canonically and through dialogue.
Read the full article in English here: https://www.lrt.lt/en/news-in-english/19/2806076/russia-claims-antichrist-is-targeting-lithuania
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