The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew performed, today, at the Patriarchal Church, after the Divine Liturgy, during which he was present as a supplicant, Holy Memorial, on the occasion of the 87th anniversary of the "Holodomor", of the resulting food crisis in Ukraine, one of the greatest tragedies in the modern history of the country, during which millions of people died of starvation………
They attended, the Metropolitan Kyrillos of Imbros and Tenedos, the bishop of Halicarnassus Adrianos, archpriestly head of the Phanario District – Keratio Gulf, Archimandrite Charalambos Nitsev, priestly responsible for the Ukrainian Community, the consul general of Ukraine in the City, Oleksandr Gaman, as well as a limited number of consulate officials and members of the Ukrainian community in the City, due to the existing health measures to prevent the spread of the pandemic.
In his speech, His Holiness pointed out that the 20th century can be considered the most tragic period in human history, which was marked by the two world wars, but also from other afflictions, some of which are known, while others are less familiar to us or even ignored. "Among the last, we must mention the Holodomor, the Great Famine in Ukraine, which aimed to exterminate seven to ten million pious Ukrainians by starvation, during the most horrific years of the Soviet regime, from 1932 to 1933, and which we prayerfully commemorate on this day.
The Ukrainian term Holodomor refers to the deliberately induced famine, the diabolical plan of the Stalinist system aimed at a well-planned genocide of a particularly pious people, with the aim of eliminating the Christian faith and the Orthodox Church, while, quaintly, in that period, the Ukrainian people had been blessed with a bountiful harvest of grain and other goods. And while people were dying of hunger, the Soviet regime exported their crops to the world, creating the illusion that Ukraine was a prosperous country".
As the Patriarch added, today we pray for the repose of the souls of those millions of pious Ukrainians who lost their lives during this tragic period.
Subsequently, reported that the Holy and Great Synod of the Orthodox Church, which took place in Crete on 2016, emphasized that "competitions and enmities in the world introduce injustice and inequality in the participation of people and peoples in the goods of divine creation. They deprive millions of people of basic goods and lead to the impoverishment of human existence", that's why "under these tragic circumstances, the enormous responsibility of the Church to fight hunger and every other form of poverty in the world is understood" (The mission of the Orthodox Church in the contemporary world, ΣΤ΄, §§ 2 and 5).
Concluding his speech, the Ecumenical Patriarch pointed out that at the moment when we commemorate the tragedy of the Holodomor with our prayers, our whole world is suffering from the corona virus pandemic, which has so far caused more than a million deaths worldwide. In front of this test that raises many questions for people, His Holiness urged everyone, imitating the example of the multi-athlete Job of the Old Testament, not to despair and to maintain their faith and hope in the merciful God, in whom we must always trust.