Announcement on the killings in El Paso and Dayton, USA : Ecumenical Patriarch: Show spiritual resistance to violence and hatred
ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH:
SHOW SPIRITUAL RESISTANCE TO VIOLENCE AND HEATRED
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew expresses his disgust and outrage at the murderous attack in El Paso, Texas, USA, in which twenty of our fellow citizens were killed and twenty-six others were injured, as well as the bloodshed in Dayton, Ohio, in which several of our fellow citizens were reportedly killed and injured.
His All-Holiness strongly condemns every act of hatred – racial,
religious or social, and also any form of violence and fundamentalism,
wherever they come from. Hate and violence, he points out, cause a great
deal of pain and fear, and are sometimes the cause of further acts of
violence in the form of revenge. In the face of this soaring, dangerous
and bloody phenomenon, he notes, every good-natured person must display
strong spiritual resistance. He calls on everyone to work, through
dialogue and in a spirit of mutual respect, to preserve the good of
peaceful coexistence and cooperation, against practices that reinforce
fear and the division of society.
The Holy Great Church of
Christ, in fidelity to the teaching of our Lord, is making tireless
efforts in this direction. She prays for the repose of the souls of the
victims, expressing her heartfelt condolences to their families, and
prays for courage and speedy recovery to the injured. At the same time,
our Church expresses sympathy and support to the local community of El
Paso as well as that of Dayton, and to the government and the people of
the United States.
The Ecumenical Patriarch has asked His
Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America to convey the above message
of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to local and national authorities and to
the people of the United States as a whole.