Putin’s rally. The quote from the Gospel of John appears as blasphemy, as an exploitation of the word – Ansa
The quote from the Gospel of John that Russian President Valdimir Putin made in his speech yesterday caused confusion and irritation. Hearing the phrase “Greater love has no man than this: laying down his life for his friends” quoted by the man responsible for initiating the Russian military operation on Ukrainian territory is in stark contrast to the behavior of the Russian leader. The comment of the Archbishop of Chieti-Vasto, Bruno Forte, respected and well-known theologian, was very sharp: “It is a real blasphemy.”
And he adds: «It is an exploitation of the gospel aimed at self-justification. It shows all the deep weakness of Putin, who can no longer find arguments to justify this madness of unjustified and totally immoral aggression ». In short, the archbishop continues, “it is certainly sacrilege to quote the Gospel in this way” and this “aggravates the very serious sins it taints with that of real blasphemy: using God to induce evil to justify touches the climax of immorality and even madness ».
The director of La Civiltà Cattolica, Father Antonio Spadaro, commented on President Putin’s quotation from the Bible with a tweet. “Politics must not usurp the language of Jesus to justify hatred. The religious rhetoric of power and violence is blasphemous».
The tweet from Father Antonio Spadaro, director of La Civiltà Cattolica – Ansa
To make even more striking this decision by Putin to utter the phrase taken from the Gospel of John in justification of the act of war carried out, there is the fact that the very words of verse 13 of chapter 15 – which many remembered – are engraved in the text were tomb of the blessed father Pino Puglisi, killed by the mafia for his activities in favor of children and legality.
Words emphasized by Pope Francis during the visit to the martyrs’ tomb in September 2018, “they remind everyone that giving life was the secret of his victory, the secret of a beautiful life”.