MOSCOW. May 8 (Interfax) - Dimitry Smirnov, the head of the patriarch's commission on family affairs, has supported the Russian Orthodox Church's practice of sanctification of nuclear weapons.
"We sanctify all things that people use: residences, and even clothes and cars. And nuclear weapons are such a wonderful invention. Russia still exists thanks to these weapons," the priest said in an interview with the newspaper Tokyo Shimbun.
He alleged that the British prime minister had tried to convinced the U.S. president to drop bombs such as the ones that were dropped on Hiroshima and Hagasaki on Russia's 27 largest cities "to destroy it" immediately after WWII. "But because we made a nuclear bomb they can't do anything now," Father Dimitry, who led the synodal department on liaison with the Armed Forces in 2001-2013, said.
The priest said he had felt that he was doing something great when he was sanctifying weapons. "Although we sanctify nuclear weapons, these are weapons of peace: unlike America, we will never use it and we don't want to use it. It's a weapon for intimidating those who want to destroy us, which they are now saying openly, especially in the 21st century," the priest said.
These weapons cost a lot of money and Russians have to be poorer, he said. "But we are living and building a state that we want, not the one they want for us," the priest said.
"We are just thankful to the Lord that he blessed our scientists to create in very difficult conditions these wonderful weapons and therefore we sanctify [missiles] as our defenders," the archpriest said.
In early February, the Russian Orthodox Church has presented for public discussion a draft document proposing that some times of weapons, including nuclear, should not be sanctified. The collection of comments on the document will last until June 1. Practically immediately, a discussion started in the Russian Orthodox Church on this matter. Alexander Shchipkov, deputy chairman of the synodal department on liaison between the church and society and the mass media, said he disagrees with the plans to ban sanctification of specific types of weapons.