MOSCOW, October 30. /TASS/. Washing-out of moral and spiritual foundation of human existence will never take anyone into a bright future, the Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Kirill I said on Monday as he spoke at a solemn ceremony of opening the Wall of Grief monument to victims of political repressions.
"There’ll be no bright future if the craving to get there once again begins to wash out morality and the spiritual foundations of human existence," he said.
"The year of centenary of the Russian revolution [the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 - TASS] offers an important occasion for understanding [repressions of the 20th century]," he said. "As we look into this tragedy, we’re asking ourselves how it could happen that children of the same country, neighbors, fellow-workers persecuted and killed one another, how the momentous idea of building a world of freedom and fairness led up to bloodletting and lawlessness?"
"At that time, people dreamed of a world without exploitation, poverty or war, about a world of peace where science would resolve the problems and cure all the illnesses but the dream grew over into a nightmare for many, many people," Kirill I said.
"Where did the error lurk?" he asked. "Was it because people were seeking to build a humane and fair society upon denial of spiritual fundamentals of human life and subjugating morality to ideology, which led to justification of acts of cruelty on the way to building the radiant future."
"Departure from the standards of morality always breeds crisis," the patriarch noted.
He stressed the absence of the right of the living generations to repeat the historic errors.
"Hatred should not guide us in our craving for a fair and affluent living and the tragic pages of our history should not serve as pretexts for fanning animosity or for a buildup of tensions," Patriarch Kirill said. "And condemnation of terror should not turn from an act of morality into a political ritual."
He also said the people who would come to the monument after its unveiling were not to be filled with a sense of frustration.
"Let them think about their posterity and about the country they will leave over to future generations as heritage," Kirill I said.