Military service is “sacred” when it is for “defending the fatherland and its holy places,” a senior cleric has told RIA Novosti
Giving a blessing to a nuclear weapon is possible even though such arms “have tremendous destructive power,” Konstantin Tatarintsev, an archpriest of the Russian Orthodox Church, told RIA Novosti on Saturday.
Sanctifying something that “sows death” might normally be considered “unacceptable,” Tatarintsev, who is the first deputy head of the Synodal Department for the Armed Forces and Law Enforcement Services, said. Yet, nuclear arms are also “the weapons of containment,” he explained. Their purpose is to ensure that no other nations that possess such weapons could use them against Russia, the cleric said, adding that “it is a guarantee of peace.”
“Blessing it not for it to be used for the purpose specified but for it to have a [containment] effect and guarantee peace is entirely acceptable,”…