Patriarch Kirill’s Sermon: The Rich Must Share or Travel the Road to Hell

Sept. 4, 2022 (EIRNS)—Russia’s Patriarch Kirill, at Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior, delivered a timely sermon today on theologically appropriate economics. He explained that wealth is only justified when the person who owns it “is ready to give a significant part of his funds to those who are in need, who suffer.” With such a person, “God will be helping him to increase his material possessions,” while the people won’t envy those riches and won’t see their owner as “an enemy.... May God grant that our rich people [in Russia], who were born in an Orthodox country and many of whom have links with the Church, always understand this.”

However, lacking such an understanding, Kirill made clear, “is the way to Hell and there’s nothing else to say here.” He proceeded to cite Jesus’ words that “it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven,” and added: “If a rich person is unable to see the suffering of a fellow human being and doesn’t help, it’s clearly a path away from God, away from Christ and His kingdom. The more money one has, the more responsibility rests on his shoulders for his Earthly existence.”

Before one dismisses Patriarch as a clever Russian communist, consider the 1783 remark of American Founding Father Benjamin Franklin:

“All the Property that is necessary to a Man, for the Conservation of the Individual and the Propagation of the Species, is his natural Right, which none can justly deprive him of: But all Property superfluous to such purposes is the Property of the Publick, who, by their Laws, have created it, and who may therefore by other Laws dispose of it, whenever the Welfare of the Publick shall demand such Disposition. He that does not like civil Society on these Terms, let him retire and live among Savages. He can have no right to the benefits of Society, who will not pay his Club towards the Support of it.”