New Year's sermon: Erdinger pastor compares Putin with Hitler

Created: 01/03/2023, 06:00

By: Hans Moritz

In his New Year's sermon, the city pastor Martin Garmaier addressed admonishing words for peace to the Catholics in Erding.

Our picture was taken at Vespers a year ago in St. John.

© Hans Moritz

In his New Year's sermon, Erding's parish priest, Martin Garmaier, castigates the war in Ukraine and asks himself: Is this already the Third World War?

Erding

– Pastor Martin Garmaier traditionally uses his sermon at New Year's Vespers in the parish church of St. John to settle accounts with politics.

This time he devoted himself to the war in Ukraine - and asked the question "whether we are not in the third world war for a long time".

But he also criticized the AfD for its attitude to Russia's attack on the neighboring country.

By the way: everything from the region is now also available in our regular Erding newsletter.

In his sermon, the text of which is available to our newspaper, Garmaier recalled "that a year ago he thought it couldn't get any worse".

At that time, of course, he still had the corona pandemic in mind, not suspecting that Putin would attack Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

The parish priest also recalled last year's Swedish Games in Erding, in which he himself took part.

“I felt how up-to-date this game was right from the first rehearsal.” Apparently, 400 years later, people would not have learned anything.

"Even today, peoples attack peoples to show their power, to expand their rule and to oppress others," accused Garmaier.

He himself belongs to a generation "that believed that they had learned all the lessons from the two world wars and that they would never, ever go into war again".

You grew up in a free and democratic society that learned to speak your mind, but to put up with other opinions and to respect different opinions.

Now the opposite is happening, according to Garmaier, who quoted Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko as saying: "We're not just defending our country, we're defending democracy."

For the pastor, it is no longer an unrealistic scenario that Germany is in danger of being drawn into the war if Putin's plan to restore the old Soviet Union goes through.

That's why Garmaier drew a comparison between Putin and Adolf Hitler: "Today's Ukraine threatens to become the Poland of yesteryear." Hitler also "lied to the people's faces" about his war intentions and willingness to negotiate.

That is why the Germans must also learn “that we must not and cannot look on helplessly”.

And he quoted Pope Francis, who declared after the outbreak of war: "There is no such thing as a just war." War is always violence and provokes counter-violence.

Ukraine is doing nothing but defending itself.

He admires this as well as the reluctance to counterattack Russia.

Jesus Christ called on people to “meet each other in love”.

After almost a year of attacking Ukraine, Garmaier asks himself, "Are we not already in World War III?" Because the West is - rightly - supplying weapons so that Ukraine can defend itself.

"But the sanctions against Russia are also weapons - weapons, however, that do not cost lives." And anyone who is demanding today that Ukraine should surrender in order to end the war "is misunderstanding what is really at stake," says Garmaier.

He again criticized the AfD, this time at their parliamentary group.

She was the only one who remained seated after the speech by the then ambassador Andriy Melnyk.

"It was a resounding slap in the face for the victims in Ukraine," he said indignantly.

It is evidence of "arrogance to want to politically capitalize on this situation".

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Garmaier also sharply attacked the head of the Russian Orthodox Church in Russia, Cyril I, who defended Putin's activities: "When he stands in front of Putin, he abuses religion.

It brings the faith into disrepute - just like the cases of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church and its cover-up.” Those who act in this way “are not defending the faith, they are abusing and betraying it”.

Today he doesn't dare say it can't get any worse, Garmaier concluded.

"Nevertheless, I hope so.

I am not giving up hope that 2023 will be the year when peace returns.”