His Holiness Abune Mathias
Patriarch-Catholicos of Ethiopia
Your Holiness,
With grief and deep pain I have received the news about the brutal murder of thirty Christians of your flock in Libya.
Again and again active attempts are made to intimidate the Christian world, to sow enmity between Christians and Muslims, to challenge the fundamental norms of morality. Those who commit such monstrous crimes use Islamic slogans as a cover and dare use religious motives to justify their inhuman deeds.
It is my conviction that today it is extremely important that the whole world community, especially leaders of Christian confessions, manage to rally in struggle against religious extremism and terrorism. The salvific feat of the risen Lord Jesus Christ Who trampled down death by death and destroyed Hades gives us firm hope and strong faith in the resistless and inevitable victory over evil.
I would like to express my profound and sincere condolences to Your Holiness and the relatives and loved ones of the slain Christians. In this hour of grief, I wish courage, spiritual strength and fortitude to the faithful of your Church and all the Ethiopian people.
With love in Crucified and Risen Christ,
+ KIRILL
Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia
