Patriarch speaks about need for measures against abortion, drug addiction and gambling

The special Christmas liturgy was held at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Tbilisi.

Delivering the Christmas Epistle, Georgian Patriarch Ilia II has emphasized a number of issues, including the need for measures against abortion, drug addiction and gambling.

“Every epoch has its own Herod [King Herod I of Judaea. In the Christian tradition, Herod is the villain in the Christmas story. The Gospel of Matthew recounts how the king orders the death of all baby boys following the birth of Jesus, an event called the Massacre of the Innocents], who does not avert vicious, filthy actions, casting-off innocent children in order to enslave people and make them to forget God,” the Patriarch’s Christmas Epistle reads.

The Patriarch said that the actions of Herod are detected in different ways in the modern time.

“The blood of aborted babies call upon the heaven, drugs, gambling games, or immoral lifestyles kills thousands of young people, and these crimes need to be responded from us…

We must get the current reality as a great test of our faith and we must avoid evil, doing same for the evil committed against us; Let’s try not to lose the hope of the future, love of our neighbors and the desire to support them, let’s do not lose the dignity and respond to the challenges with kindness,” the Epistle reads.