Not a Shepherd but a Wolf

Today, as Russian forces continued to kill Ukrainians during their unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill cited Vladimir Putin’s view of a Russian world with ‘one people’ in his sermon at Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral, echoing Putin’s mania that Ukraine belongs to Russia. He said he wanted peace in the “Russian land” — meaning Russia, Ukraine and Belarus — adding “may the Lord protect the peoples that are part of the single space of the Russian Orthodox Church,” warning of “dark and hostile external forces” seeking to divide “our common historical fatherland.” To which the only response can be the medieval formulaic expression “non pastor sed lupus” (not a shepherd but a wolf) wherein the second element of the negation refers to a hireling or Judas. In this instance, clearly Kirill is a hireling of the thug Putin. The formula is based on Christ’s words as narrated in the Gospel of John (10:11–14) and the Sermon on the Mount from the Gospel of Matthew (7:15): “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.”