Message of His Eminence Metropolitan Aetolia and Acarnania and Damascenes for Sunday October 18, 2026translated

My beloved Fathers and Brothers,

My beloved children in the Lord,

It was about eighty years ago, in 1944, shortly before the end of the Second World War, when a famous French philosopher wrote a sentence that shook European society: "Hell is other people".

We don't need to know philosophy to understand what the philosopher means by this phrase. Man often finds it difficult to live with others. He is hurt by their behavior, he is afraid of their judgment, he suffers from rejection and he feels that life with them is constantly the target of their criticism.

Then, the thought may arise in him: "I'd rather be alone. I don't need anyone."

However, loneliness is not the solution. Man cannot live without communication. He needs the other. He has a need to love and be loved, to offer and receive, to share joy and pain with his neighbor.

And there is something else that makes people's relationships difficult today: suspicion. Many times we see the other person and, before we even know him, we suspect his intentions. We think something wants to…