Patriarch Daniel of Bulgaria: Terrifying efforts are aimed at promoting godlessness and selfishness

Patriarch Daniel of Bulgaria has issued a serious warning, saying there are «horrifying efforts» to spread godlessness and selfishness in modern society. His Holiness emphasized that these trends undermine Christian love and lead to the destruction of social ties, which he said is a sign of the cooling of love between people.

According to ORTHODOXIANEWSAGENCY.GR, the Patriarch delivered his sermon in Dupnica, where he celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the Church of St. George the Victorious on February 15, 2026, Meat-Leave Week. In his words he emphasized that the love of Christ is a sacrifice that does not allow us to put ourselves above others, but obliges us to treat our neighbor as an equal, seeing in him the image of God and a brother.

Patriarch Daniel also touched on the theme of God’s judgment, recalling the words of St. Paul the Apostle that the law is given for sinners who violate moral norms. He mentioned the Old Testament prophets who predicted the last, «terrible» date in the history of mankind, when the Lord will judge all people.

In his opinion, the proximity of this day can be determined by the extent to which love between people cools. The Patriarch noted that over the past fifty years in the history of mankind there have been forces at work to encourage selfishness and complacency in man, to break the ties in society. This applies first of all to the family, and then to relations between all people.

«We see that all these horrifying efforts made to promote godlessness, to promote the tendency to consumerism, to selfishness, to complacency, are bearing fruit,» the Patriarch emphasized, citing as an example the steadily increasing number of divorces in recent years.

Recall, earlier we reported that the Primate of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church (BOC) Patriarch Daniel spoke out on a number of topical issues concerning the unity of the Orthodox and Catholics and relations with the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Patriarch Daniel paid special attention to the issue of recognizing the Ukrainian schism. The head of the BOC is convinced that the recognition of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church by the Patriarchate of Constantinople is not a reason to break relations with the Phanar.