According to the clergyman, such punishment should be applied to pedophiles, terrorists and corrupt officials. At the same time, Shevchenko equated corruption with betrayal of the Motherland.

A video about Shevchenko's speech on this issue was published by YouTube on July 26.

The representative of the Russian Orthodox Church believes that the death penalty does not contradict the biblical commandments. In the video Shevchenko says that the Old Testament prescribes the death penalty, and the New Testament does not cancel it.

"The church is neither for nor against," said the priest, stressing that this issue remains in the competence of the state authorities. The church leaves only the right to petition for repentant prisoners. Jesus Christ, according to Shevchenko, also did not advocate the abolition of the death penalty, although he pleaded for the convicted.

"Moreover, God Himself allowed the death penalty, and this we see from the chain of biblical events called" The Egyptian Executions ". But, on the other hand, we know about the repentance of the Ninevites, residents of the capital of the Assyrian state of Nineveh, who repented, and the Lord changed the penalty to mercy, "said Father Svyatoslav.

He also did not find calls for a ban on capital punishment for criminals and in the lives of saints. Moreover, according to Shevchenko, in some cases Christians themselves appealed to the authorities with a request to tighten order in the society.

"To date, several dozen countries still have the death penalty:

the United States, Belarus, a number of Middle Eastern and Asian countries. Moreover, in 13 of them the death penalty is imposed for economic crimes, including corruption. Why should not Russia get out of the moratorium on the death penalty? For example, as in China: the governor, the mayor or the public prosecutor for three million yuan was shot to death "- while Father Svyatoslav noted that the relatives of the corrupt official after the shooting account for the use of a bullet.