In the
period of the pandemic, around 100 clergymen and monastics of
the Russian
Orthodox Church (RPTs) have died, Patriarch Kirill reported.
Opening
on Tuesday a remote virtual session of the Holy Synod, he
identified as a lie
the claim of individual representatives of the clergy to the
effect that the
topic of the coronavirus has been dreamed up specifically in
order to divide
people from the church.
"And
when someone says to us, including even some people wearing
sacred vestments,
that no epidemic exists and that it is a fantasy and that all of
this has been
specifically brought into our life in order to restrict
attendance at churches
and in order to limit the movement of people, then our answer to
this falsehood
in the most horrible truth about our deceased fathers and
brethren," the
patriarch said.
Session participants sang "Eternal Memory" to
their brethren and monks "who died from the terrible pestilence."
(tr. by PDS, posted 8 December 2020)
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