RUSSIA
RELIGION NEWS
|
|
|
As much of the world experiences a greater sense of joy and goodwill often associated with the celebration of Christmas, Russian Federation authorities have intensified their campaign against one of the country's smaller religious communities, leaving some Roman Catholic clergy out in the cold.
In the past two years, the Russian government has barred seven non-citizen Roman Catholic clergymen from entering or remaining in Russia and ministering to the needs of Catholics in that predominately Orthodox country. Five of these cases took place this year alone. The explanations of the visa denials or cancellations range from silence to ambiguous security threat allegations. What is clear is the responsibility of the Russian Government, as one of the original signatories to the 1975 Helsinki Accords, to respect the rights of the Catholic community to organize themselves according to their own hierarchical and institutional structure and to select, appoint and replace their clergy.
While the vast majority of Russians are traditionally Orthodox by faith
or culture, the Roman Catholic Church has existed in Russia for more than
200 years. Estimates of the number of Russian Catholics range from the
tens of thousands to more than one million, with over 200 parishes spread
throughout the vast Russian Federation.
Soviet repression produced an acute shortage of native-born ordained
Catholic priests, and with only one seminary currently operating in all
of Russia, the church must look beyond its borders to find trained clergy
to serve the diverse community. As a result, 85 percent of the almost 235
Catholic priests working in Russia today are not native Russians.
Historically, relations between both secular authorities and the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church have been difficult. In an echo of grievances going back for centuries, the Orthodox leadership accused the Vatican of infringing upon the former's "canonical territory" by seeking converts among traditionally Orthodox faithful. The Moscow Patriarchate was especially incensed earlier this year when the Vatican regularized the status of apostolic administrations by establishing four dioceses in the country.
Undoubtedly, there have been dramatic improvements in the area of religious freedom since the demise of the Soviet Union. The Catholic Church in Russia has operated through apostolic administrations, a structural arrangement the Vatican establishes in areas where political circumstances make it difficult for the church to operate normally. The upgrading of these apostolic administrations to dioceses was an assertion by the Vatican that Russia had become a country where Catholic clergy and laity could practice their faith openly and properly.
Interconfessional disputes are not a new phenomenon, but the corresponding
spate of visa denials and other measures suggest that the Russian Government
is not playing a neutral role. In fact, the government seemed to tip its
hand when a high-ranking Foreign Ministry official told Orthodox clergy
that the creation of the four Catholic dioceses was "unacceptable." Concern
with government pressure escalated in early December, when a Moscow newspaper
leaked a government report on "religious extremism" that identifies the
Catholic Church and other "foreign confessions" as potential threats to
Russia's national security. (The co-author of the report, Russia's nationalities
minister, subsequently claimed that the report in question was nothing
more than an analysis of "how confessions develop and expand in Russia.")
While we recognize the rights of all sovereign states to regulate the
entry of foreign visitors into their countries and deny visas to applicants
who pose a credible threat or are otherwise excludable, the handling of
these visa applications smacks of a vendetta aimed primarily at Catholic
clergy.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the right things about protecting religious freedom. His administration, meanwhile, continues its campaign of targeting Catholic clergy for apparent retribution, to the ultimate detriment of Russia's Catholic community.
As members of the United States Helsinki Commission, we urge President Putin to ensure the actions of his government are consistent with his statements, and that the clergy who seek nothing more than serving the needs of Russia's Catholic minority are allowed to continue their vital work.
As Orthodox, Catholics and other Christian communities prepare to celebrate Christmas, our hope and expectation is that goodwill indeed will prevail and that this matter will be resolved and that the clergy will at long last be allowed in.
Rep. Christopher Smith, Republican of New Jersey, is the Co-Chairman of the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. Sen. Gordon Smith, Republican of Oregon, also serves on the Commission. (posted 31 December 2002)
Russia Religion News Current News Items
On Thursday the regular session of the Holy Synod of the Russian church came to an end. For the first time after his illness, His Holiness Patriarch Alexis II of Moscow and all-Rus presided at it.
As MK had predicted, the patriarch maintained full control over this church bureaucratic structure. Rumors to the effect that from now on a certain group within the Holy Synod would concentrate power in its hands turned out to be insubstantial.
Vacant episcopal sees were filled with the patriarch's young nominees. Archimandrite Georgy Danilov, comptroller of the Saint Sergius Holy Trinity lavra, was appointed to Nizhny Novgorod diocese. Biship Feodosy Vasnev, a former vicar of the Nizhny Novgorod diocese, was appointed to Tambov. Because of the illness of Metropolitan Gedeon, Archbishop Isidor of Krasnodar will administer the Stavropol diocese temporarily.
The stormy activity by Metropolitan Kirill Gundiaev that developed on the eve of the synod did not produce any results. He continues to beget bureaucratic structures. Two days before the session he contrived to create in the State Duma a public deputies commission, which, apparently out of ignorance, even the head of the National party, Gennady Raikov, joined. The commission was created within the alternative Interreligious Council of Russia, which the "tobacco metropolitan" conceived for counteracting the Interconfessional Council within the presidential administration. "The legislative process should proceed within a system of coordinates of traditional moral values," the "tobacco metropolitan" declared ambiguously and darkly. (tr. by PDS, posted 31 December 2002)
MASTER EPIFANOV'S COWL SICKNESS
by Sergei Bychkov
Moskovskii komsomolets, 24 December 2002
Struggle for the patriarchal heritage in full swing
As soon as it became known that His Holiness Patriarch Alexis II of Moscow and all-Rus was seriously ill, intrigues began within the church milieu. Dreams about the patriarchal cowl (in short, cowl sickness) seized many. The struggle for the patriarchal throne reached special intensity at Chisty lane where the patriarchal residence is located. The patriarch's vicar, Archbishop Arseny Epifanov of Istria, also is located there; during the patriarch's illness his closest associates began calling him "little patriarch" fondly. At Chisty lane there also is the residence of a permanent member of the Holy Synod, the chancellor of the Moscow patriarchate, Metropolitan Sergius.
On 25 December the regular session of the Holy Synod will be held. Our sources confirm that at it will be decided not only the question of filling two vacant episcopal sees, Tambov and Nizhny Novgorod. They say there already has developed a formidable struggle over the post of chancellor of the Moscow patriarchate. This seems to be true, inasmuch as this post is a key one in the Russian church. Thus six years ago the patriarch appointed Metropolitan Sergius Fomin of Solnechnogorsk to it. Metropolitan Sergius is known as an experienced church figure who is able to deal with both his brethren and representatives of the government. Throughout the time of Russia's democratic existence he has not sullied himself by participating in one of the numerous scandals. But from the point of view of many church figures, he has a serious shortcoming: he is a serious and consistent opponent of church "gays" whose influence today in the Russian church is stronger than ever.
Among the permanent members of the Holy Synod, Metropolitan Sergius is opposed by the "tobacco metropolitan," Kirill Gundiaev, head of the Department of External Church Relations, and his old friend and mentor, Metropolitan Yuvenaly Poiarkov of Krutitsy and Kolomna. Master Poiarkov, who had dreamed passionately about the patriarchal cowl, after his crushing defeat at the patriarchal election in 1990 reconciled himself to the fact that he never would become patriarch. Although he sees his younger friend, Master Gundiaev, as patriarch. Although Gundiaev's chances after the ghastly uproar at the Seventh World Russian Council have become meagre. No representatives of the presidential administration or the government attended. In addition, even the patriarch declined to participate. Gundiaev had placed all his hope on Zhirinovsky. And he did not deliver. From the high tribunal in the church of Christ the Savior he accused Orthodox clergy of cooperation with the KGB. The audience was so upset that whistles and shouts of "Judas" broke out. The chairman of the session lost his head and was not able to control the situation.
So today the "tobacco metropolitan" is forced to deal with the "Orthodox Encyclopedia" church academic center. It was created by Archbishop Arseny, who until recently had opposed both Metropolitan Sergius and the Poiarkov-Gundiaev team. Our sources at OVTsS are convinced that comparatively recently a compromise was struck between "tobacco" and Master Epifanov. They united against Metropolitan Sergius. Gundiaev promised to support Master Arseny in his struggle for the post of chancellor. It was decided to send Metropolitan Sergius either to Tambov or to Nizhny Novgorod. In this power ploy, Epifanov dreams of occupying the post of chancellor. In his opinion, this would be the last rung before making the decisive step to the patriarchal throne.
What do Archbishop Arseny and his company imagine? One must recognize that in recent years he has done a great deal and collected a powerful team. In the fall of this year the tenth anniversary of the existence of the St. Tikhon's Theological Institute was celebrated, which was created for strengthening and improving theological education in Moscow within MGU. It is entirely under the control of Master Epifanov. The rector, Fr Vladimir Vorobiev, who does not even have the kandidat's degree in theology, is entirely beholden to Arseny. St. Tikhon's Institute, the "Orthodox Encyclopedia" church academic center, as well as the Center for the Study of Religions of the Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences (headed by Olga Vasilieva) work closely with Master Epifanov. The formal head of the church academic center is a certain Sergei Kravets. He is a graduate of the philosophy faculty of MGU who was in the circle of Aleksei Losev at the end of the 1980s. He was a strange hybrid of Orthodoxy and Marxism. However, possessing unusual business acumen, at the beginning of the 1990s he headed the publishing house of the Valaam monastery. To the present he is remembered at the ruined monastery with sadness. Subsequently he managed to get extremely close to Archbishop Arseny Epifanov, under whom all 410 Moscow parishes are languishing.
They are united not only by the "Orthodox Encyslopedia," but also by several common interests. Master Epifanov is well known in close circles as a passionate collector. His first passion is collecting bank notes. Informed people affirm that, of course, he is far behind Master Gundiaev, but in the quantity and diversity of his financial dealings he is clearly in second place after "tobacco." Once a month, the rectors of Moscow churches travel to Chisty lane with cellophane packages in their hands. Knowing the archbishop's passion, they bring him bank notes.
The archbishop's second passion is weak and depraved youth. It is said that he has just about the richest collection in the Russian church.
And, finally, Master Epifanov's last passion is collecting compromising information about his brethren and the writing of denunciations. In this he, without doubt, takes first place. Kravets actively helps him in multiplying his collection. It is said that sometimes he even sends the denunciations. "Orthodox Encyclopedia," thanks to his enormous energy, has become a gigantic "laundry." They manage to sell some editions of the encyclopedia five or six times each. In a word, Kravets and Epifanov now are the "encyclopedists."
In order the understand the "encyclopedists" and their experts one should contemplate the personalities of those with whom they consult in preparing new canonizations. For example, Gregory Rasputin. The Petersburg historian Sergei Firsov has displayed remarkable flexibility in describing in full volumes the phenomenon of the tsarist Friend and preparing his canonization. "The problem of Rasputin is the problem of the personification of an ideal, the perception of a 'living symbol.'" It is well known that Rasputin was the closest friend and spiritual advisor of the tsarist family. Empress Alexandra Fedorovna called him none other than Friend in her letters to her husband. With a capital letter. Both Nicholas II and Alexandra Fedorovna now are saints. Experts at the church academic center think that a third is missing: Rasputin.
Our sources at OVTsS recall that Master Epifanov, the recognized leader of Orthodox "gays," has already done a great deal for the upcoming personnel revolution at the next session of the synod. Bishop Nikon Mironov, who was dismissed several years ago because of the scandal in the Ekaterinburg diocese and sent for repentance to the Pskov caves monastery, showed up in Moscow in August and became the rector of the church in Veshniaki. On 25 December he will again be appointed to an episcopal see. One of the most reprehensible "gay" bishops, who also was dismissed, Savva of Krasnogorsk, will receive a new see. He has been head of the Department for Relations with Power Ministries. Thanks to Arseny's intervention he also received a rich parish in Moscow. It would seem all posts have been distributed. We are still not inclined to believe literally all our friends at OVTsS. His Holiness Patriarch Alexis II of Moscow and all-Rus, despite his illness, still is full of strength and he controls the church's ship confidently. An experienced church politician, he is famous for his system of restraint and balance of power. He relies on the healthy forces within the church and understands very well the danger of the powerful "gay lobby."
Metropolitan Mefody of Voronezh and Lipetsk in recent years has substantially reduced the position of the "tobacco metropolitan" in the capital. The Makary Foundation that he heads relies on the healthy forces in historical scholarship and it is not likely to permit the canonization of Grigory Rasputin or Ivan the Terrible. In recent years the patriarch has entrusted him with the resolution of many important church problems. His influence is being completely ignored by the analysts from OVTsS.
The removal of Metropolitan Sergius from Moscow could hardly mitigate Master Epifanov's task or that of his allies, Poiarkov and Gundiaev. More likely, presiding at the next session of the Holy Synod, the patriarch will again send the contending parties to their own corners. He is well informed about the cowl pretensions of Epifanov. It could turn out that like a good homeowner, the patriarch will sweep away the spider webs of the "allies." And even if the "little patriarch" does not recover from "cowl sickness" he will remain as the scandalous leader of the Orthodox "gay" lobby. (tr. by PDS, posted 31 December 2002)
Russia Religion News Current News Items
--Your Eminence. Please evaluate the past year from the point of view of the development of church-state and interreligious relations. Which existing problems in these spheres do you anticipate being resolved in the coming year?
--Last year was marked by the further development of relations between the church, state, and society. One of the most remarkable events was the Seventh World Russian National Council held in December that was devoted to the topic "Faith and Labor. Spiritual and Cultural Traditions and the Economic Future of Russia," at which present conditions and prospects for the development of the domestic economy and its moral foundations were discussed, and the results of the political and economic transformations of recent years were reviewed and an analysis of new possibilities and threats caused by the globalization of the economy was conducted.
The cooperation of the Russian Orthodox church with various branches and levels of government in the Russian federation is continuing. In particular, consultations about cooperation between ecclesiastical and secular educational systems are continuing and about the place of traditional religious culture in secular schools. To these topics, in particular, there was an applied science conference "Relations of the state and religious associations in the sphere of education," organized by the polpreds of the president of the Russian federation in the central, Volga, and southern federal districts, the Ministry of Education of the Russian federation, the Committee for Affairs of Public Associations and Religious Orgniazations of the State Duma, and the Interreligious Council of Russia. I hope that in the coming year the problem of implementing the rights of citizens to receive useful information about their own religious and cultural traditions in secondary schools will come near to resolution.
In addition, mutual understanding with the government in matters of taxation of religious organizations and payment for their energy expenses (electricity and heat) has been found. However, new complications have arisen. Thus, according to the recently adopted Land Code, the church cannot use parcels of land even when church buildings located on these parcels have been turned over to it. The land is supposed to become private property or be leased, but the first alternative is impossible if a church, standing on the land, remains the property of the state as a specially designated monument of architecture, and the second alternative is completely strange since we are talking about property that was illegally confiscated from the church after 1917. We hope that this knot will be "untied" through consultations of representatives of the church and the economic ministries with the help of our parliament.
In the past year there also were events that distressed us. These include the capture of hostages by terrorists in Moscow that caused pain to the whole church. In the area of interconfessional cooperation, 2002 brought complications in relations with the Roman Catholic church. This was connected with the Vatican's decision to elevate the status of its administrative structures on Russian territory to the level of dioceses. Our church was confronted with a fait accompli, while it is our view that such questions require preliminary discussion, especially since in this case we are talking about the creation of full-fledged structures of the Catholic church not in a land that has never known Christ but about a country with a thousand-year-long Christian history. Attempts of Catholic missionaries to preach among Russians, the majority of whom either were baptized in Orthodoxy or belong to Orthodoxy by education and cultural self-identification, seems to us to be proselytism and kidnapping of souls. I would like to hope that the coming year will provide fewer occasions for anxiety.
--If we return to the Seventh World Russian National Council. . . . Tell us, did the forum look into the acute property disparity that has arisen in the past decade, where more than a third of our population languishes in humiliating poverty? What is the position of the Russian Orthodox church on this situation?
--The council's concluding document notes that the cause of the difficult social situation and acute property disparity is not a purely economic factor but is also in the extremely bad moral state of society. This is because it is out of the human heart that criminal amorality in economic and business grows, the lust for gain at any price, corruption, dishonest competition, and everything else from which we have suffered in recent years. I am profoundly convinced that no kind of economic programs, no governmental efforts will bring prosperity to our country if they are not accompanied by a regeneration of the moral foundations of human activity and if our society itself does not establish firm and realistically achievable rules for the conduct of state officials, entrepreneurs, and workers, in a word, for every participant in the economic processes.
--A question from our Volgograd reader Alexander Skachkov is traditional for the newspaper's pre-holiday mail: "How should we explain to our children that on 1 January we observe the beginning of the 2003rd year from the birth of Christ while it is seven days later that we observe the holiday of Christmas?" Tell us, how principled is the Russian Orthodox church's adherence to the old calendar? Is it possible in the future that it would change over to the new style?
--The current numbering system relates to the year of the birth of Christ and not to the event of the nativity itself. For ecclesiastical consciousness the calendar question is not a problem, and the demand for calendar reform at the present time arises, as a rule, from people who are far away from the church who are inclined to subject any traditions to review. Incidentally, with regard to the church, their demands are not limited to calendar reform. The question of the Russian Orthodox church's changing over to the new style was already discussed last century. After the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in the soviet state in 1918, His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon issued a decree about the church's adoption of a revised Julian calendar. In this, the fixed feasts would be observed according to the Gregorian calendar while the method for establishing the day of Pascha would remain as it had been previously. However this reform was not accepted by church people and as a result all parishes of the Russian Orthodox church returned to the Julian calendar. And if today the majority of Orthodox people do not accept the idea of such a reform, then it is necessary to reject it. The unity of the church is more precious than the resolution of calendar problems and thus I do not see any possibility of going over to the new style in the near future, and I do not even think it would be useful. The church's primary concern is the strengthening of the foundations of the Orthodox faith in the life of people so that they seek for the motivation of their acts in personal, family, public, and political life nowhere else than in Christianity.
--For the devout Orthodox family, New Year's is not a temptation. But what about the families where there are people who are fasting and others who are not observing the Christmas fast? In your view, is it permissible for a believing person to have a glass of champagne when the Kremlin bell tolls?
--New Year's is a family holiday. Thus the Christian should determine his conduct on that day by recalling the words of the apostle Paul: "Now abide these three, faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of this is love" (I Cor 13.13). At the same time the apostle warns us: "Only do not let your freedom be the occasion for satisfying the flesh" (Gal 5.13). Of course, it is possible to share this holiday with the family since in the churches on 31 December-1 January there are New Year's prayer services.
--With what hopes are you filled, esteemed Master, for the upcoming year? What would you wish for readers of "Trud"?
--I would like to wish readers of your esteemed newspaper the joy of meeting the New Year and the holiday of the birth of Christ. I hope that this year will be for all of us a time of spiritual growth and that it will bring peace and prosperity to our fatherland and good fortune and joy to our homes. (tr. by PDS, posted 30 December 2002)
Russia Religion News Current News Items
A thirty-year-old satanist who was arrested recently for trying to commit a cruel deed upon a priest in the church of saints Zosima and Savvaty of Solovki, on Baikal street, belonged to the extremist "Aum Shinrikyo" sect. The rector was saved from death only because the pistol that the woman used turned out to be a starter's gun.
As MK reported earlier, the mother of two children, a resident of the village of Mikhailovka of Volgograd province, Olga Shpak, has had trouble with the law and society for some time. She tried several times to set fire to the local police station and in 1994 she slashed her own husband with an axe, in a drunken argument. She said that she did this out of zeal. According to another account, Olga committed the fierce attack on her spouse because he did not share her views and faith. Shpak was a member of the local group of the "Aum Shinrikyo" sect and besides this was involved in black magic and other occultism.
After spending six years in jail and being released on an amnesty, she returned to her native Mikhailovka. But the sect there had scattered long ago. She could not find adepts of satansim in the region. Nevertheless she continued to deal in occultism independently. At the beginning of December, she told investigators, she received a revelation: a responsible mission had been given to her--to kill an Orthodox priest. She was not able to select a victim in Mikhailovka and decided to commit her crime in Moscow.
She came to Moscow to visit her uncle. In his apartment Shpak found a weapon, a revolver. She did not guess that it could not shoot real bullets. She selected the church of saints Zosima and Savvaty at random. Here she managed to shoot at the priest three times before she was captured. Besides a tattoo on her right hand with the demonic number "666," on her chest she has a depiction of a flying mouse inside a telescope. The murderess refused to explain the symbolic significance of the mouse. She now has been charged with attempted murder. (tr. by PDS, posted 30 December 2002)
Russia Religion News Current News Items