Patriarch Kirill compares situation with religion in Europe with period of atheism in USSR

Moscow, October 13, Interfax – Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia said the situation with religion in some countries, including Europe, reminds him of the times of militant atheism in the Soviet Union.

"I am deeply convinced that modern civilization is making the same mistake as the Soviet Union. It doesn't matter very much why you are removing faith from pubic life. The final result, as engineers say, is the same: you get dismantling of religious consciousness," the Patriarch said while meeting with German President Christian Wulff in Moscow on Wednesday.

The Russian Church has lived for decades in a country where the official ideology was the ideology of atheism, "where churches were destroyed, crosses were removed from churches to be used for some secular purposes, where religious life was squeezed out of public life and could only be manifested in private, intimate life."

The people who made such policies "have very good intentions and acted on the basis of their convictions, and their convictions were very humanistic: to build a just prospering society, good future, where people would be happy and would have everything they wanted to have, but religion, those crosses on churches were getting in the way," the Patriarch said.


"It scares me that something illogical is now taking place in some countries, including in Western Europe. No one is saying that the Christian presence should be removed for the sake of a good future, but they are using a different philosophy: they want to remove crosses from schools and religion from public life in the name of human rights," Patriarch Kirill said.

He thanked Germany for "defending the legality of the presence of traditional Christian values in societal life on many issues."

Patriarch Kirill said philosophies come and go and Christian faith has existed for 2,000 years and it "formed the spiritual and cultural foundation of Europe."


"For this reason, we believe we now need to speak loudly about it, because we have a right to do that, we have lived for many years in a country that drove God from public life and we know the consequences of that," the Patriarch said.

Patriarch Kirill said the current "phenomenal revival of religious life in Russia and the other former Soviet republics is largely a reaction to that past."


http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=7798

French president calls for closer cooperation between Europe and Russia

ST. PETERSBURG, June 19 (Itar-Tass) -- Europe and Russia should cooperate closely in the spirit of trust, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Saturday closing the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

The Cold War is over, the Berlin wall is down, Russia is a great power and we shall be more close, said Sarkozy who headed a big delegation of French businessmen. “It is a strategic choice,” he stressed.

“I believe in Medvedev’s word, I highly appreciate our work with him, when we managed to find a solution despite our differences,” the French president said and noted the two country’s stands on key issues of the international agenda were very close or even coincided, including on the Iran nuclear program.

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=15243884&PageNum=0



Russia should become dream-country for anyone in the world – Medvedev


Russia should become a dream country for anyone in the world who seeks success. This is the objective that President Dmitry Medvedev set when speaking during the opening of the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg. The objective is perfectly real, he said, adding that one should only use correctly the resources available.

The current, 14th, economic forum boasts a record great number of attendees ever since the event was held first. Over 2,000 conferees from 69 countries have come to attend the forum in Russia’s Northern Capital.

Today, on the last day of the forum, Dmitry Medvedev is due to hold talks with his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy. The two leaders will “synchronize watches” as regards options to consolidate European security.

Medvedev will then address the concluding full-scale meeting of the forum on “Re-thinking global development”, specifically on world economic growth in the post-crisis period.

http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/06/19/10160797.html



Vatican ambassador to Russia urges Catholic priests to periodically attend Orthodox divine services


Moscow, June 18, Interfax – The Holy See ambassador to the Russian Federation Archbishop Antonio Mennini suggested that Catholic priests every now and then attend divine services in Russian Orthodox churches.

The nuncio said it addressing participants in a regular session of Russia's Conference of Catholic Bishops in Sochi, its general secretary Rev. Igor Kovalevsky told Interfax-Religion on Friday.

According to Fr. Igor, Archbishop Mennini pointed out that Orthodox-Catholic relations had significantly improved and urged to develop "fraternal relations between Catholic and Orthodox clerics."

The nuncio also stated that state-church relations improved after establishing diplomatic relations at the ambassadorial level between Russia and Vatican.

The Conference of Catholic Bishops made a statement regarding abolishing religious symbols in public schools of Europe and pointed out that the cross is one of most important elements of European identity. The bishops mentioned Russia's tragic experience when struggle against religious symbols resulted in prosecutions of believers and moral decay of the society.

http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=7377



Metropolitan Hilarion regrets the Church lacks stable source of income


Moscow, June 17, Interfax – Head of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk believes the question of stable income is actual for the Church.

"The Church should have its own stable source of income and this income can't be based only on parishioners' donations. The Church can't exist only on money received from selling candles, icons or church literature," the Metropolitan said on air the Church and World program on the Rossiya 24 TV.

According to him, hierarchs spend major part of their time searching for sponsors and "surely, this situation is not normal." Metropolitan Hilarion noted that the Church pays for electricity, restoration and "these expenses are huge, multimillion."

He believes the Church lacks permanent income as its property was "nationalized and stolen."

http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=7370




Clergymen of the South American Diocese Who Followed Former Bishop Agathangel Into Schism Are Suspended


According to an ukase issued by His Grace Bishop John of Caracas and South America, of May 31, 2010, published on the official website of the South American Diocese, “clergymen of the South American Diocese who did not accept the decision of the Council of the Russian Church Abroad on the reestablishment of Eucharistic communion with the Church in the Fatherland, leaving their lawful hierarchy and creating a schism together with former Bishop Agathangel (Pashkovsky): Protopriest Vladimir Shlenev, Protopriest Valentin Iwasjewicz, Protopriest George Petrenko (who calls himself “Bishop Gregory”), Protopriest Konstantin Busygin, Priest Alejandro Iwasjewicz, Protopriest Vladimir Petrenko, Priest Michael Berduk, Deacon Igor Baratov, Deacon Caesar Mortari and Deacon Eugene Braga—are suspended from performing divine services in accordance with the following Holy Canons: Apostolic 31; I Ecumenical Council 16; Carthaginian 10, 11; Double Council 13, 14 and Laodicean 57.”

The matter of Priest Alejandro Iwascewicz, who is under criminal indictment in Uruguay, is also being considered.

The Diocese recalls that “even without suspension, any act of divine service, if performed outside of the bosom of the Holy Church, is not a salvific Mystery, but only a blasphemous private action by a person in clerical rank.”

http://www.russianorthodoxchurch.ws/synod/eng2010/6enbuenosairesclerics.html

Vandals hit Anchorage Cathedral

ANCHORAGE, AK [OCA} -- Vandals hit Saint Innocent Cathedral here on Wednesday, June 9, 2010, pillaging the altar’s liturgical appointments and burning pages of the Gospel Book. Several other items were stolen.

According to media reports, the suspects entered through windows in the back of the cathedral some time between midnight and 11:00 a.m. Wednesday.

"The Gospel that was thrown and ripped that we use during the Gospel reading and the hand cross that we use was totally destroyed, cannot be used again," Father Peter Chris told KTUU Channel 2 News, adding that while the break-in was not the first at the cathedral, it was the worst.

His Grace, Bishop Benjamin of San Francisco and the West, Locum Tenens of the Diocese of Alaska, addressed the issue in a letter to the clergy and faithful of the diocese, the text of which reads as follows.

"It is with great sadness that I have to report the Cathedral of Saint Innocent in Anchorage was broken into the night before last and the altar pillaged and violated. Yesterday, I received a tearful call from Father Peter Chris who came to the Cathedral to find the altar in shambles. Many of the items in the altar were senselessly and shamefully damaged and defaced for no apparent reason. Several items were stolen. The reserved sacrament is intact, as are the relics and the antimensions. But, the Gospel Book on the main altar had pages torn out of it and showed signs that the vandals tried to burn them. The police have investigated and are on top of things.

"We are grateful to God that more damage was not done and that no one was hurt. Please pray for the souls of the people who committed this crime against God and His Church. The condition of the Cathedral, in a very sad way, reflects the spiritual destruction and damage that exists in a human soul that would do such a thing. How truly sad it is that a human being, brought into being by God for no other reason than to share His incomprehensible, divine love, a human being created in His image could mar and deface that image in such a terrible way.

"What is lost or damaged in the Cathedral are only material things. The damage we human beings do to our own souls is much more serious. This should also be a reminder to us all that in this evil age, we need to be methodical about securing our churches from such desecration by mindless, fallen men."

http://www.oca.org/news/2189

Finland dismisses Rimma Salonen's appeal against the decision to prohibit her son from speaking Russian, praying and wearing a cross

Moscow, May 18, Interfax - Finnish social workers warned Rimma Salonen at her last meeting with her son that she was not entitled to pray together with Anton, cross herself or talk to him about religion.

"The boy may meet his mother only twice a month for two hours in a child care institution. They are both put under surveillance. They used to pray before meals. But now they are not allowed to do that, the boy's cross given as a present by his mother was taken away from him, and she is not allowed to give him a new one," Johan Beckman, a representative of Rimma Salonen, told Interfax.

Moreover, municipal authorities of Kokemaki have confirmed the decision that the boy should not speak Russian.

In 2008, after divorcing Finn Paavo Salonen, Russian subject Rimma Salonen took their 5-year old son Anton to the Nizhny Novgorod Region. Several people, including the boy's father, kidnapped the child from Rimma on April 12, 2009. With the help of a Finnish general consulate official in Petersburg, the child was driven from Russia in a boot of the diplomatic car.

http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=7263