Turkey Rules One of The Oldest Monasteries in the East

(Ankara) The appellate court in Ankara decided at the last moment against the monastery, which now loses up to 28 acres of its grounds, as the Turkish government and the economic existence of the monastery is withdrawn. Thus, at least at the national level Mor Gabriel is decided to the detriment of the ongoing dispute since 2008. Like so many anti-minority judgments which are applied can only be continued or appealed at EU level or before the European Court of Human Rights.

The legal land dispute has demoralized the tiny Syrian-Orthodox Community within and outside of Turkey since 2008, which touches upon Mor Gabriel, touches the last important spiritual center of this faith communion in the northern Mesopotamian area of origin of Tur Abdin.  Plaintiffs against More Gabriel were also the surrounding Kurdish inhabitants of three villages, who live with about 2,000 Aramaic Christians, and makes their existence even more difficult amidst the overwhelming Muslim majority in the Kurdish region.

The most recent and initial final judgment is also a direct affront to all those who had campaigned in Turkey and abroad to preserve the property rights of Mor Gabriel: In Turkey, in June 2012 some 300 intellectuals, expressed public solidarity with Mor Gabriel. Around the same time, the German Bundestag had adopted at the request of the ruling factions of the CDU / CSU and FDP, a decision to protect the monastery.

Text: AGA / Linus Schneider
Picture: AGA

Link to original...katholisches.

Cardinal Awaits Pan Orthodox Council

Cardinal waiting for Pan-Orthodox Council before ecumenical 

Kardinal Koch: Ökumenisches Warten auf ein gesamtorthodoxes Konzil – kipa/apic

A stumbling block in relations between the Catholic and the Orthodox Churches continues to be the Pope's primacy, Cardinal Kurt Koch said in an interview with the press agency Kipa in Einsiedeln in Switzerland. It is now necessary to wait for the Council before there are any further decisive ecumenical steps. - Cardinal Kurt Koch was staying on 20 May in Einsiedeln on the occasion of an Aid to the Church in Need pilgrimage .

In 2007 in Ravenna (in Italy), there was a meeting of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church.  On that occasion an agreement on the question of the primacy of the Bishop of Rome was near, Koch said.

For the first time separated churches stated in a common expert document that, according to the tradition of the church that at a universal level there was pre-eminence of a "Primus" as had the Bishop of Rome during the first millennium. - The document was entitled "Ecclesiological and canonical consequences of thesacramental nature of the Church; conciliarity and authority in the Church ."

Translation:  Chris Gillibrand @ Cathcon

Greek Orthodox Church Tells Patriarch: "Mind your own business"

Orthodox dignitaries published a letter to the Patriarch of Constantinople

Constantinople (kathnews/RV)  The Orthodox Bishops of the land have decided against the "intermixing of the internal affairs" by the Ecumenical Patriarch.  At the meeting of the current Synod of Bishops in the last week, Orthodox dignitaries have directed a letter to the Ecumenical Patriarchate.  Therein they criticized an address by Bartholomaios I in March.  The Patriarch had asked the Greek Bishops to agree in one voice against the Greek Metropolitan.

He had engaged in a "tirade of hatred against the Pope, the Protestants and Ecumenicists".  Actually, the comment was "exaggerated" according to the Greek Bishops, on the contrary,  no Orthodox Bishop has the right to criticize another.  This contradicts the so-called territorial principle, coming from the notes of the current Synod.

Kath.news....

Orthodox Priests Battle with Gomorrists in Georgia

Orthodox Priests BattleEvil
on May 17, 2012. (VANO SHLAMOV/AFP/Getty Images)

Edit: This just came in from a friendly reader.  Here's an excerpt from a really poor article which tries to make the decent Christians of these Slavic countries look like monsters.  These Orthodox in the country of Georgia aren't weighted down by the moral languor of the West.  Homosexual acts were legalized in 2,000.  Unlike Putin's Moscow, Georgia unfortunately allows such disgraceful displays to take place.

LONDON, UK – Religious protesters have halted a small gay rights march in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, leading to a fistfight and participants’ placards being smashed.
A few dozen marchers took part Thursday in the deeply religious, ex-Soviet nation’s first such demonstration, waving rainbow flags to mark the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia.
They had gathered outside the Tbilisi state concert hall and were preparing to march towards parliament when activists led by Orthodox Christian priests confronted them and a scuffle broke out, according to the Associated Press.

Link to global post...

Arrest of Archimandrite Ephrem is a hostile attack against Athonite monks and Orthodoxy

Edit: for years there are forces in Greece that would like to minimize and diminish the influence of the Greek Orthodox Church. One of the most important targets to attack is Mount Athos, for monasticism has always been the living heart of Christian culture and mysticism.

Last week the court ruled to arrest Archimandrite Ephrem, abbot of the Vatopedi Monastery on Mt. Athos, in connection with a large-scale investigation into real estate deals between the Monastery and the Greek State initiated in 2008. On weekend the police came to the Vatopedi Monastery to arrest Fr. Ephrem. After medical doctors had examined the abbot, it was decided to leave him in the Monastery for health reasons. It was reported on Tuesday, however, that Fr Ephrem was arrested and taken away from Mr. Athos.

Metropolitan Hilarion, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate's Department for External Church Relations, gave his appraisal of the actions of the Greek authorities in his short interview to Interfax-Religion.

- Your Eminence, the Greek authorities arrested Archimandrite Ephrem, abbot of the Vatopedi Monastery on Mount Athos, who has recently accompanied the Belt of the Mother of God in Russia. Please, give your comments.

- We do not and can not know all about the charges in abuses in real estate transactions made by the Vatopedi Monastery in the past filed against Fr Ephrem and other persons. Whether these charges are just, the Greek court will decide; we cannot interfere. However, it is quite obvious that detention under remand of Archimandrite Ephrem, who does not pose any danger, without considering the case on its merits and before a court ruling, is an extraordinary action that surprises us deeply. The authorities arrested nobody but the elderly and ailing priest. This ruling arouses grave concern of believers of the Russian Orthodox Church, puts her hierarchs on guard, and makes us ponder over its true reasons.
Read further at interfax...

Romanian Patriarchate Meets with Nuncio

A Group Of Ambassadors At The Romanian Patriarchate

The Press Office of the Romanian Patriarchate, inform us:

On 13 February 2012, a working session took place at the Patriarchal Palace, between the Preparatory Commission of the Romanian Orthodox Church for dialogue with the Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek-Catholic, made up of His Eminence Laurentiu, Metropolitan of Transylvania, His Eminence Andrei, Metropolitan of Cluj, Alba, Crisana and Maramures, His Grace Ciprian Campineanul, Assistant Bishop to the Patriarch, and a group of ambassadors accredited in Bucharest made up of Their Excellencies Mark Gitenstein, Ambassador of the United States, Mario Cospito, Ambassador of Italy, Estanislao de Grandes Pascual, Ambassador of Sapin, Michael Schwarzinger, Ambassador of Austria,Philipp Brauline, Ambassador of Canada and Jose Antonio Arrospide del Busto, Ambassador of the Republic of Peru. Monseigneur Baudouin Muankembe, representative of the Apostolic Nuncio in Romania was also present at the meeting.

During the meeting, after the discussions on various aspects of the relations between the Romanian Orthodox Church and the Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek-Catholic, the participants reached the conclusion that the resumption of the dialogue as soon as possible remains the best way of solving the disagreements between the two Romanian Churches.

To end with, the participants presented the conclusions of the meeting to His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel, who underlined the fact that the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church has had the initiative to resume the dialogue with the Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek-Catholic, ever since July 2010. At the same time, the Patriarch of Romania reiterated the proposal that the agenda of the Joint Commission for Dialogue should include topical themes of the pastoral-social activity of the two Churches (phenomenon of immigration, activity with the youth, looking after the sick etc.).

Link to original...

Putin Promises to Protect Persecuted Christians Abroad

Edit: like the Czars of old, Putin promises to defend Christendom from its oppressors.

Presidential Candidate promises action for the oppressed abroad -- Putin responds to statements by the Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Illarion, that every five minutes a Christian must die for his faith.

Moscow(kath.net/idea) The Russian Premier Minister and Presidential candidate, Vladimir Putin wants to protect persecuted Christians abroad. He made this promise on February 8th in Moscow at a meeting of members of various confessions. Putin responded to a statement by Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Illarion, that every five minutes a Christian must die for his faith. Especially noteworthy are the persecutions, so says the Director of the Foreign Office of the Moscow Patriarchate, in lands like Iraq, Egypt, Pakistan and India. [Not Syria?] For Putin it is important that the various confessions continue to cooperate internationally, according to the Russian news agency "RIA Novosti". Link to kath.net...

Romanian Orthodox Church in Trouble With EU for Union Busting

Edit: just another bit of caesaropapism without the Caesar. What happens when priests want to go on strike?


Orthodox Archdiocese of Oltenia (Lesser Wallachia) had opposed the plans for the formation of a union, the European Court of Human Rights has made a decision

Strasbourg (kath.net / CBA), the European Court of Human Rights declared the founding of an Orthodox priest in Romania for trade union legal.   Such a ban violates the right to freedom of association, the judges ruled on Tuesday in Strasbourg. In 2008, 35 members of clergy and lay employees of the Romanian Orthodox Church organized to establish a union. The Archdiocese of Oltenia (Lesser Wallachia) opposed the plans.  State agencies and courts initially recognized the union. On appeal, however, the foundation was prohibited by the court. The Romanian judges ruled the statutes of the Orthodox Church foresaw no unions. The Human Rights Court has now decided that priests and laity who are employed by the Orthodox Church in Romania since their salaries were mainly from the state,  they are subject to social insurance. The contracts could not therefore be classified as if they were entirely outside the civil law. This applies especially for the laity. Restrictions on trade union rights should exist only in very exceptional cases. The ban was disproportionate. The plaintiffs were awarded € 10,000 compensation. (C) 2012 Catholic News Agency KNA Inc. All rights reserved.

Russia Names New Submarine After Saint

Edit: Russia continues to defy expectations. Most westerners have a serious problem with associating religion with militarism, this isn't the case with the virile Russian state. Here's a brief history of St. Alexander Nevsky for whom this amazing weapon is named.

He was born on May 30, 1219 at Pereaslavl, a fief of his father, Prince Yaroslav, who was of the house of the Grand Prince of Suzdal. He spent the first years of his life in this small city which stood on the shores of a lake among the trees and meadows and was defended by a simple wooden palisade. His parents, real country nobility, were very devout, they contributed to the adornment of the cathedral and of a monastery established nearby on a hill and they were present at all the divine services celebrated in a small chapel which was connected with their residence by a wooden arcade.

Here's the article from Ministry Values:

By Stephen K. Ryan

A new  Russian nuclear submarine has been named after Saint Aleksandr Nevsky of Russia, and will be fitted with its own Orthodox chapel after the vessel finishes its sea trials. It has become the second nuke-carrying sub equipped with a sanctuary in addition to ballistic missiles. 

Veneration of Saint Alexander Nevsky as a saint began soon after his death. The remains of the prince were uncovered in response to a vision, before the Battle of Kulikovo in the year 1380, and found to be incorrupt. He was glorified (canonized) by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1547. His principal feast day is 23 November. By order of Peter the Great, Nevsky’s relics were transported to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg where they remain to this day

The military chapel on the submarine will allow sailors to attend religious services right on board during the sub’s long missions. 

Turkey: Reopening of Orthodox Seminary at Constantinople Soon

Edit: The Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reports, on the other hand, that it won't because the Patriarchate refuses to compromise on "various formulas in the Constitution".  

 Metropolitan Lambrinidnidis has been named the new Abbot of the Trinity Monastery on Princes' Island.

Constantinople (kath.net/KAP) In Constantinople the expectations are increasing that the Orthodox Seminary and the Theological University on the Princes' Island of Chalki will be opened soon.  This is the sense in with which the naming of the Metropolitan of Bursa, Elpidophoros Lambrinidis, as new Abbot of Trinity Monastery, is being interpreted.  +Lambridnidis will take over the direction of the Seminary and the University.

Patriarch Bartholomaios I  held an Agape after a feastday Liturgy at Holy Mary's in Souda where he had a short meeting with Minister President Recep T. Erdogan on August 31st.  It was there that the government chief announced the return of the real-estate taken away in 1936 related to Christian "pious Establishments".

At the Agape the Patriarch said, that he is to have expressed his "contentment, his happiness and his gratitude", but also, that the non-Muslim minorities "are in expectation of important steps".  Erdogan is said to have answered:  "This is only the beginning".

If Turkey is a just state, it must proceed in the realm of justice and "not illegality",  insisted the Ecumenical Patriarch and made an indirect comment, that isn't just to "please" the non-Muslim minorities, but rather it is an amends for a serious injustice.

Erdogan's new disposition in respect to Chalki was already in August of the year before expressed by the past government chief Bülent Arinc in Constantinople at a dinner with the Ecumenical Patriarch and the members of the Christian "pious Establishments".  Arinc stressed many times that no one in Turkey should ever feel themselves to be a second class citizen. "For me personally and so long as I am the chosen representative of the government, that  there will be education available at the the reopened Seminary," said Arinc at that time.  Actually the Constitutional Courts have narrowly closed the legal conditions for the possible opening.  He hopes still that the reopening of the Seminary and the University might be realized in the conditions of the existing laws "without substantial exceptions" ,  says the serving government chief.

The Seminary on the Island of Heybeliada/Chalki is in the Marmara Sea near Constantinople, and has been closed since 1971.  Because the Ecumenical Patriarchate can't educated its own clergy any more, the personnel situation which has lasted for over 1,700 years is becoming more and more precarious.

Link to kath.net...

SSPX Locked Out in Amiens: Orthodox Embraced

Why Doesn't the Society Get Special Treatment?

Orthodox Divine Liturgy in Amiens Cathedral

He is a former seminarian and a fallen Catholic.  But he will be allowed to celebrate in the Bishop's Church anyway.

(kreuz.net) On the 7th of July in the Cathedral of Amiens, an Orthodox Liturgy took place.

This was reported by the website of the Orthodox Community in France.

Amiens is a Diocesan City with 136,000 inhabitants. It is located 130km  north of Paris.

A Liturgy like the one the Old Liberals have Forbidden

The Liturgy took place on the Orthodox Feast of the Nativity of John the Baptists.

You will find the head of the Saint in the Cathedral of Amiens.

As it was reported, the women appeared with veiled heads.

The Liturgy was also, as is expected, facing in the direction of the Lord.

The Super Table [Cramner Table] was rejected by the Orthodox.

The main celebrant was the 36 year old Orthodox Bishop Nestor [Sirotenko] of Chersonèse.

He is responsible for the communities of the Moscow Patriarchate in France, Switzerland and in Portugal.

The Bishop was assisted by the White Russian, Parisian Archbishop Gabriel [de Wilder] of Comane and by Bishop Theodose [Ivachtchenko] of Seattle.

The Orthodox Archbishop Gabriel de Wilder comes from the Netherlands.

He is a fallent Catholic and former almnus of a Catholic Seminary.


The Society of St. Pius  can Wait Outside

Bishop Jean-Luc Bouilleret (57) of Amiens is more inclined to Orthodox than to Catholics.

For the community of the Society of Pius X in Amiens has been on the street for over three years since the loss of their chapel.

The request of the Traditionalists for a church service location has been rejected.

The Bishop gladly describes himself as open to the world.

In the past he has greeted Muslims  in the vestibule of his Cathedral on many occasions.

The Society of Pius X, on the other hand, have to celebrate Mass in a converted shed, although the city has numerous churches standing empty.

Link to kreuz.net...

Real Monasticism in Greece

Editor: Mount Athos has some of the same problems as St John's Abbey.  There are Marxists on the Holy Mount, Monks with leftist ideologies, but there are also Monks who are serious about living a religious vocation, a quest for God, too.  The Devil can be particularly strong anywhere, especially in a place where men strive like athletes to suffer God's love in the mysteries.

(CBS News) 
On this Easter Sunday, we're going to take you to a place outside our world. It's not Mars or Venus but it might as well be. It's a remote peninsula in northern Greece that millions believe to be the most sacred spot on Earth.
It's called Mount Athos and prayers have been offered there every day, with no interruption, for more than a thousand years. It was set aside by ancient emperors to be the spiritual capital of Orthodox Christianity and has probably changed less over the centuries than any other inhabited place on the planet. The monks come to Mount Athos from all over and do everything they can to keep what they call "the world" far away.

Link to original...

Russian Church: endless discourse on expensive possessions of clergy as a sign of spiritual disorder

Moscow, April 15, Interfax - The Russian Orthodox Church warns believers against focusing too much attention on material matters.

"I happened to visit palaces in full feather and wander about slums in a ragged cassock. I am sure that the Church accepts both. We should not focus too much attention on either of the above," head of the Synodal Department for Church and Society Relations Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin states in his answer to journalist Ivan Semenov.

Semenov has published an open letter calling Father Vsevolod to offer his apologies for his public address where he asserted that the members of clergy have the right to wear expensive things as such things emphasize the social prestige of the Church.

In his answer, Father Vsevolod stressed that "if Christians endlessly discourse on the "glamour and misery" of clothes and watches, it is a sign of their spiritual disorder. Or envy. Or an undying quasi-dissident habit to curse everything which is strong, expensive and powerful."

Read further, here...

Moscow Patriarchate: Russia's mission is to become the Holy Rus

Moscow, April 8, Interfax - The Russian Orthodox Church called Russians to implement the Christian mission.

"People's Christian mission is their duty, objective and an appeal to national humility, self-restriction and sacrifice," head of the Synodal Department for Church and Society Relations Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin said at the international conference of Church and Society Relations held Friday in Moscow.

According to him, "if we understand this appeal and this mission, if the spiritual and moral revival of our people would not stop under the influence of external criticism or internal doubts, but still expands many times, we may as the Russian people again become a Christian nation living in the Holy Rus."

Father Vsevolod mentioned that about one third of Russia's population includes people who have "a certain religious experience, a well-developed religious literature, who pray in churches and at home and attend religious services at least sometimes."

Thus, he continued, "it is incorrect to refer to Orthodox Russians as some minority which is within some statistical margin."

Father Vsevolod stated that there were people, in particular in the West, who perceived Orthodoxy "as some romantic image of a dilapidated village church surrounded by birch-trees and serviced by a priest in a ragged robe."

"It is quite wrong to choose Orthodox faith as a restricted area for spiritual relaxation," Father Vsevolod emphasized.

According to him, Christianity is "an omnipresent flare which blesses everything, burns things that have to be burnt and melts people into a new creation," and an attempt to push religion out of the social life and present it as "a provincial restricted area where a citizen of a large city may plunge once in a half year to release stress is a wrong attitude."

Link to inter-fax...

Now The Hate Will Fall Upon the Christians

Editor: while NPR and various news organs like the Crescent News Network and the Obama administration were celebrating the Arab Revolt, many others who were more aware of previous Arab uprisings were not so enthusiastic.

As the Coptic Pope has aligned himself against the Egyptian Pseudo-Revolution, all had joined the uproar about him. Now no one is apologizing to the man.


In Egypt, the tensions between Muslims and Christians are growing day to day. This was from the website 'unzensuriert.at' on March 13th.

After the fall of the old President, General Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian Generals are concerned about power, not for the religious freedom of the Christians.

Their disposition has intensified the unrest tremendously.

Recently, soldiers have fired on monks.

In the last days there have been violent confrontations.

In Cairo thirteen people were killed and over 100 wounded when Copts were attacked at a sit down strike.

The reason for the strike: Muslims had destroyed homes of Christians and the Coptic Church of St. Mina and George in the distant village of Soul Atfif.

The soldiers who were called up for this fired upon the Christians and not the aggressing Moslems.

"From the Arabian upraising against despots there has arisen an Arab uprising of hate against religious minorities" - maintains the Free Assemblywoman of the Austrian National Parliament, Dr. Susanne Winter.

What is of particular concern for Frau Winter is the roll that the military government, supported by the USA, which fired on the Christian minority.

On the other side members of the Islamic underground organization "Islamic Jihad" have been set loose, who had assassinated the President Anwar el Sadat in 1981.

"It is all too understandable that many Copts have little euphiria for the future after the collapse of the government in Egypt because of this religious unrest -- said Frau Winter.

The provisional government has made no signals about religious freedom, rather they have fanned the distrust and conflicts beetween Christians and Muslims.

On the supposed "way to Democracy" in Egypt, the rights of all religious minorities must be recognized.

Original, here....kreuz.net...

And in a related story, thousands of Africans are leaving Islam. Who can blame them, when things like these church burnings which happened recently in Ethiopia, happen?

Seven Habits of Highly Orthodox People: New Popular Book

This article is being co-published by Brigid Strait in her blog, Nineteenth Century Russia. AR: We are fortunate to have with us today Father Vasiliy Vasileivich, Pastor of Saints Boris and Gleb and Vladimir and Olga Russian Orthodox Church in Sydney, Austalia, and spokesman for the Church Overseas of Russian Orthodox Christians or COROC. Father Vasiliy has just published a new book, and has graciously agreed to an interview.
 
VV: Whatever is selling books.
AR: First let me say how good it is to see you after more than a year’s separation.
VV: Is good to being back.
AR: So I see you have a new book coming out next month through Anaxios Press: Seven Habits of Highly Orthodox People.

H/t: from Intrepid Editor at, Outrage! where you can read the rest.

Ukrainians to build an Orthodox church in Antarctica

Kiev, January 14, Interfax - Church-chapel of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church will be built in Antarctica this spring.

"When we send polar explorers to the South Pole we don't ask about their confession. But every person can have a wish to stay alone, to pray. Why don't we build a church?" Director of the National Antarctic Scientific Center Valery Litvinov was quoted as saying on Friday by the Ukrainian Segodnya.ua website.

It is not the first Orthodox church on the ice continent: Russian carpenters built a 15-meter Orthodox church from Siberian cedar in 2004 that is dedicated to the Holy Trinity.

"When you pray there you get unspeakable impressions. It is zero altitude, but you have such a feeling that the church almost fly above Earth," Archbishop Augustine of Lvov and Galicia and said as he had celebrated a Liturgy in the church in 2007 and is going to consecrate the Ukrainian chapel in spring.

The chapel is made in Chili and is much smaller than the Russian church. It will be sent to Antarctica late in March with a new group of polar explorers. Works on building and installing the chapel will be paid by philanthropists. Byelorussians intend to erect the similar chapel on the continent as they plan to open their base in Antarctica this year.

Besides, Ukrainians will present Russian church of the Holy Trinity a bell cast by the Donetsk metallurgical plant. According to the polar expedition head, Chili customs officers were perplexed to find the bell in their luggage. Besides, they found salo (traditional Ukrainian lard - IF) in their luggage while bringing food in the country is subjected to $300 fine. Customs officers appeared to be believers and turned a blind eye to salo and the bell.

Read further...

Moscow Patriarchate, Vatican wage common fight against secular liberalism - Patriarch Kirill

Moscow, November 19, Interfax -Despite a difficult relationship between the Russian Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Churches, they have been effectively cooperating along many avenues, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia told students and diplomats at the Russian Foreign Ministry Diplomatic Academy in Moscow.

"Together with the Roman Catholic Church we have been defending the traditional Christian concept of family and human values from aggressive secular liberalism. Our Churches are waging a common fight against medico-biological experiments incompatible with respect for human dignity," His Holiness said.

Cooperation with the Roman Catholic Church has become possible thanks to Pope Benedict XVI and is proceeding simultaneously along several avenues.

http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=7927

New Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin orders city to find 200 land plots for Orthodox Churches

"if the new mayor turns to ordinary people rather than investors" it will be "the biggest and the most long-awaited wish of the Russian Orthodox Church." Father Vladimir

Just off the heals of President Dimitry Medvedev's recent decision to create a new Russian holiday - a public holiday that marks the adoption of Christianity in 988, new Moscow Mayor has ordered the city administration to locate 200 building lots to construct new Orthodox Churches.

This is the latest demonstration of the Kremlin's support for an Orthodox Church that has grown increasingly powerful since the fall of Communism.

Not wasting anytime, new Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin, in one of his first offical administrative decisions has ordered the city to locate building lots to raise 200 Orthodox Churches throughout the city of Moscow.


Read further...

Stalin Icon Venerated in Russia

Controversy in Moscow: Stalin icon revered
by Nina Achmatova
The initiatives of some Russian parishes that exhibit portraits of the Soviet dictator alongside those of proclaimed saints stirs controversy.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - The figure of Stalin continues stir controversy in Russia, where the bloodthirsty dictator has left behind him a confusing tangle of veneration and rejection. Icons of the Red Tsar are still present throughout the country and rumours that some see him as a saint. The latest in a series of sacred representation of the "little father" has appeared in Moscow in the church of Saint Nicholas (Starovagankovsky lane): the icon depicts the life of Matriona, the blind saint, in an alleged meeting between her and Joseph Stalin. The Soviet dictator is not depicted in a religious manner, but he is placed next to the famous ascetic. An aspect that makes the story even more grotesque, is that Matriona (1885-1952) was forced to live in hiding to avoid arrest by communist regime. According to a legend, which was rejected by the Orthodox Church, Stalin visited Matriona in 1941, who predicted victory over the Nazis. In July of that year he is said to have addressed the nation on radio using the traditional greeting of the Orthodox Church "brothers and sisters". Almost a sign of his change of attitude towards Christianity.

A church is a strange place to find Stalin, who, despite his education at a seminary in Georgia, was responsible for a brutal religious repression in the USSR.

Read further...