Facts: Russian Orthodox Church
The Russian Orthodox Church is the dominant religious community in Russia and is found in large parts of the former Soviet Union, including Ukraine and Belarus.
The Church and the state have come closer together in Russia, especially since Vladimir Putin became president in 2020. The church is estimated to have over 90 million members and is led by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow.
A new Orthodox Church was formed in 2018 in Ukraine, independent of Russia and Patriarch Kirill. However, the break was not accepted by everyone within the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, resulting in one Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the Moscow Patriarchate and one under the Kiev Patriarchate.
However, the part of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church that was still formally subordinate to Moscow recently severed ties with Patriarch Kirill, citing his stance on the war.
Source: TT, UI / Landguiden, Nationalencyklopedin, Britannica.
The conservative Russian Orthodox Church and its leader Kirill are strongly linked to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The patriarch has for many years praised Putin and his government, and has described the invasion of Ukraine as a spiritual struggle against those who oppose God’s laws. President Vladimir Putin, for his part, has justified the war by, among other things, referring to the fact that the countries are linked by the Russian Orthodox faith.
In March this year, Kirill preached that liberal values and pressure from the West – for example on pride parades – have been a cause of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He has reiterated Putin’s statements that the Ukrainians and Russians are “a people”.
Kirill is usually described as one of the most influential people in Russia, with the exception of the highest political elite.
“We have started a struggle that is not of physical, but of metaphysical significance,” Kirill said. reports ABC News.
Consumption and homosexuality
Ukraine and the country’s Western “masters” tried to destroy what is in the Donbass, an area where the “so-called values offered today by those claiming world power” are rejected, Kirill said. according to the American magazine The Week. According to the patriarch, the “so-called values” are excessive consumption and homosexuality.
This was not the first time Kirill had made statements aimed at homosexuals.
“Unfortunately, some countries in the West have for the first time adopted laws that violate the moral nature of man and his conscience: the laws on so-called homosexual marriage,” he said in 2017.
According to him, the people “rose” against these laws for the same reason they protested against other immoral laws – for example, laws introduced in Nazi Germany and in South Africa during apartheid.
Russia’s harsh LGBTQ laws have often been criticized around the world.
Great influence
The 75-year-old patriarch has been leading the Russian Church since 2009 after a dazzling career. When he was born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) in 1946, his name was Vladimir Gundayev. Both his grandfather and his father were priests. He himself became a monk at the age of 23 and then took the name Kirill, and has since then been archbishop of Smolensk and Kaliningrad on his way to the top.
Kirill’s relationship with Putin is often described as close and symbiotic. According to The Weeks reporting the president is even said to have called the patriarch and wished him “happiness and success” when Saint Kirill is celebrated on April 28.
Games for the galleries?
Some Russian connoisseurs downplay the ties between the church and the state in Russia, describing the relationship as primarily a game for the galleries that both parties benefit from. However, it has meant great financial gain for Kirill, who, among other things, is said to have received a luxuriously renovated residence from the Kremlin headquarters. In 2006, he was reported to be worth several billion US dollars. In 2012, he got stuck in the picture with a very expensive wristwatch as the first was retouched awaybut then came back in the picture.
In a settlement on Monday, EU heads of state and government agreed on a sixth sanction package against Russia due to the war. Kirill was one of the names on the extensive sanctions list, but he was removed during the week after protests from Hungary. The sanctions would have meant that the patriarch’s assets would have been frozen and that he would have been banned from entering the EU.